Since recently buying my first serious Weber BBQ for my birthday, I have really began to enjoy the fruits of my BBQ-ing labor. I never took to BBQ-ing before because I always felt more like classic French chef inside a hot kitchen, throwing curse words and pots & pans around in peaceful bliss. But I now feel the heat of the kitchen, in bursts over the front of my body when opening the lid of the BBQ to check out how the meat is feeling under the pressure. And I'm totally cool with that heat too. BBQ-ing also seems like a way more chill cooking experience, plus I have an audience, so there could be less curse words, except for, "Hot shit, this burger is delicious!"
Black Angus Burger Recipe
makes 4 burgers at 165 g per burger
500 g black angus ground beef
130 g finely chopped celery
120 finely chopped onion
2 T olive oil
14 g breadcrumbs
s&p
4 sesame buns
4 pieces of lettuce
4-8 slices of tomato (depending on size)
1 raw onion sliced in thin rounds (optional)
Burger sauce (recipe below)
When I was a kid my dad used to put raw celery and onions into his burger meat. It really made an impression on me at such a young age because when I went to friends houses, their burgers didn't have that extra touch. Nowadays, I often sauté my celery & onions and then mix it into my burger meat. It adds a different kind of flavor that I also really love. It's what I do to a meatloaf, and a burger is cousin of sorts to the loaf.
Warm the 2 T of oil in a pan on medium heat. Cook your celery for 1-2 minutes and then add the onions. Cook with a lid for 5 minutes on medium heat stirring once or twice. Each time that you lift the lid, let the condensation fall off the lid into a bowl or the sink, but not back into the pan if possible. After 5 minutes, turn off the heat, keep the lid on and wait another 5 minutes. When done, lift the lid and let the condensation again fall into the bowl or sink and let the mixture cool before mixing it with the ground beef.
Mix the meat with the cooked veggies and salt & pepper. Add the breadcrumbs and mix gently until it feels less sticky. If you over mix your meat it can become tough, so don't beat it up!
The formation of a burger patty is actually serious business if you love burgers, and I love burgers! So many people form a burger patty in the wrong shape, so let's talk about it quickly. When meat is cooked, it both shrinks in circumference as well as it swells, making it thicker. So, it's very important to make sure your raw burger patties are a little bit wider than the bun and flatter than you would want them when fully cooked. Ideally, when cooked, the patty should fit just perfectly inside of the bun and not stick outside of it. But equally important is that it shouldn't be too thick when it goes on the BBQ because once cooked, it will swell making it thicker. This leaves you with a sky-high burger (after toppings) that you cannot even get your mouth around.
A common hamburger patty trick is to push the center of the raw patty down a little bit lower than the edges, making a deeper center. It helps keep your burger from swelling too high, and thus relieving you of the problem of a sky-high burger.
When it comes time to cook your burgers, whether in a pan or on a BBQ, first, take them out of the fridge for up to an hour before cooking. Secondly, when cooking a burger (or most meat for that matter) you want to flip or turn it as little as possible and cook it evenly per side. My burgers were just under 2,5 cm (1 inch) high. I cooked them about 2-4 min per side on the BBQ, flipping once. My BBQ temperature was only 240-250 degrees C (464-482 degrees F) at the time I put them on the grill.
As an additional piece of love, a great burger sauce can make all the difference when it comes to a burger. If you feel the itch to make a homemade American burger sauce, look no further.
Burger Sauce
100 g ketchup
100 g Mayonnaise
20 g french mustard
50 g cucumber pickle relish (recipe below)
First to make the cucumber pickle relish follow the instructions in the recipe below.
Once that has cooled you can mix all the ingredients together and keep cold in the fridge until needed.
Cucumber Pickle Relish Recipe
170 g minced cucumbers
65 g minced onions
1/4 t salt
30 g sugar
70 ml distilled vinegar
1/2 t cornstarch mixed with 1/2 t water
Cut your ingredients very fine. Mix the onions, cucumbers and salt. Set it in a strainer and let it sit and drain all the water for 3 hours. Place the ingredients into a paper towel and ring out as much liquid as you can.
Then warm the sugar and vinegar together until the sugar is dissolved. Cook for another few minutes util it's reduced by about half. Add the veggies and let it simmer for 2 minutes while stirring the whole time. Mix the cornstarch and water and add it to the pan. Cook mixing for 1 more minute. The transfer to a bowl and leave in the fridge uncovered for and hour.
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