Burger juice-stuffed burger from Serious Eats

[mskerr]

http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/2010/02/the-burger-lab-presenting-the-flood-burger.html?ref=search

On Serious Eats, Kenji posted a recipe for the Flood Burger. It's made like a Jucy Lucy, but with frozen burger juice (made by cooking up a burger, squeezing out all the juice with a citrus juicer, and freezing it) instead of cheese in the middle. It's supposed to ensure delicious flavor throughout the whole burger, as opposed to having a lovely pink center without much beefy flavor.

What do you think? Anyone want to give it a go?

Looks awesome to me. Kenji says the leftover beef from the first patty is good in long-simmered sauces, among other things, so there's no waste, to boot.

[runwestierun]

Genius. I will try it this week. I always make my grilled burgers juicy lucy style. It takes less time to cook them so they stay juicier, they cook more like 2 very thin patties than one thick one. I may try it with frozen teriyaki sauce or something similar instead of burger juice, just to practice the concept. Thanks for posting this idea.

[mskerr]

Do you think frozen bacon fat would work well too? I like the idea of adding some sauce in there, though I don't know if I'd do a pure sauce middle without fat. Something about meat juice just sounds so right.

[davidkeay]

Sounds and looks like a great burger. I'd think you could use stock in a pinch, or use stock-like methods to make a larger batch of 'burger juice'... it just seems like the burger + citrus juicer system would not be ultra efficient!

[Kerry Beal]

I suspect the leftover sous vide juices from steaks etc would provide very satisfactory 'burger juice'.

[chefmd]

I suspect the leftover sous vide juices from steaks etc would provide very satisfactory 'burger juice'.

Brilliant. I usually use it as a part of pan sauce but it is kinda too much for that application. Now I will freeze it in a thin layer (possibly in plastic wrap lined ramekins).

[runwestierun]

I have homemade veal stock in the freezer and it's very gelatinous. I took a hunk of that and refroze it in a thin sheet in a ziplock on a cookie sheet. I ended up using a biscuit cutter to cut rounds of it to use in the burgers. It worked great! More flavor and better mouth feel than plain ground beef. My stock is unseasoned so I did S+P the center. Now I think I will try it with a thicker slab of stock to try to make a hamburger soup dumpling. I am thinking with the viscosity of the veal stock that it might be good. I may also try it with frozen butter. Thanks again for the idea.

[mskerr]

It would probably work to save the fat from, say, browning ground beef which usually gets discarded, huh? (Frozen bacon fat would work great too, but Kenji's idea was to get beef flavor throughout the whole burger.) Or, if I'm trimming off strips of fat from hunks of beef, could I render the fat and then freeze that?

Hmm, I was gonna say the same thing would work with lamb (and I always have lots of lamb fat around), but I read recently that lamb fat is indigestible?

Cheers for everyone else's ideas! Keep 'em coming.

[judiu]

Most recipies that call for ground beef and onions say to add the onions to the ground beef as it is browning, then drain the fat after the beef is done and onions are translucent. Save THAT fat for use in this application and you'll have all the wonderful flavour of the onion that usually gets dumped. Just my .02. P.S. I usually drain 90 %, then add onions, garlic and other aromatics and proceed with recipe. No wasted flavour for me!

[flourgirl]

This sounds amazing! My husband is a big burger fan. I have got to try it. Thank you!!

[mskerr]

Most recipies that call for ground beef and onions say to add the onions to the ground beef as it is browning, then drain the fat after the beef is done and onions are translucent. Save THAT fat for use in this application and you'll have all the wonderful flavour of the onion that usually gets dumped. Just my .02. P.S. I usually drain 90 %, then add onions, garlic and other aromatics and proceed with recipe. No wasted flavour for me!

Great ideas! I am obsessed with onions and try to add them to just about everything. Thanks!

[judiu]

Fat carries flavour, don'tcha know ?