VLOG #3 The Burger

lemniscate (57)in #food • 6 years ago

The Burger 🍔

The Burger. A simple yet effective dish. I like to think I've experienced the worst of them, it can be so easy to get it wrong. But when you've prepared it yourself effectively, it can make you feel like you've developed a master piece. No ready-made, filler infested patties that taste like cardboard, no horrible overwhelming breads and no wrong choices with the cheese. I'm still on a journey to perfect the simple foods like that of the burger, the chicken breast, fries and so on. The "easy to make but when done right, its phenomenal" foods. There's something about that, that appeals to me. I'm no chef, but I love to cook. It's a chemistry and I'm a scientist.

The Ingredients

I've experimented with different ingredients for a while. I've come to the conclusion that the bread is one of the most important things about the build. We'll call the burger "the build" as to me, it's like getting the best parts to build the best thing you can out of them. Texture is just as important as taste and the bun is technically half of the sandwich. No one wants to bite into a soggy mess, neither an overwhelming bun. I've chosen to go with a brioche bun. I've found that the texture and taste goes perfectly well with the patty and the other ingredients. It presents the patty and it's friends rather than overwhelm them!

Cheddar cheese is good for many things but not for burgers (neither pizza). New Zealand cheddar is pretty much ubiquitous here in Trinidad. Recently, one of our pizza chains was featured on an international news site for being a popular pizza chain that puts cheddar on pizza. I severely dislike cheddar cheese on pizza. But apparently everyone here seems to like it! Maybe you do to, that's cool. I've found that the American processed cheese works really well as well as swiss cheese. As you would have seen in the video, I've gone with the American. The creaminess, texture and ability to melt really well is just too hard to pass up.

The vegetables tend to balance the flavours of the patty and the cheese as well as the condiments and whatever type of acidity is used. I like to use iceberg lettuce as it's not overwhelming and adds a nice fresh elevation in flavour. Tomatoes that are not too sweet but juicy are a must have for me as well. For the acidity, I used sliced dill pickles. Some people may not like pickles but I absolutely love them in a sandwich! The onions that I put in last at the top contributed really well to the flavour profile of my burger build!

The one thing I did not put in the video was a sauce that I tried making for the first time to put on the buns and to use as a condiment. I mixed some mayonnaise with a bit of mustard which I then combined with honey! The hint of sweetness from the honey went so well with the burger that I think this is my new go to "secret sauce"!

The patty was a simple pure beef patty, no fillers or bread. A nice meaty texture and taste! It was seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic, onion and some parsley and cooked for 3 minutes on each side for maximum juiciness! I never took seriously how the doneness of a patty affected the burger but now I do! Medium well gives you that awesome taste and lets the burger be that sought after juicy brilliance that it should without being too under cooked!

I'm still learning about food and the best ways to prepare them. This is where I am at with respect to my burger and I hope you enjoyed my little documentation of the process. It's fun playing around with ingredients and learning the factors that could make or break the dish. It was quite delicious. Maybe next time I'll experiment with minced turkey meat (which my sister gave to me recently)! How do you make your burgers? Let me know if there's any thing that can be done to improve this burger or if I've been doing certain things in an improper manner. It's all in the fun of learning!