HAMBURGERS AGAIN ...

As I have said here before, I do like my own cooking; and today, I would love to have one of my own home made hamburgers. They are simple enough to make, but it messes up the kitchen and takes quite a long time when you think that all I am getting is one little sandwich. But oh, is it ever worth the time and the mess. When I make my hamburger, I make a good, old-fashioned one, beginning with some good ground steak. (Sometimes, I chop my own and sometimes I have it ground for me; but I don't start with ground beef from the counter, that's for sure.)

Before I even begin to cook the hamburger, I prepare my condiments: my veggies. I want two or three slices of a very good red tomato and two or three very thin (almost paper thin) slices of sweet onion to which I add a couple of leaves of curly green leaf lettuce (the good stuff with lots of vitamins) and two or three long slices of dill pickle (I really like Stackers.)  

I keep cooked bacon in my refridgerator and so I reheat that (it is very crisp from the way I cook bacon ... more about that another day) and have it ready to put on my burger. And I also have nice, thin slices of cheddar cheese ready to go. Over on the side I get the plain yellow mustard and the real mayonnaise ready. And thus, I am prepared to cook my supper.

I prefer my beef patty more thin than the thick ones that everyone seems to prefer. So I make out a relatively thin patty with only about a fourth of a pound of beef and I don't add anything to it. (Oh yes, I, at times, have added spices, chopped onions, steak sauce; but this isn't what I really want.) So, I put that beef patty on my sizzling hot griddle (yes, cast iron, well seasoned) and let it cook. I don't touch it, don't smash it, don't mash it, nothing. It cooks to DONE. Because I cook it fast on that hot griddle, it is still quite juicy and just fine (and it isn't going to make me sick).

As soon as the meat is done, I put it to one side and get the bun ready to heat. I really like the buns baked at Central Market, the ones that taste more like real home baked bread; and I slice them in two and place them cut side down on the griddle right where the meat was just cooked. (Yes, I know, sometimes, grease gets on the bun and that makes it taste even better as it adds to the quality of my bun.) And then : Ta Da .... it is time to put the whole thing together.

And so I buid it: my idea of the perfect hamburger:  warm bun with mayo, leafy, crunchy lettuce, great beef patty, crisp bacon, real cheese that really melts, tomatoes, onions, pickles, another leaf of lettuce, and the topper, the bun slatherd with just the right amount of mustard. I love it. 

Others like their burgers with all kinds of things added to them. I've watched the Cook-off's on the Food Network. I've seen burgers that began with ground shrimp or ground lamb and contained pineapple chunks and yogurt and who knows what else? Those, for me, are not hamburgers. Sorry. They may well be sandwiches; but they are NOT hamburgers.

I am not thrilled with McDonald's as a place to get a great meal or even as a place to find a good burger, but at least they do know the definition of a hamburger. I have heard children sing it:  all beef patties, pickles, sesame seed buns. You know: the works. MickeyD's gets it right: it begins with beef. That's right: BEEF. The Food Channel I love; but they have truly missed it when it comes to my favorite home cooked meal: a real home made, beefy hamburger.