The go-to recipe for when a group of friends meets at someone’s house and want a delicious, classic burger.
Straight To The Point #
🩸 Sauce
- Mayo (2 part)
- Ketchup (1 part)
- Mustard (1/2 part)
- Finely chopped onion (to taste)
- Finely chopped pickles (to taste)
- Brown Sugar (2 sticks)
- Worcester Sauce (a few splashes, optional)
- Garlic Powder (to taste)
🧂 Seasoning
- Smoked Paprika
- Chilli Powder
- Onion Powder
- Garlic Powder
- Salt
- Pepper
🥩 Meat
- Beef patty (80/20 fat, 20% larger than bun)
- Bacon (baked in oven)
🍔 Buns
- Simple Burger buns, with seeds.
🥬 Toppings / Stacking Order
- Bottom bun (sauced)
- Pickles (4 slices)
- Green lettuce
- Tomato (salted)
- Patty
- Cheese (cheddar, melted on patty)
- Bacon (crumpled)
- Onion (grilled)
- Jalapeño (4 slices)
- Top bun (sauced)
The Image Guide #
Mise en place #
Start the prep work. For the sauce, you may do any quantity you like, just keep the proportions. Put mayo, half as much ketchup, and a quarter as much mustard. Add finely diced onion and pickles, to give a little texture. Season with Worcester sauce, two sticks of brown sugar, and some garlic powder. Mix well.
For the meat spices, mix together all the powders in approximately equal proportions: smoked paprika, chilli powder, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, and pepper.
Get the widest onions you can find and cut them in rings; try to keep their “circular integrity”. Cut the tomatoes similarly, and thinly slice the pickles and jalapeños. Get the cheese slices handy. I used cheddar, but any melting cheese will do.
Bake the bacon in the oven while you wash the lettuce and slice the buns in half. If you want to go all-in, feel free to mince your own patties or bake your own bread, but for convenience, I just get high-quality pre-made ones.
Grilling #
Due to the technique used to season the meat, this is best executed on a flat-top grill. Lay the patty down, and cover it evenly with spices using a teaspoon. Add the onion slice and toast the buns alongside it.
When the buns are toasted, wait for the meat to cook halfway, then turn over, season it again. Turn the onion as well and continue cooking.
About 30s - 1m before it is done, add one or two slices of cheese on top of the patty and cover with a lid to melt. The cheese will trap the seasoning (and therefore, flavor) inside. This is a good time to start building the burger.
Assembly #
Apply a layer of sauce on the bottom bun, and cover with pickle slices.
Add a bed of lettuce, put the tomato slice on top and season it with some sprinkled salt. The lettuce will naturally form a pocket for the tomato, and together make a flat layer to rest the meat on. I find it a good balance between taste and structural integrity.
Add the patty, crush some of the bacon on top of the cheese.
Add the onion slice on top of that, sauce the top bun, add the jalapeño slices, and you are finished! Fries and extra sauce as a side dish.
I cook them one by one, to be eaten immediately. Six to eight burgers is a convenient batch size for using up the ingredients as they are portioned off-the-shelf.
Enjoy! 🍔