The Best Burger I've Ever Made

While looking for a friend's of a friend blog posts about D&D, I came across Bobby Flay's Burger Palace.  In the same day, a Khymos post sent me on a link journey to a comment in the Ideas in Food blog, and I started Jonesing for a good burger.  I ended up making two too-big burgers for $4.  $2 each for juicy heaven.

12 oz 80/20 ground beef - 800 calories - $2.40
2 potato buns - 180 calories - $0.33 or $0.50 (from a package of 12)
2 strips of store brand bacon - 80 calories - ~$0.42
1 tablespoon of butter - 100 calories - $0.09
2 oz colby jack cheese - 200 calories - $0.50 (because we didn't have goat cheese!)
2 spare slices of onion
2 teaspoons of Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons of flour
a square foot of plastic wrap

I chopped the onion and bacon into small pieces, then browned them in a little steel skillet with a little fat from some other bacon.  Then I mixed the bacon and onion into the beef with the Worcestershire sauce (maybe put the butter in there too, next time), packed the beef into a "log" (it was only 2" thick) and wrapped it in the plastic, then put it in the fridge to rest for an hour.  I took out the log, cut it in half to make the two patties.  I floured the patties, then fried them in the butter while lightly toasting the buns.  I put the cheese on the patties after flipping them.

That's it.  We did not put anything else on these succulent burgers.  These blew away every other fancy burger I've had, so juicy and delicious.  One of my regular complaints about burgers at restaurants (I'm not talking about the awful trash at fast food joints) is that the buns are too big.  I don't want an enormous roll engulfing my burger and making it hard to fit in my mouth, giving me a lot of flour taste over the beef and fat.  The small, generic, potato buns from any supermarket are the perfect meat-holders for me.

Our only lament was that we had no goat cheese.  A little chevre from Trader Joe's would have topped this off nicely.  Actually, we also decided that 4 ounces is the right size for a burger.  The 6 oz burgers were delicious, but unnecessarily large.

So, each burger I made had about 650-700 calories and cost $2, but I would happily use a third less meat and swap the Colby Jack for some chevre ($0.50/oz), shaving off over a hundred calories and about $0.25 per burger.

Quiche

I made a quiche for the first time, with no crust, and it worked out really well.  It was easy and tasty.  Eggs are all on sale for Easter, and I had some spinach on its way out.

5 eggs - 350 calories - $0.50
1.5 cups milk - 120 calories - $0.56 (I got organic milk)
8 oz pepperjack cheese - 720 calories - $2
.5 cup flour - 200 calories - $0.10 ish
1 onion - 50 calories - $0.30 ish
9 oz baby spinach - 50 calories - $1 (on sale)
1 tsp bacon fat - 30 calories - free

Chop the onion and caramelize it in a skillet with bacon fat.  Set the onion aside, chop the spinach, and wilt it in the skillet.  Chop the cheese.  Mix everything together in a casserole dish.  Bake at 375 F for 50 minutes.  Check on it, and take it out when the top is browning.  It may be worthwhile to put aluminum foil around the edges so the crust forms evenly.

As I made it, it cost about $4.50 and had around 1500 calories.  Many people would also add a half pound of bacon or some diced ham, which adds around $2 and 500 calories.  I got nine portions out of this, 160 calorie blocks for $0.50 each.

A Real American

This has been a great year for gastronomical innovation.  KFC really threw the gloves down when it came out with the Double Down, a sandwich that uses fried chicken for the bun, with bacon, cheese, and sauce inside.  Though initially subjected to ridicule, the DD has endured well by being tasty and healthier than much of its competition (unless evaluated per calorie).  Eventually, more sandwich innovation appeared.  Friendly's introduced a hamburger with grilled cheese sandwiches for buns, the Grilled Cheese BurgerMelt.  Denny's now has a Fried Cheese Melt, a grilled cheese sandwich with fried Mozzarella sticks in it.  At some fairgrounds you might find a cheeseburger topped with chocolate-covered bacon in a Krispy Kreme donut bun.  Inspired by all this inventiveness, I decided to build an homage to the American spirit of sandwich creation.  I give you the Real American:

What you see here is a burger with cheeseburgers for buns, and each cheeseburger has bacon for buns.  Yes.  Go ahead and read that sentence again.


Step 1: Construct the buns
I cut Tyson hardwood smoked thick-cut bacon in half (use any kind you like, I just got what was on sale for under $3.50/lb and looked meatiest), then wove the halves together.

Step 2: Cook the buns
I microwaved the buns between paper towels for 6 minutes, two buns per plate.  I have experimented with many ways of cooking bacon, and microwaving is fast and easy to clean up while producing evenly-cooked, flat, crisp bacon.  These buns held together great, were nice and crisp, and not too greasy on the hands.

Step 3: Make burger patties
I used Laura's 92% lean ground beef because it was marked down for sale before expiration.  Of course, use whatever you want.  I mixed in garlic powder, pepper flakes, and Worcestershire sauce, then hand packed the patties to be thin and fit the buns after cooking shrinkage.  The Worcestershire sauce added a really great flavor.  These patties are about 3 oz each and some change.

Step 4: Cook the burger patties
They cooked up great in my cast iron skillet, and I thought I took a picture, but it looks like I forgot.

Step 5: Assembly
Assembly was a piece of cake.  First sub-bun:

Bottom "bun" (Colby-jack cheese):

The burger, topped with sautéed mushrooms, caramelized onions, and chevre:

Top "bun":

Step 6: Eat that mammer:

This was absolutely delicious, and I will make it again.  Worcestershire sauce, caramelized onions, and goat cheese rocked out on this sandwich.  The Real American was dinner for two people.

Broken down:
6 slices of bacon - about 240 calories - about $2
10 oz of lean beef - about 400 calories - about $3
1 oz Colby-jack - about 110 calories - about $0.25
a mushroom - negligible
some onion - negligible
.5 oz goat cheese - 35 calories - $0.25
seasoning - negligible - about $0.10
7 paper towels - about $0.10

Total: about 800 calories, about $5.70 not including utilities or equipment.