The Classic Burger-Landarc style

[landarc]

Herein is my burger post for the Throw Down, a classic burger with the Landarc twist. As always, no need to leave the site, entire blog post is here.

Tonight was burger night, I decided it would be interesting to try something new with this classic of the backyard grill. First off however, I needed a bun. I decided to make a small batch of butter dough for some buns. I have no idea what butter dough is, I had no recipe, and decided to wing it.

Butter Dough
1 stick butter, melted
1 tablespoon sugar
1 cup warm water
1 pack Yeast
1 cup each A.P. flour and Bread flour
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon salt
bench flour, I used whole wheat, about 1/4 cup.

With the butter still warm, I added the warm water and yeast, allowed to proof for 15 minutes. Then added sugar, allowed to dissolve. Added the 2 cups of flour and 1/2 cup water and mixed into a dough. Kneaded for 5 minutes and let rest for 30 minutes. Kneaded again and let proof for 2 hours. Divided and proofed for 4 hours in a oiled oven pan covered with plastic wrap. These were baked, in the pan, in the oven, for 40 minutes at 350F, then finished at 425F for 10 minutes on the rack. At this time, I burned myself taking them out of the oven.

In the Proof and Cook pan



Sliced and Ready for the oven

To the patties, I was lazy and opted not to grind my own. But, since I was able to get some nice grass finished Painted Hills Beef from Oregon, I felt safe that the ground beef was of a high quality. I have found the meat from Paitned Hills to be consistently high quality. This meat was no different. I formed into patties, from here, I made a variance from my normal process. I formed the meat into balls, then perforated the meat with a steel skewer. The idea was to emulate the texture of a granulated burger, a technique created by Heston Blumenthal to create a better burger patty. More on this later. Here are the patties, coated with The Rub Company Santa Maria Rub and Simply Marvelous Season-All. Yes, I seasoned them like I do tri-tip, which I figure makes sense, they are both beef.

My Ventilated Patty

You can't really see it in the photo, but, the holes through the burger were quite apparent in person. You could tell that each 1/3 pound patty had a bunch of holes in them. Maybe this shot will show them better.

See the holes?

Oh well, they were there. These were meant to be classic burger, nothing special in terms of toppings, a true backyard burger with the exception of a home baked bun and a ventileated patty. So, some iceberg lettuce, tomato and red onion were added to the mix. I meant to buy pickles, they were missed.

Fixings

A little mayo and spicy brown mustard, some fresh ground black pepper and some cheddar which was melted on while the burgers cooked on the kettle, which was set to 400F, there was a little apple wood in the charcoals. You could see a little of the effect of smoke in the reddish hue of the patties. I built the burgers, as I always saw at Nations and The Red Onion, mayo and mustard, lettuce, tomato, onion, beef and the top of the bun. Served with tater tots. The tots were coated with olive oil and Simply Marvelous Sweet and Spicy Rub.

Burger and Tots



Section View

Now, I am not sure what the deal was, but, you can clearly see the effect of the butter (oddly more yellow than in real life) in the part of the bun on the back of the plate, but, the front bun is white (oddly much more white than in real life). I am sure this is a lighting issue, odd though, just could not get the color right no matter the angle. You can see the salad piled under the burger patty.

Burger Patty texture shot

Hopefully that last shot shows the texture of the patty, which was actually quite airy and still juicy. The skewer I used was quite dull, my brisket skewer to he honest, and it pushed slits through the meat, as opposed to cutting the fibers of the grind. The patty had a granular texture, the juices sitting in the voids quite nicely. In my real life, there is a thing called a peched water table, where a gravel drainage bed does not drain, becasue the pores in the gravel section are just small enough to allow fluid surface tension to bridge the gaps, desptie being porous, the liquids stay in place. This was amazing to me, as that is exactly what happened. A delicate texture, light to the teeth, meaty on the palate, bursting with juice with each bite flowing with flavor. I may never do patties the same again.

[BigButzBBQ]

Like they say, the Classics never go out of style. This holds true to that statement. Excellent job Bob!

[bigabyte]

Bravo! Could I get a few more details on this peircing of the patty that you did?

Farking fantastic!

[landarc]

Well, there is this guy, in England, named Heston Blumenthal, a chef actually, but, with a real mad scientist approach to classical cuisine. In essence, he want to create food that looks 'normal' but, achieve consistent and superior results. He created something called a granulated burger, the process of which is not widely or completely known. But, there are a couiple of guys in San Francisco, great guys, who may have recreate the process.

They grind their own meat and use a process that does not 'mash' the strands that come from the grinder knives. In essence, they create these long tubes of meat, by pulling the meat away from the grinder and then placing them side by side. It results in a burger that is very porous. Their burgers are never compressed.

I am trying to mimic that while not having to pull out my grinder. Plus, I do not have the right commerical meat grinder that would allow me to achieve this effect. However, this is close enough for backyard work. The theory really is similar to the perched water table I describe. Another way to think of it, have you ever had a coarse sausage where the grind and rendering of the fat left a texture that was both tender and meaty, juicy and flavorful, that is similar to this, yet there is no skin.

I pierced each patty dozens of times, from many directions, while in ball form, then dozens more once pressed. There may have been a hundred holes by the time I was done.

[Churrasqueiro Bob]

Any chance of instant messaging me one of those burgers? I'm hungry.

[JS-TX]

Oh man.. great burger!

[tish]

Wow. A mad scientist burger. What a concept! Great job, Bob!!

[SirPorkaLot]

Farking great burger Bob!

I'm liking the buns, yellow, white or somewhere in between, matters not.

Did the butter flavor come through the way you intended?

[landarc]

Not as much as I had hoped, but, the butter was for texture, I had no milk, so I tried butter. I might try more butter though, as I liked the flavor of this bread. I also now understand why I need a burger bun pan, the buns need just a little more of a vertical bottom.

[Will work for bbq]

Great burger and I like your buns.

[mmmmeat]

Farkin ShowOff!!!, but you've earned it, that's mighty fine grub Uncle Bobby!!!

[Phubar]

Killer pron shots right there!

[Clayfish]

Great burger, great pron and Heston is a legend - what puts me off his recipes is access to dry ice, some very specific equipment and a laboratory but I like to think I have the kit and skills to recreate something a bit like your burger. More Heston research on the way!

[frohe]

Originally Posted by landarc

Herein is my burger post for the Throw Down, a classic burger with the Landarc twist. As always, no need to leave the site, entire blog post is here.

Nicely done. Classic ingredients. Nicely presented.

[Gore]

Nice Bob! Glad someone else appreciates a homemade bun! Everything about that says delicious in a classic way.