Fast Food Throwdown - White Castle Sliders

For the Fast Food Throwdown here -
https://bbq-brethren.com/forums/showthread.php?t=283023

My entry: a White Castle Slider replication. White Castle website pic -



First thing to mention - there are no White Castle fast food restaurants here in New England. I grew up in New York and there were none near me, although there was one in Queens literally across the street from where my aunt lived. We'd always make a trip across the street anytime we visited. Sad to say, the last time I had a White Castle Slider was when I was a teen. A long, long time ago. :tongue:

I'm not attempting to authenticate taste as I can't recall what they taste like. But they're still popular and many sites on the web try to recreate them as best as possible. Not my intent here. I'm going more for technique.

So here goes. I seasoned some 80/20 beef, rolled it out between two pieces of waxed paper super thin and attempted to poke the dice pattern holes in it while the meat was still soft with a straw. It didn't really do the trick other than mark where the holes go. For those not familiar with White Castle, the slider patties are steamed over a bed of onions. The holes allow the steam to pass through and allow the patties to cook through without being flipped.

I placed the patties in the freezer for about 45 minutes to firm up, then poked my holes -



using the end of a beater which worked well -



So far, so good.

White Castle uses dehydrated onions for their sliders, rehydrating them with water so they steam. I wasn't about to buy dehydrated onions, so I went with the real thing, diced very small and out onto the Blackstone to steam with a lot of water. We want these to steam, not fry -



Gotta have Fries, and White Castle serves Crinkle Cut so I will also -



Once the onions start steaming sufficiently, place the slider patties on top (yeah, that one in the right front is ticking me off too) -



Slider buns go on top of the meat, to help trap the steam. I simply used some Hamburger buns I've had in the freezer cut to size. (And some hot dog buns since I only had a pack of 8 buns). As a reminder to myself, frozen hamburger buns pretty much suck once they're thawed no matter what you do to them. But since this is an experiment I figured it won't matter.

BTW, I'm the only one eating these since the Mrs won't touch anything with onions. No road trips to White Castle for her. :tongue:





After about 6 to 8 minutes, they're done. Since I like cheese, I've added a piece of Cheddar, the obligatory Pickle and Ketchup -







OK, so how were they?

Pretty darn good. Steaming a burger isn't my ideal method of cooking one, but since the slider is so darn thin, it works well. Taste was good, the onion wasn't overpowering at all. About the only thing I'd do different is buy or make actual slider buns. The ratio of bread to meat was a bit too much.

Anyway, that's it. Dom's take on the famous White Castle Slider. And for those wondering, Harold and Kumar did not show up in my backyard today. :mrgreen:

Thanks for reading through this post, hope you found it as enjoyable as I did making these.

Regards,
-lunchman

Mht150 said:

Looks great. They now sell a plastic tool that puts the holes in the burgers. These have become quite the rage on the Blackstone forums.

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Interesting. I had a crazy thought of using a template I have which pokes holes through a quarter sheet of sandpaper for dust collection. Thought quickly abandoned. :tongue:

LYU370 said:

Looks good from here. The big question is did they perform the same as the famous Rectal Rockets?

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Hopefully not. :grin:

Two things I wish I'd done:

(1) Used better rolls. I did find slider rolls in the market but went with what I had on hand.

(2) Watched a video on how to get these off the griddle beforehand. I pulled them off, flipped them onto a cutting board and then put the top bun on. Not efficient and quite messy.

A WC video shows the cook pulling them off the griddle and placing the top bun under the spatula, then sliding the burger off the spatula in one motion. Then they're turned over right side up. I guess I need to go to WC School.

Still fun to make and I'm glad folks enjoyed the post. For those who are longing for WC sliders, give these a try. Blackstone not absolutely necessary.