Throw it on a burger patty with some sharp cheddar melted on it, put the lid back on the grill, and let it work its magic.
You can thank me later.
Monthly Archive for August, 2009
Up in Cape Cod this weekend, I was reminded of a burger memory that went without documentation. The Minetta Tavern Black Label burger. This burger has certainly been all over the blogosphere, mostly due to its La Frieda “Black Label” beef mix, that is supposedly available nowhere else on the planet.
All of that doesn’t really matter to me, the burger was just tremendous.
I feel like it is actually unfair that this burger be included on this site, since I would say that it’s more like a steak on a bun than like any burger I’ve had before. It’s got this intense mouth feel that feels more like a bite of a perfect grass-fed sirloin than a ground beef burger. It’s beefy, it’s gamey, it’s sweet from the caramelized onions, it’s fatty from the beef and the clarified butter that’s on the burger. It’s like the X-men of hamburgers.
The burgerboy works in midtown Manhattan, and has been frequenting the relatively new Mantao shop on 53rd street between 2nd and 3rd avenues. Now, I am not about to get into a full review of the lunch spot, I’ll leave that to the experts over at serious eats and midtown lunch. However, since they do feature a “burger” on the menu, I felt it should be included within my purview.
I went in the other day, and I had my sights set on the burger. I had eaten a few of their tasty little gems before, but the burger had always managed to stay under my radar.
Until last Wednesday.
I got the angus beef burger with spicy sambal sauce. I had a feeling that the sambal sauce wasn’t going to be spicy enough for my taste, so I rocked a side of kim chi with it. (NB, I also got the braised pork sandwich with pickled cucumber– delicious).
I took my first bite of the burger, not really knowing what to expect. It was, um, good?
To be honest, I don’t really know how to feel about the whole experience. I LOVE mantao bread, first of all. The steamy pockets of goodness, with their slight bite and doughy centers really get me going. If I had to name the perfect vessel for sweet and salty flavor, it would be mantao bread. The burgerboy is going to Momofuku Ssam for a bo ssam tomorrow and I am going to stuff my face with them.
But I digress.
The burger was a bit disappointing, to say the least. The small patty was a bit pathetic, given the majestic mantao bread pocket made for it. As expected, the sambal sauce was but an afterthought on the overcooked grey patty. I added the kim chi, which helped perk it up a bit, but I was still left wanting more. And not more of the burger.
When heading to Mantao, stick with the braised pork, spicy pork, or short rib.
I started making this burger about five years ago, inspired by a copy of Bon Appétit that was laying in the office mailroom. It was probably the best looking hamburger I had seen in my life to that moment. Its soft potato bun contrasted sharply with the dark caramelized beef and andouille sausage patty and golden brown caramelized onions, accented even further with a dollop of– is that blue cheese??? I had to make this burger.
I first perused the list of ingredients: pecans, andouille sausage, ground chuck for the patties. Pickled okra, watercress, caramelized onions, chipotle mayo, blue cheese for the accoutrements. And that delicious squishy potato bun. I decided to make my own version, since I had no interest in finding out where to buy pickled okra (this was back before Rick’s Picks put everything under the sun in a brine and sold it at the farmer’s market for six bucks).
I first caramelized the onions, since I knew that would take a while to do. They weren’t getting as sweet as I wanted, so I decided to add some maple syrup. “Why not,” I asked myself.
“Whyyyyy,” I asked myself when the finished product tasted like the bottom of a trash can at IHOP. So I redid those (luckily I had an extra couple of onions), and went back on my merry way.
I toasted the pecans, keeping a close eye on them to make sure they didn’t burn. The great pecan incident of 2001 lingered fresh in my mind. The apartment smelled like a burned out brush fire for days. That was really a hit with the ladies. Once the pecans were done, maybe 15 minutes later, I ground them up and added them to a mixture of ground chuck and andouille sausage. A touch of salt and pepper later, I was ready to make some patties.
Now, the art of patty-making is one of which I am not a master. They are either: a) too thin; b) too small; c) too fat, and end up swelling up like meatballs; or d) perfection. So, in this area, I cannot really tell you what to do. No matter what shape they are, they taste good, so don’t let a few misshapen burgers stop you.
Now that the patties were done, it was time to hit the grill. I got the grill to a nice medium-high temperature– if you can hold your hand over the coals for about 3-4 seconds, you’re probably golden. The grill is going to get hotter when the fat starts rendering off the patties, anyway, so if it’s a little cool at this point, that’s just fine.
I threw the patties on for about 4 minutes a side, so they were a perfect medium rare. The andouille sausage is pre-cooked, so I wasn’t too concerned about that (although my OCD forced me to check the label around 50 times). After I took the patties off, I let them rest on a tray for a few minutes, so that all of the juices could gather themselves. In the meantime, I grilled up the buns for a minute per side (the grill gets pretty hot, so careful not to burn them).
Once this was done, I was ready for assembly. First, a little of mayo on the bottom bun. Then, the patty, topped with a little blue cheese, and then some of those caramelized onions, and then the watercress. Then, just for kicks, throw on a couple of pickles (or pickled okra, if you have hit the market lately), and a dollop of chipotle mayo (just mix mayo with as much chipotle as you like, it’s a personal thing). Place the bun on top and prepare to have your mind blown.
Needless to say, these burgers are a hit. I’ve made them probably around 25 times by this point, and they never fail. Now I’ve gotta run– I smell some pecans burning!
The original recipe as featured in Bon Appétit can be found here.
What does a good hamburger mean? Ingredients alone do not a good hamburger make. There is a certain artistry required. What it is, exactly, I don’t know. I read recently that when a hamburger is good, “you just know.”
It’s true. You do just know.
If I think back to some my most memorable burger experiences, a few stand out, and only a couple are actually a product of the hamburger itself.
Going to Burger King with my dad in London at Piccadilly Circus in the summer of 1999 stands out, not because I love Burger King (I actually kind of dislike it), but because my dad, who is allergic to beef, suggested it. His rationale– it being the “king” had to make it British.
A thin, measly patty of grey ground beef at the 2004 US Open at Shinnecock Hills. I don’t know why, but those frozen patties grilled to oblivion with a slice of american cheese and a layer of ketchup get me in the right place.
My first time to the Corner Bistro with the Grizza– my introduction to something quintessentially New York. A sign that I would be a “regular.” This became my city, in some respects. I was welcomed. Maybe that’s an exaggeration. But I found myself in the midst of a place with a cult following. I felt like I was a part of something larger– the New York “burgerrati.” Hell, I’m part of a crew trying to take over the nation based solely on ground beef and bread.
In-n-out with my parents, years unknown. We’d wait in the car for what seemed like forever. I don’t even remember the burger. I just remember it happening.
I used to get my grandmother cheeseburgers and coffee from McDonald’s pretty much every day, since it was one of the few things she would eat as her overall mental and physical health declined. She and I couldn’t really communicate, since she spoke little english and I spoke no spanish. After I would help her get to the kitchen table, we used to eat burgers at the kitchen table. I used to be nervous because I didn’t really know what to say to her. But I think she appreciated it. I hope she did, at least. I wish that I spoke spanish. I bet she wished she spoke english.
The first bloggingforburgers experience– at JG Melon’s, fittingly, was a mini-culmination. Four guys, from different places, with different life plans, came together around a piece of ground beef and two pieces of bread.
That’s what makes a good burger.
And what makes a bad burger? Easy– bad ingredients and bad flavor. And no story.
