Unami Burger - Flanksteak Burger, With Mushroom Roll

Umami - the fifth taste - is a pleasant sensation that takes place on our tongue and in our stomach when certain chemical called glutamates activate those senses. This all according to the website Playing with Fire and Water. That all sounds kind of complicated to me, but the site points out examples of great combinations the world over that exhibit this phenomenon. Things like Italian pizza, Fish and Chips and of course, our hamburger and fries. The site has a great recipe that combines a flanksteak ground up for the patty and a fresh-made roll with mushrooms. Sounds very tasty. (Photo from the Playing with Fire and Water website.)

Meatpaper

Meatpaper is a magazine about meat. But rather than the preparation or eating of meat, it is more about the ideas. The art of meat. The conflict of meat. The culture around meat. Even meat art. Rather than attempt to resolve the conflicted nature of our relationship with meat, they explore it. Things like the environmental impact of meat or pants made from meat. (See photo above from meatpaper.com.)

Meatpaper struck a chord me with me. I tried be a vegetarian earlier in life. I made it 18 months before the lure of the hamburger became too strong. Meatpaper explores and exposes that conflict. Visit meatpaper on line at www.meatpaper.com.

Classic Burger Recipe

A HoosierBurgerBoy reader recently logged onto the blog and asked me the best way to make an American burger for their new restaurant in Mallorca, Spain. Here is the response I posted. I would love to get any comments back on what you would put down as the recipe for the Classic American Burger.

My response:

Be glad to give advice for an American style burger. I recently had a burger in Bilbao and it was awful. Bland meat, basically flavorless.

Here is what I would do.

1. Make sure the beef is ground chuck. Freshly ground each day. Preferably naturally raised or grass fed.
2. Make sure you serve it on a white enriched bun. Not a brioche, or roll or other type of bread.
3. The patty should weigh between 1/3 and 1/2 pound pre-cooked weight.
4. Use swiss or american cheese.
5. Serve with fresh tomato and lettuce on the side.
6. Thousand Island Dressing for Sauce or if not then offer, mustard, mayo and ketchup.
7. Offer grilled sweet onions sliced very thin.
8. Don't overcook. Medium is best.

Good luck and send me a story and photo when you are done. I will put it on my blog!

SRK

Green Hamburger?

Is their such a thing as a green hamburger? Recently I was involved in launching a line of cubicles that are green. I never thought I would say that. So why not a green hamburger?

Looking on google for a green hamburger doesn't yield much. There is an article on treehugger.com that looks into the carbon footprint of a burger. It is not pretty. To put this in perspective, the average American eats three hamburgers per week! That produces enough carbon as more than 7,500 S.U.V.s.

Much of this is due to the feed produced to raise a pound of beef. Also, the 600 liters of methane per day that a cow belches is a huge contributor to greenhouse gas according to Thomas Freidman in "Hot, Flat and Crowded", his excellent book on the coming green revolution.

But like the green cube, I am committed to either finding or creating a green burger. Certainly grass-fed locally produced beef is a start. Burger Joint and Burger Meister in San Francisco move in this direction with "naturally fed" beef from local sources. I reviewed Burger Joint and reviewed Burger Meister previously. But naturally fed probably also means grain fed. So I will be keeping an eye out for grass fed, locally grown beef. We will see if it tastes as good and if it costs anywhere near a traditionally produced burger.

If you know of any green burgers, let me know. We will continue our search for the World's Best Burger.

SRK

Defining Terms – What is a Hamburger?

Recently, on a post to Hoosier Burger Boy I reviewed a burger from Bistro Vida. The burger was prepared by adding onions, parsely and garlic into the meat prior to cooking. A person commented that it was not a hamburger, but a “meat loaf” burger. I guess he might have a point. In his book, “The Hamburger”, Josh Ozersky defines a hamburger as “ground beef patty served on a white enriched bun”.

I like this definition and will adhere to it for a reviewing a hamburger. But remember, the site is called Hoosier Burger Boy, not Hoosier Hamburger Boy. I still wish to review other burgers, even if they aren’t pure “hamburgers”. These could include gourmet burgers, like Bix great concoction, with truffles mixed in. Or the Vida Burger mentioned above. I will place these in my gourmet burger ratings, instead of the top 10 Hamburger ratings. I might even review the occasional turkey burger or fish burger if it seems novel or interesting. But I will try not to call them hamburgers.

Also, my top 10 burgers will tend to come from burger joints, whose main purpose is serving burgers. There are some fine restaurants like Zuni Café and Oak City Bar & Grill that have fine burgers, but that really isn’t their main mission. I will put these in the gourmet burger section as well.

SK