Burgers

We're big fans of burgers. I wouldn't say we are connoisseurs because I think that implies that we are snooty about them. Well, maybe we are a little snooty.

Anyway, over the years, we've figured out what style we like. It's the Julia Child, Shake Shack, Bocado-type burgers. The ones that are thin pattied with a nice char, with a basic cheese, onions, tomato, lettuce, and ... a sauce. For me, I like mayo, ketchup, and mustard. Josh has gone just to mayo. And a toasted bun.

We start off with Riverview ground beef. They have great beef. Then I measure the size of the burger and form my thin patties, just bigger than the buns to allow for shrinkage. This time, the thinness of the burgers wasn't a problem to get off the board and into the pan or even to flip, which was surprising. Maybe I'm getting better at this thing we call cooking.

So, I let the cast iron heat up a lot. Way more than I usually do. Then I put in three of the patties, let them brown for a minute, then flip, add cheese, and cook another minute total. For the cheese, I kind of like American, which they also do sometimes on good burgers, like at Bocado, I think. But Josh wanted something else, so we turned to a Cabot two-year-aged cheddar which I grated before putting on the burgers. I've found chunks or slices just never melt.

We went with the double patty, which is why it's so important to have the patties pretty thin. Each patty was topped with cheese. Then mayo, ketchup, mustard on the top, plus white onions, heirloom tomatoes, and butter lettuce. I forgot the pickles. Anyway, it was a mighty fine burger. I also made a french potato salad with our tiny leftover yukons. First I parboiled, then sliced, then browned in olive oil with s+p. Then I tossed with a dijon, sherry vinegar, shallot mixture, topped with scallions and blue cheese.

That is one good lookin' burger.