THE HAMBURGER

[Holly Moore]

THE HAMBURGER

• Sliced Onion (Centers from the Onion Rings - halved and then sliced medium thick)
  
• Butter or a butter/cooking oil mix
  
• 1-1/4 lb 80% lean ground beef
  
• 4 each Hamburger Buns
  
• Mustard
  
• Salt and Pepper
  
• Optional: Fresh sliced tomato, sliced raw onion, grilled bacon. And all manner of cheese and anything else that sounds good. One of my all time favorite chain burgers, Roy Roger's Double R Bar Burger
  

1. In a skillet, sauté the onions in butter until soft - longer if you wish for a caramelized brown. Remove and set aside. Keep warm. No reason not to fry up a bunch and keep them in the fridge for the next time. Adding some cooking oil to the butter keeps the butter from burning/browning.

2. Form the ground beef into 5 ounce patties. These patties should be loosely packed not firmly pressed into shape. About 1/4" thick. Maybe 3/8". And the diameter of the bun. I'm not a fan of super-sized 8, 10 or 12 ounce burgers. Harder to cook a perfect medium rare and too unwieldy a burger once topped with lettuce, tomato, onion and such. Then again, from his Q&A, Evan Lobel's burgers weigh in at 10-12 ounces. I won't be saying no to one of Butcher Lobel's burgers

3. Pull apart the buns and spread on a light coating of butter. If the butter is cold, slice it thin and spread a few pieces on each side of the bun. By the time to toast the buns, the butter will be soft and spreadable.

4. Preheat a cast iron skillet for the burgers and a second skillet or griddle. Medium high flame for the burgers, medium for the buns. Toss a tablespoon of butter into the burger skillet. You don't need to fry the burgers in butter; the grease from the burger will suffice. But butter seems to bring out the beef's flavor. It's the way I've been doing it since my parents let me near a store.

5. Once the butter has melted, add the burger. The goal is to fry the burger to a medium rare. Nice brown freckled crust on the outside, pink leading to red inside. Since e-coli has become trendy, health departments want the patties to be cooked to medium-well. I've been lucky I guess. Have been eating rare to medium rare burgers all my life and have never once been knocked about by e-coli. But if you're worried, or cooking for kids who are evidently more e-coli prone, grit your teeth and cook the burgers over a lower heat to medium well-done

6. Once the burger is nicely freckled, about three minutes, flip it. Here is where the skillet, as opposed to a griddle, comes in handy. After the burger has cooked on the second side for about a minute, top it with the cheese and cover the skillet. The steam heat will melt the cheese. With a griddle you can achieve the same effect by inverting a stainless steel bowl or if you have it, topping the burger with a pot lid that has some height.

7. After you've flipped the burger, place the buns, buttered side down, onto the second skillet. The goal is to have the entire bun flat against the surface of the skillet. I weight the buns down with a glass casserole lid to get a nice even golden browning. The downside is that this flattens out the buns. Less photogenic, but more drive-in verite.

8. Time to assemble the burger. Cheeseburger onto the bottom (heel) of the bun. Then some of the still warm fried onions. Tomato and onion if so inclined. Spread the mustard on the top (crown) of the bun. Mustard isn't really a northeast thing. You see it mostly in the midwest and the south. Give it a try at least once.

9. Place the crown on the cheeseburger and enjoy

Keywords: Beef, eGCI

( RG696 )