Burgers and Fries (via The Food Lab)

I thought this post was somewhat timely, considering the burger craze in Atlanta. I’m constantly hearing about Grindhouse, Yeah! Burger, Flip, Bocado, Muss & Turner’s, the not yet opened Googie burger, Farm Burger, the for-sale-for-$1.5MM Ann’s Snack Bar, Miller-Union, and of course you cannot forget about Holeman & Finch.

Grass fed! Organic! Prime! Wagyu! Family Friendly! Trendy! Bland! Provocative Signage! Overrated! Overcooked! Too Expensive! Inconsistent!

Damn, on the other hand, this post may just be piling on to an already saturated topic with little interest. I’m a little sick of it myself, but I still love a good burger, and I do try all of these places. I had a poor experience at Yeah! Burger during their first week of business, but I don’t want to judge someone so early. On the other hand, I had a fabulous burger at Miller-Union this week. And really, considering it came with fries, it didn’t cost much more than those other restaurants that allege they are at a friendly price point.

Where I’ve really been eating the most burgers is at home. I got hooked on the geekiness of it all when I started reading The Food Lab on Serious Eats. It’s a series of research and recipe posts by Kenji Lopez-Alt, a professional chef, founder of the Good Eater collaboration, and a contributor to Cook’s Illustrated. He’s also an MIT graduate who tackles cooking questions using a very scientific method with which I can identify. One of his favorite topics is burgers. He cooks thin burger, fat burger, grilled burgers, sous-vide burgers, replicates restaurant burgers, and he really does his homework. Hell, in one post on thin and crispy burgers, he somehow manages to compare the forming of burger patties with fractals.  I love his usage of line graphs when discussing how often one should flip a burger. Intense and admirable work sir.

Anyways, I won’t regurgitate all of his ideas, but here are a few of my experiments based on Kenji’s posts.

The most important lesson learned is to grind my own beef. Lately I’ve been going with a modified version of Kenji’s blue label blend. His proportions are 1:1:2 sirloin, brisket, oxtail. Oxtail is not as easily found, so I substitute short rib. But if you want oxtail, you can find it in town at the Sweet Auburn Market, or at Super H in Doraville.

Initially I used my food processor to grind beef. The problems I encountered were mushy beef (even though I froze it first) or an uneven grind. The beef below was too chunky.

But you can see when I form the patty, I form it very loosely. I don’t pack the meat together in my hands. I lay down the weighed portion of ground beef on a tray, then gently push it together until it’s not falling apart too badly. Then I gently flip it and repeat.

On this occasion I cooked it on very high heat in a cast iron skillet – look at that crust!

The crust may have been good, but the cooking was very uneven and the chunks of beef made the burger very steak like. You can see the center is pink and somewhat mushy looking. Not awful, but clearly it can be improved upon.

For my next set of experiments, I had the KitchenAid grinder attachment. Much better.

This time I started with Kenji’s thick and juicy burgers, which are initially cooked in the oven. I realize this may be sacrilege to you grill masters, but it provides for a very evenly cooked burger. The burgers come out looking like a pink-gray mass of grossness, but they are finished with a sear in a hot skillet.

I overcooked this burger by ten degrees accidentally, I’m not sure if my quick read thermometer is any good because I pulled the burger out at 122F exactly, but it still tasted good. The center was soft and the exterior wasn’t all burnt to hell, a common problem with a very thick burger. I really think this cooking method is overlooked.

The burger below is the “Ultra Crispy Burger“. For these I make a smaller, thin patty, and cook it in a hot as hell cast iron skillet that is barely larger than the burger. The small skillet traps the fat, in essence frying the exterior of the burger. Indeed, the texture is deep fried. I’m having problems getting a burger this thin to cook to medium. The cheese isn’t melting fast enough. This burger cooked two minutes on the first side and one minute on the second side.

You can see the cheese oozing into the loose texture of the beef though – that’s what I like to see! This burger was tasty.

Be warned, your house will become smoky and smell like burgers for hours when you cook using this method.

My last burger was blue label, packed a little more tightly as it was of moderate thickness. I cooked it on a moderately hot cast iron skillet. As was done with all these burgers, the beef was generously seasoned with salt and pepper on both sides right before cooking. The bread is H&F bread from the Peachtree Road Farmer’s Market. It was a very solid burger. It could have had a better crust, but the flavor of the beef was outstanding. If I did it again, I would only cook two burgers in a single skillet at a time. I think with four burgers they are too crowded for a great crust.

The fries pictured above are yet another product of a Kenji post – How to Make Perfect Thin and Crispy Fries. The technique takes time, but they are hands down the best fries I’ve ever made. Try this recipe. Please.

I bought the largest russets I could find. The fries are hand cut and soaked.

Then they are placed in a large pot of water, with two tablespoons of vinegar added, and brought to a simmer and cooked for ten minutes. The vinegar keeps the fries from falling apart.

The fries are dried, then fried at 400F for about a minute.

After the fries have cooled, I layered them in tupperware and froze them. Apparently the freezing of the fries makes for a much fluffier interior (the almost hollow McDonald’s style fry). Again, read Kenji’s research on this.

The frozen fries are then fried at 400F for 3-4 minutes. Toss with salt, serve immediately.

I’m really considering keeping a stock of these in my freezer. They were that good.