What's in your patty, and what's on top?

Ground turkey mixed with not too horribly lean beef. Sometimes a little pork mixed in as well. I don't like burgers that are too beefy tasting. Egg, muesli toast breadcrumbs, and sometimes a bit of chipotle mixed in. I like to make very thin patties, and put little heaps of shredded cheddar and bleu cheese in between two patties, press them together and grill. I love the P.C. savoury buns for these.

When I'm doing these for kids I usually leave the bleu cheese out.

These go over very well at summer parties.

mine's a vegie patty with salsa, onions and cheddar on top. There's a burger joint in Harvard Square "where harvard goes to meat". They name their burgers after famous people. This burger favorite of mine is called, for the time being, the Dixie Chick.

<i learned about the marvels of chipotle from littlek>

mmmmmm chipotle

I'm a plain guy. LTM, onions, ketchup and horseradish. Horseradish on anything and everything.

I'm kind of boring in the beef area. But it's worked in my favor, as my boys insist on doing the cooking/grilling! Cav, yours sounds so yummy!
I'm still the queen of the baked goods, though!

just listening for ideas.....

A burger recipe of mine that never results in leftovers is:

roughly 3 parts ground chuck or ground sirloin, 1 part ground lamb. Douse with a few generous shakes of worcestershire sauce, add an egg and an envelope of dry French Onion Soup Mix per roughly each pound of meat, mix thoroughly, refrigerate for a couple hours to blend the flavorings, then form into roughly quarter pound patties around an inch thick. Wrap the circumference of each patty with a roughly half pre-cooked thick-sliced bacon strip trimmed to more or less fit, secured with a couple toothpicks. Grill about 3-4 minutes per side (more or less, according to doneness preference - I like mine on the rare side) over a medium-hot fire in a covered kettle-type charcoal grill, adding a generous piece of sharp Cheddar durng the last minute or so. Pull 'em from the grill when done to your liking, and find-and-remove the toothpicks (the bacon should stay put). Serve open face on buttered, toasted onion rolls, and provide all the customary garnishes and condiments.

I'm bein' tortured here, i swear it . . . an' i was just eatin' a humble liverwurst sammich . . .


The ideal, which i have done many times, but don't do often, makes burgers for me, but not anyone else, as others are usually not interested when they smell it cooking:

I ask the butcher to show me some round steaks, and select one of about 1 1/2 pounds (which makes four, six-ounce patties), well-marbelled (or as well as round ever is), but with little side fat. I get them to add an ounce or two of pork trim, the fatty kind, when they are grinding it. I have it wrapped in butcher paper, and then let it sit in the bottom (coldest part) of the fridge for a week. I then remove it and make the patties, freezing immediately any i don't intend to eat just then. (The frozen patties cannot be thawed completely, as with a microwave, but if you sear them, and then cook them with slow heat, you get a decent medium-rare burger.)

I pan-fry or grill the burger, depending upon circumstance, and like a large poppy seed roll. I'm something of a "purist"--i'll put a good cheese and tomatoe slice on it. But, bascially, sea salt is my condiment, as i went to all this trouble precisely because i wanted to enjoy the aged beef.