Bob Sloan - Great burgers: 50 mouthwatering recipes

Text copyright 2004 by Bob Sloan
Photographs copyright 2004 by Jonelle Weaver
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.

ISBN 978-1-4521-3309-6

The Library of Congress has cataloged the previous edition as follows:
Sloan, Bob.
Great Burgers : Mouthwatering recipes / by Bob Sloan ; photographs by Jonelle Weaver.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-8118-4293-2 (hardcover)
1. Cookery (Beef) I. Title.
TXT749.S54 2004
641.6'-dc22
2003015015

Design and typesetting by Carole Goodman, Blue Anchor Design
Food stylist: Liza Jernow
Assistant food stylist: Jennifer Cohen

Prop stylist: Paige Hicks
Photographers assistant: Teresa Horgan
Photographer Jonelle Weaver wishes to give special thanks to Paige Hicks, Liza Jernow, Jennifer Cohen, and Teresa Horgan for long hours of work; Scott and Lisa Isherwood, Kate Green, The Parker House Inn, and the Quechee Lakes Landowners Association for lovely locations, and Per Furmark for home base support.

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Id first of all like to thank Leslie Jonath for thinking of me for this project and Laurel Mainard for all her support and hard work in helping the book come together. Less critical was the willingness of many friends to sample the burgers as I was testing the recipes (like that really was such a hardship): The Mintz/Stewart clan, the Warner/Kamslers, Susie and Mario, Richard Botwin, Lloyd Lynford, Phil and Sally, and Effie. David Sanfield was his usual indispensable self, and Mario Batali gave me some helpful tips, several of which had to do with food. Of course, I would like to thank my familyRandi, Nate, and Leowho ate burgers for two months straight without complaining, or at least never within earshot.

There are several charming stories about the birth of the burger. All of them are true. Or none. It hardly matters. Any story of the burgers origin does little to enhance what each of us knows empirically. At some time in our lives, after taking a bite of a juicy, perfectly cooked burger, weve said, either aloud or to ourselves, something to the effect of, This burger is as good as anything Ive ever tasted.

Its sublime simplicity makes the burger one of the elemental tastes-what other tastes are compared to. Burgers are also one of those foods for which we have almost wanton cravings, a kind of burger maniaI so feel like having a burger nowthat unique confluence of longing and hunger whose locus is the burger. This is not the same as wanting to dine at a certain restaurant or thinking you should probably eat fish tonight. Burger lust is not casual, but a deeper, more visceral desire, like the need to play a quick nine holes or listen to some early Miles Davis.

The burger is working class, a solid citizena humble and unpretentious marriage of meat and heat. In an age of flash and Baroque excess, the burger maintains its Romanesque simplicity understated, bold, and sturdy. Gussy up a burger too much and it looks out of place, like a farmer in a tux.

So then how come a cookbook with so many different burgers? Because as Mae West was wont to say, You can never get too much of a good thing. These recipes find ways to enhance the essential burger, without seeking to replace it. Though they require more preparation than the basic burgers simple shape and flip, they are not overly labor intensive. I would never be so brazen as to suggest you might tire of the basic burger, but rather that you may want to try exploiting the burger as a vehicle for some killer preparations that go beyond it.

Burgers are forgiving. When the butcher grinds the meat, fat and muscle are so intertwined that the burger becomes self-basting. All you have to do is not overcook it. For me, the perfect burger is medium-rare. When sliced in half, it is a frame of charred meat surrounding a roseate middle section that at its center is a deep claret. Decide for yourself what the perfect burger is and try to cook it the same way each time. Figure on an extra minute for each increment, i.e., 9 minutes total cooking time for medium-rare, 10 minutes for medium, 11 minutes for medium-well. Of course, all stoves and pans differ slightly, and the heat on your charcoal grill will also vary, so stay attentive. You can always cut into one of the burgers to check for doneness. Eat that one yourself, or better yet, serve it to one of the kids.

Chicken, turkey, and pork burgers must be cooked all the way through, so remove them at the moment they are done to avoid overcooking. Again, if you have to slice into one to check, its okayit will be hidden soon enough under the condiments and bun.

Is bigger better? Some aficionados covet burgers of monstrous proportions, like they are undertaking a weeks worth of eating at one sitting. They seek out burgers that start out as a large mass of meat and end up, once cooked, resembling a softball hit out of the park one too many times. Following considerable testing for this book, 6 ounces of meat per burger was determined by young and old to be the perfect size for a burger. After cooking, it still has some heft, but its not overblownmore like a linebacker than a defensive end. Smaller, thinner burgers usually wind up getting overcooked and merely serve to add but a hint of meat flavor to the bun and condiments. A 6-ounce burger also works well with the heat generated from a noncommercial home range.

All of the recipes here were tested on a 12-inch cast-iron pan on a standard domestic gas stove. Many were also cooked on outdoor gas and charcoal grills. (I dont recommend using the broilers on most domestic stoves; their area of intense heat is too narrow to cook 4 burgers uniformly.) There was no appreciable difference in taste, and cooking time is pretty much the same: a 6-ounce beef burger takes about 9 minutes total to cook to medium-rare on a grill over a medium-high charcoal fire or a gas grill set on high, or over high heat in a skillet. Poultry and pork burgers need to be cooked slightly longer, seafood burgers for a slightly shorter amount of time, both over medium-high heat.

Chopped sirloin (around 10 percent fat) makes for really good burgers. Ground round (around 15 percent fat) makes for really great burgers. Ground chuck (20 percent fat) makes perhaps the best burgers. I used ground chuck on the outdoor grill with great success, but found it generated a bit too much fat in the pan when cooking burgers on the stove, so I went with ground round or sirloin when cooking in the skillet. Try to get your meat from a butcher shop where they grind the chopped meat fresh daily. It will cost a little more, but the freshness and integrity of the meat is worth it. If you can find organic or grass-fed beef, thats even better. Though they are on different ends of the culinary scale, think of the meat for your burgers as you would fish-buy the freshest possible, then cook it simply, in a way that encourages the essential flavor of the meat to flourish. Avoid frozen burger patties, which are about as satisfying as trying to have a serious conversation in a convertible.

Burgers tend to shrink around the edges and puff in the middle as they cook. This has to do with a complicated litigation between the collagen and the muscle tissue, which is still being worked out in court. As the middle of the burger gets more rotund, it requires longer cooking time for the center to be medium-rare. By then the rest of the burger is well done. There is a simple solution: After shaping the burgers, make a 1/4-inch dimple in the center of each burger with the tips of your middle three fingers. This will help maintain a uniform thickness during cooking and ensure a greater area of medium-rare burger, which is, after all, what we all want. Note that you can skip this process for the non-meat burgers, unless you find it enjoyable.