Burgers & Books

by

Lauren Roberts

Hamburgers have become such an American dish that it might come as a surprise to some to know that the basic ingredient—cooked ground beef—came to this country with German immigrants in the early 1800s. The dish was known as “steak cooked in the Hamburg style.”

Its appearance as the hamburger we know today, with the bun and condiments, has hazy beginnings—there are a number of claims for its invention—but historians generally agree that the St. Louis World’s Fair of 1904 is where it was introduced to the general public and to much acclaim. Credit goes to a young concessionaire named Fletcher Davis since Davis had already been serving at his lunch counter back in Texas an unnamed sandwich consisting of a hamburger steak between slices of home-baked bread that was spread with a mix of ground mustard and mayonnaise and topped with sliced onion and cucumber pickles.

It took very little time for the new sandwich to spread to diners, lunch counters, lunch wagons and carts, soda fountains and other quick dining places that specialized in serving the growing workforce. In 1916, J. Walter Anderson revised the sandwich, substituting a one-piece bun for the bread and flattening the steak into a thin patty that could be quickly cooked. “Buy ‘em by the stack,” he advertised his nickel burgers, and people did. Within five years, he had built the first hamburger chain, White Castle.

Competitors followed, and one of them, the Pig Stand, pioneered carhop service, a standard of the American culture for the next several decades as hamburgers and cars became as closely allied as new lovers. (The term derived from the practice of servers hopping onto the running boards of the cars of the era to take orders that were delivered on trays that attached to the windows.)

That the hamburger went on to become so “American” was helped by a number of innovators—Bob’s Big Boy with its double-decker burger, McDonald’s standardization, In-N-Out Burger’s first drive-through burger stand—each of whom established a new trend and increased the hamburger’s popularity. But credit must also be paid to J. Wellington Wimpy of the Popeye comic strips. This hamburger-loving character whose motto motto—“would gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today”—became so popular that Wimpy Burgers became part of the lexicon. And burgers even became entwined with politics when a line—“Where’s the beef?”—that came from a memorable character in a television ad for Wendy’s was exploited in a presidential race (in the late 1980s,. I believe).

In 1990, Sutter Home, a California winery, devised the “Build a Better Burger” competition. The idea behind it was to convince people that wine, not just beer and soda, was something that could be enjoyed with the most casual foods.

What began as a marketing program to increase wine consumption has become, according to Cookoff: Recipe Fever in America, one of the most popular of all cooking contests. The grand prize—currently $50,000—plus the weekend in Napa Valley at the height of the wine harvest puts it high on the list of most cooking competition’s list of entries. (In fact, the contest is currently open to 2007 entries so if you think you have a winning recipe why not enter? Only residents of California and Utah are ineligible, the former due to a quirk in state law.)   

Sutter Home has been wildly successful with the competition. In 2005, its fifteenth anniversary, that well-known publisher of cookbooks, Ten Speed Press, issued Build a Better Burger: Celebrating Sutter Home’s Annual Search for America’s Best Burgers ($17.95) by head BBB judge and self-admitted “shameless burger-phile,” James McNair.

The book is a luscious, drool-inducing paean to the hamburger that has gone way past its early beginnings to become an epicurean treat as well as practical guide to re-creating those burgers that have won the BBB from 1990 through 2004. Though there are a couple of non-meat options such as Hearty Southern Bean Burgers, this is not a book for vegetarians. Almost all of the recipes include one or more of the following meats: beef, pork, duck, chicken, tuna, shrimp, salmon, turkey, lamb, sausage.

The recipes vary from relatively straightforward (though unusual) and quick to complex and ingredient-heavy. Whatever your culinary preferences, you are likely to find them here, whipped into the familiar round patty shape carefully placed between two pieces of bread. I am a dedicated (more accurately, obsessed) fan of Caesar salad, and wouldn’t you know it, they’ve got one just for me:

Caesar Salad and Flank Steak Burgers with Garlic Crostini

Dressing:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
3/4 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
2 flat anchovy fillets packed in oil, drained and chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Patties:
1 1/2 pounds ground flank steak
1/2 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
2 shallots, minced
3 garlic cloves, minced
3 tablespoons Zinfandel
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon lemon pepper seasoning
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Olive oil for brushing on the grill rack.

Garlic Crostini:
8 (1/2-inch-thick) sourdough bread slices
Extra virgin olive oil for brushing on the bread
4 garlic cloves, peeled and halved

1 1/2 cups washed, dried and shredded romaine lettuce
Shredded, freshly grated or shaved Parmesan cheese to taste

Directions:
Prepare a medium-hot fire in a charcoal grill with a cover, or preheat a gas grill to medium-high.

To make the dressing, combine the olive oils, vinegars, and salt in a small jar with a lid and shake until well blended. Mash the anchovy fillets and garlic together on a cutting board until they form a paste; transfer to a bowl. Add the oil and vinegar mixture, lemon juice, and parsley and whisk until smooth. Set aside.

To make the patties, combine the steak, parsley, shallots, garlic, Zinfandel, salt, lemon pepper seasoning, and pepper in a large bowl. Handling the meat as little as possible to avoid compacting it, mix well. Divide the mixture into four equal portions and form the portions into patties to fit the bread slices.

When the grill is ready, brush the grill rack with olive oil. Place the patties on the rack, cover, and cook, turning once until done to preference, 5 to 7 minutes on each side for medium. During the last few minutes of cooking, to make the crostini, brush the bread slices  to taste with olive oil on both sides. Place the bread slices on the outer edges of the rack, turning once, to toast lightly. Remove and rub each side of the toast with 1/2 garlic clove.

To assemble the burgers, combine the lettuce and the dressing in a large bowl and toss lightly. On four of the bread slices, place an equal portion of the salad, a patty, and a generous sprinkling of Parmesan cheese. Top with the remaining slices and serve. Makes 4 burgers.  

Pure Beef Burgers

Smothered Onions: (optional)
3 tablespoons butter
2 onions, sliced

Patties:
1 pound freshly ground beef, such as combination of neck and hanger steak, porterhouse tails, or ground chuck (not too lean), well chilled
medium-grain sea salt

2 thick extra-sharp Cheddar cheese slices (optional)
2 white-bread buns (not crusty, dense, or supposedly “better quality”), split, fresh or toasted
Ketchup

Directions:
If you choose to serve the burgers with the onions, heat the butter in a skillet over medium heat until sizzling. Add the onions and sauté until well wilted, about five minutes. Decrease the heat to low and cook the onions about 20 minutes longer, stirring until the onions are soft and lightly browned. Set aside.

Take half of the meat in your hands and shape it into a thick disk without compacting the meat much. Simply press it down lightly to flatten it, then rotate the disk in your hands, patting the edges smooth as you rotate to make a patty. The patty should be about the same diameter as the bun, so after it has shrunk in cooking it will be slightly smaller. Repeat with the remaining meat. Liberally salt the surface of the patties.

To cook on top of the stove, heat a black iron skillet over high heat until very hot—a drop of water should evaporate instantly. Place the patties in the pan and, without moving them, flipping them, or squeezing them down, cook for five minutes. Turn the patties and cook another 4 to 6 minutes, depending on how done you like them.

To cook the patties in the broiler, heat the broiler with the broiler pan in place (to preheat it) so that the burgers will be no more than 2 to 3 inches from the heat. Place the patties on the preheated broiler pan and broil for 5 minutes. Turn and broil until done to taste—another 4 to 6 minutes.

For cheeseburgers, top each cooked patty with a slice of the cheese.

To assemble the burgers, on each bun bottom, place a patty, a generous portion of ketchup, and an equal portion of the smothered onions (if using). Add the bun tops and serve. Makes 2 burgers.