Hamburgers: mayo, BBQ sauce (on bread), ketchup, baby spinach, provolone on ground beef done up Kevin-style: beef mixed with salt, pepper, chili pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and a secret ingredient.
Hot dogs: mustard, ketchup, sriracha, relish, and homemade chili. The porn-sized franks are Kirkland (i.e., Costco) brand. They're not nearly as good as the Hebrew National franks, but they're not bad, either.
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I hate to break it to you, but Metamucil does not qualify as a secret ingredient.
ReplyDeleteBut boy do those burgers look good. Now I want a hamburger. With cheese, bacon, and sauteed mushrooms on top.
I, too, am a fan of cheese, bacon, and sauteed mushrooms. At Georgetown University's The Tombs, you can get an awesome Bacon Bleu Burger with mushrooms that's just like that.
ReplyDeleteMy burgers really shrank today. I had bought a large "tube" or "log" of ground beef from the local Food Lion; the log was a bit fattier than the 80/20 beef usually recommended on the Food Network. My purchase was more in the neighborhood of 73/27. Not bad, but it does lead to shrinkage.
Which brings us to the issue of juice retention, and the silent ideological war that's been going on in that arena. I've been known to do the sneaky thing and toss in some powdered bread crumbs with my ground beef-- not so much as "filler," per se, but as a way to keep the juices from leaving the patty. Some Food Network chefs swear by this technique, but grillmaster Bobby Flay derides it as "making meatloaf." His point, I think, is that juice retention is a function of timing and heat level-- i.e., watchfulness-- so bread crumbs really aren't necessary if you know what you're doing.
I didn't use bread crumbs today, and most of the cooking was on medium heat (except for a brief interval on high heat). The length of the cooking time doubtless led to the shrinkage. The Kirkland franks, meanwhile, seemed to thrive in the heat: they sweated and swelled excitedly.
Happy 4th!
ReplyDeleteOoh, bacon bleu... that sounds so good.
ReplyDeleteSo what's ideal, high heat and short cooking time? It's been a long time since I made hamburgers...
JS,
ReplyDeleteThanks. I hope your 5th is turning out nicely.
Charles,
I suspect you're right: high heat and short cooking time. It probably helps to have meat that's less fatty, too.
And while I'm at it, here's a confession: there are times, during the summer, when I really don't mind wolfing down a nasty-ass, low-rent burger that's both flat and thoroughly carbonized thanks to some unkind grilling. As long as the burger retains some of its beefy flavor, I'm fine with it. (I'm thinking specifically of burgers that I've eaten at various air shows at Andrews Air Force Base during my younger years.)