Text 35286, 104 rader
Skriven 2010-02-28 18:03:00 av JIM WELLER (1:123/140)
Ärende: A lot of effort 1
=========================
MMMMM-----Meal-Master - formatted by MMCONV  2.10

     Title: Flood Burgers Pt 1
Categories: Groundmeat, Beef, Info
  Servings: 4

      2 lb fresh ground, 85% lean
           ground beef
           Kosher salt
           Freshly cracked black
           pepper
      4 sl cheddar cheese (optional)
      4    hamburger buns, toasted

I have just cooked and consumed what may have been the single
greatest burger to come out of my kitchen. And my kitchen averages
about a dozen burgers a week. Want proof? Just smell my wife's hair.
Eau de bouef. (sorry dear). 

We'll get to that burger, but first, a little background:

A couple of weeks ago, I asked Vogue food writer Jeffrey Steingarten
about his thoughts on the Shake Shack's burger. His reply? "it's 4
ounces. That's too small to ever be a great burger." Then, a couple
nights ago, I asked The Hamburger: A History author Josh Ozersky
what his last burger on earth would be. His response? "White
Diamond, Bill's, maybe Rub's. Not sure, but it would definitely have
to be something 4 ounces or less." These two equally valid opinions
represent what I consider to be one of the great dichotomies of the
burger world. Those who prefer the small, thin, 4-ounce or less,
smashed-style of burger (a la Shake Shack or Bill's), and those who
prefer thick, medium-rare, 6 to 8 ounce pub-style behemoths (a la
Corner Bistro or Minetta Tavern).

The crux of the matter is this: Crust vs. Juice

A smashed burger, like the one here, places emphasis on the
all-important sear. As long as you get a flavorful, well-browned,
salty crust on the meat, who cares if you give up a bit of
juiciness... that's what oozy fatty American cheese is for, right?
Besides, flavor is what bacon is for, right? In the other camp,
however, are those people that prefer the mouthfeel and satisfying
heft of a burger that's thick enough to retain a medium rare center.
The problem is, there's a reason why steak tartare comes served with
chopped pickles, shallots and capers: Rare ground beef doesn't have
all that much flavor. For the people who fall in this camp, it's not
worth it to try and up the ratio of flavorful crust if it means
losing some of the juicy, medium rare center. Besides, flavor is
what bacon is for, right?

Being a die-hard member of the thin, crusty, but-maybe-not-too-juicy
camp, my goal this week was to analyze the technique of burger
smashing, and come up with a method that optimizes juice retention
without losing any of the flavorful crust. To that end, I made a
couple dozen smashed burgers, changing the strength and timing of
the smashing each time.

Time to Squeeze Some Burgers: In order to gauge the amount of juices
being lost I placed each patty in a citrus juicer and squeezed every
last drop of juice (a combination of rendered fat and intramuscular
liquid) out of them.

The problem? My results were pretty boring. Turns out that as long
as your temperature and cooking time are the same (2 minutes at 600
degrees for mine), and you don't touch the burger after the initial
smash (which can take place at any time up to 45 seconds after
you've placed your burger on the hot surface), the amount of juice
it retains is pretty much the same no matter what you do... about a
tablespoon for every two ounces of 85/15 ground beef.

On the other hand, I now had in my hands a pretty exciting new
product: seared burger juice. Composed of about 25% fat and 75%
liquid, the juice had all of the flavor of a perfectly seared,
crusty brown burger. Close your eyes and hold it under your nose,
and you wouldn't know the difference. The only question that
remained was, what could I do with it?

How to Make Juice-Filled Burgers: Since all the flavor of a great
seared burger was trapped in this bowl of liquid, what if I were
somehow able to incorporate that flavor into a thicker, juicier,
pub-style burger to get the best of both worlds? Are you pondering
what I'm pondering, Pinky? Remember that scene in Willy Wonka and
the Chocolate Factory when Gene Wilder, in reference to his
Wonkavision says, "if they can do it with a photograph, why can't I
do it with a bar of chocolate?" Replace "a photograph" with
"liquid-center bubble gum" and "bar of chocolate" with "hamburger,"
and you have a pretty good idea of what was going through my head.

Posted by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt

From: Serious Eats
 
MMMMM-------------------------------------------------

Cheers

YK Jim


... [Huffing and puffing!]

___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.20
--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5
 * Origin: Doc's Place BBS Fido Since 1991 docsplace.tzo.com (1:123/140)