In the last post I talked about Varvakios Agora, and how I bought some meats, cut them into steaks, and planned to make mince out of the trimmings. I thought I'd put a quick post up to show what came out of that mince: unsurprisingly, bad ass burgers!
Basically, I bought myself a hand meat mincer to mince the meat. I chopped up the trimmings, added a generous amount of salt and minced it once at a course setting to keep the meat textured. I formed three patties around 200g each, avoiding compacting the meat as much as possible. When it was time to cook, I seared a patty on a griddle pan on both sides for about two minutes then I finished it off in the oven. Overall I made two burgers (over two days), the first I cooked medium, and the second I cooked well. I was actually surprised at the well done one! It turned out juicier and tastier than the medium one. My theory was that because all I was using was trimmings, I had a relatively high fat content and in my well done patty that fat had melted better than in my medium one! Having said that, both were juicier and better textured that many burgers I've had out in the wild!
I also decided I had to make my own buns too, so that they were just the right size for the patties. I used a mixer to kneed a sixty percent hydration dough, let it rise, kneaded it again, formed the buns, placed them on an oiled tray, and left them to rise again. The second time round I was getting hungry, so I decided to help the yeast out by placing the tray in the oven at the lowest setting (which I turned off as soon as I felt it was just warm). That really worked out great and my buns doubled in size in no time! Finally I splashed the surface of the buns with some water, splashed some water in a 250 degree pre-heated oven to create steam to prevent too big a crust from forming, and put the buns in. After 10-15 minutes, they looked perfect!
Finally the condiments. I made some mayonnaise, spread it on the bottom, then some gherkins, the patty, cheese, crispy bacon, thick slice of tomato, thick slice of red onion, lettuce, and mayonnaise mixed will hot chilli sauce spread on the top bun.
The final result:
Basically, I bought myself a hand meat mincer to mince the meat. I chopped up the trimmings, added a generous amount of salt and minced it once at a course setting to keep the meat textured. I formed three patties around 200g each, avoiding compacting the meat as much as possible. When it was time to cook, I seared a patty on a griddle pan on both sides for about two minutes then I finished it off in the oven. Overall I made two burgers (over two days), the first I cooked medium, and the second I cooked well. I was actually surprised at the well done one! It turned out juicier and tastier than the medium one. My theory was that because all I was using was trimmings, I had a relatively high fat content and in my well done patty that fat had melted better than in my medium one! Having said that, both were juicier and better textured that many burgers I've had out in the wild!
Patty in the Oven
I also decided I had to make my own buns too, so that they were just the right size for the patties. I used a mixer to kneed a sixty percent hydration dough, let it rise, kneaded it again, formed the buns, placed them on an oiled tray, and left them to rise again. The second time round I was getting hungry, so I decided to help the yeast out by placing the tray in the oven at the lowest setting (which I turned off as soon as I felt it was just warm). That really worked out great and my buns doubled in size in no time! Finally I splashed the surface of the buns with some water, splashed some water in a 250 degree pre-heated oven to create steam to prevent too big a crust from forming, and put the buns in. After 10-15 minutes, they looked perfect!
The Buns in the Oven
Finally the condiments. I made some mayonnaise, spread it on the bottom, then some gherkins, the patty, cheese, crispy bacon, thick slice of tomato, thick slice of red onion, lettuce, and mayonnaise mixed will hot chilli sauce spread on the top bun.
The final result:
Bad Ass Burger
Yum Yum
Ok, all this sounds and looks tasty, but I have one question mate: How do you bite into that? Any chance you were a snake in a previous life?
ReplyDeleteIt takes years and years of burger eating skills to manage this beast, and by no means is it a task to be taken lightly! But it can be done.
ReplyDeleteHaving said that, I do believe next time I'll be going for a wider bun and a wider patty.