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30-Mins
Easy
Serves 4The Hamburger is a sandwich consisting of a cooked beef patty (burger) placed inside a hamburger bun served with veggies, cheese and other meats like bacon and garnished with various condiments. Ironically there is not ‘Ham’ in the ‘Hamburger’ because its a demonym after the city of Hamburg in Germany. The burger has come a long way with so many fast food chains like White Castle, McDonalds, Burger King, Carl’s Jr., Fuddruckers, Fatburger, etc. The list just goes on and on, not to mention the smaller fast food outlets in our local communities to the fancy restaurants like Gordon Ramsay’s BurGR in Las Vegas that serves his signature gourmet burgers.
Although some of the better outlets such as Carl’s Jr. and Fuddruckers, amongst the few, serve up a very good burger, but I find myself wanting more! My own personal twist, flavours that I like and food that is not mass produced. Hence I’m going to make you my classic burger. Hope you like the recipe. Enjoy!
INGREDIENTS
400-g Beef mince, flank or chuck
100-g Bacon rashers, minced
1 Red Onion, medium, minced
1/2-cup Bread crumb
1-tbsp. Tabasco sauce
1-tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1-tbsp. Garlic powder
1-tbsp. Olive oil
1-tsp. Salt
1-tsp. Pepper, fresh
4 Slices Cheddar Cheese
4 Burger buns, halved
4 Lettuce leaves, trimmed to fit the bun
4 Tomato slices, large, medium thick
Butter for spreading
4-tbsp. Mayonnaise
PROCEDURE
Prep:
1. Always buy beef that is well marbled with fat, it cooks better, tastes better and you need fat to hold the burger patty together. If the mince is not supermarket packaged, wash it well and drain for at least 30-45 minutes in colander, squeeze out the extra water and keep aside.*
2. Remove the rind from the bacon rashers and chop it to a fine mince, put the same in a hot sauté pan and fry for a few minutes till the fat is released and the bacon turns brown, remove from the pan, keep on a kitchen towel and retain the fat in the pan as is.
3. Once the mince as properly drained, add the fried bacon bits, half the bread crumb, sauces, garlic powder, salt and pepper, mix well with your hands, add more bread crumb if too wet.
4. Divide the mix into four equal parts, use a kitchen scale for perfect weight and size, then use a 4-inch round cookie cutter ring OR 5-oz. ice cream scoop OR use a 1/2 measure cup pack it tightly to get approx. weight. The cookie cutter rings is a very good tool to have especially for burgers.*
5. After you’ve made perfect round patty’s place them in the freezer for 15-mins to rapidly cool them down.
6. Prepare the tomato and onion slices, slice the buns in half, trim the lettuce leaves.*
Cook:
1. Add a olive oil to the a large frying pan with the bacon fat, bring to a high heat and place each burger patty, keep the heat high at all times, fry for 3-mins per side, in the last minute put a slice of cheddar cheese on top to melt, cover the pan to speed up that process. The meat should be cooked to a medium rear, ideally never cook beef right through and grey, the meat will toughen up. *
2. While the burger is cooking, spread butter on the two half’s of the the buns and grill them on a hot grill, pan or salamander for a few minutes till the get a golden brown colour, not too crisp, once ready spread mayonnaise and place the lettuce leaf. Now remove the burger patty from the pan and place directly on the bottom half of the prepared bun.
3. Place the onion then tomato slice over the patty, put the top half of the bun and run a long tooth pick or satay skewer through the burger to hold in place, cut off the excess skewer, eat and enjoy.
VARIATIONS
1. Use beef bacon instead of pork bacon and follow the same steps.
2. Beat one egg and mix with the mince is it does not hold well together, use more bread crumb to make sure the mixture is not too wet.
TIPS *
1. Place the washed mince in two layers of cheese cloth, roll into a ball and twist the four ends together to squeeze out the extra liquid.
2. After trimming the lettuce leaves soak in iced water for 5-mins and dust off the water well before use, this will crisp them out.
3. Keep onions in the refrigerator, your eyes wont water while cutting them.
4. Make a small coin sized burger patty and test it before batch cooking, adjust seasoning and spice to your palette.
5. Using a round cookie cutter is especially helpful to make uniform size and weight burgers.
4-inch Cookie cutter
