Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

If ‘weird’ was the finish line, they ran through the tape and kept running.

People are weird.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

Sometimes the world just tells you your cat is here.

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

Humiliatingly small and eclipsed by the derision of millions.

Innocent people do not delay justice.

Not loving this new fraud based economy.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

The way to stop violence is to stop manufacturing the hatred that fuels it.

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” was supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

Welcome to day five of every-bit-as-bad-as-you-thought-it-would-be.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Find someone who loves you the way trump and maga love traitors.

You are here: Home / Food & Recipes / Cooking / Thursday Recipe Exchange: Burgers

Thursday Recipe Exchange: Burgers

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(Photo by JeffreyW)
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From our Food Goddess, TaMara:

Friends and I were out shopping last week and decided it was lunch time. We drove by a place with an intriguing name and decided to try it. To our surprise, we were their first-ever customers. They were having a soft launch and we were the first through the door. I had my reservations, but we were feeling adventurous and the experience was a success. If we’re in that neighborhood, I believe we would lunch there again.

The menu was full of tasty things, including African Ghost Spice Fries, which were perfectly spiced. I’m sorry I didn’t ask them to elaborate on what the heck “African Ghost Spice” was, because it was not something I could identify but would love to use myself. Several items had it as a feature, most tantalizing was the African Spiced Grilled Chicken. The other item on the menu that caught my eye was bison. Almost all their beef items offered a bison option instead. I was tempted, because I like bison meat, but I felt we were already in unknown territory and bison is tricky to cook properly. We all settled on various beef burgers, each very good – moist and well flavored, served on ciabatta bread.

That brought me to my idea for a two-part recipe exchange. I have a variety of burgers I make because by mid-summer grilling the same burger recipe, while tasty, lacks challenge. I thought I’d start with four tonight and conclude with several more next week.

First up: My basic burger recipe that has never failed to produce moist, flavorful burgers. I sprung it on my parents at the age of 10 and my family has used it ever since. Recipe here.

Next up: Black Bean Cheddar Burgers (recipe here) which I love, but find the frozen ones often lack, well, everything – flavor, texture, freshness. So I went hunting for a decent recipe.

Tonight’s featured recipes are Bleu Cheese Burgers and Bison Burgers.

Are you burger fan? What’s your favorite way to prepare them? If you’re vegetarian, do you have a favorite substitute? I’m always looking for something beyond black bean burgers for meatless nights. Next week there will be flavors from around the globe to continue the theme.

Bison Burgers
You can substitute bison in almost any burger recipe, but it’s very lean, so you may want to add ground beef to it, or cheeses or additional olive oil, in order to cook a moist burger. This recipe uses tomato sauce to keep the burgers moist.

4 oz tomato sauce
¼ cup bread crumbs or 1 slice fresh bread, crust removed
¼ cup finely chopped onion
¼ tsp ea: thyme, rosemary, marjoram
1 to 1-1/2 lbs ground bison
salt & pepper to taste
1 tbsp oil
large deep skillet w/lid

Mix all ingredients, except oil, until well combined. Divide into 4 patties.

Heat oil in skillet, add patties. Sear for 2 minutes, each side, then reduce heat and cover. Cook for 10 minutes. Bison is a very lean meat, so you want to cook it slowly and avoid over cooking it. You can grill them, but you’ll want to do in on a very low heat on a well oiled surface and you might want to go 50/50 with lean hamburger.

Bleu Cheese Burgers

1 to 1-1/2 lbs lean ground beef
1 tbsp hot wing sauce
2 tsp olive oil
1 tsp honey
1 tsp crushed garlic
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
4 oz blue cheese, divided into 1 oz crumbles
bowl

In bowl, combine all ingredients, except bleu cheese and mix well. Form into 8 thin patties, place 1 oz of cheese between two burgers, seal edges and gently flatten, so burger surrounds cheese. Grill or broil until cooked through, about 8 to 10 minutes. Serve on onion rolls or focaccia bread.

Reader Interactions

57Comments

  1. 1.

    Mnemosyne

    The last few times we’ve made burgers, I bought grass-fed beef from Whole Foods and sprinkled them with Lawry’s Seasoned Salt and, really, that’s all they needed.

    I’ve always had good luck with the veggie burgers from Morningstar Farms. Boca Burgers have some weird slime thing going.

  3. 3.

    JGabriel

    Luckily, I had burgers last night.

    Otherwise, I’d be jonesing for them right now — and blaming YOU, TaMara.

    (BTW, do you pronounce TaMara as TAM-ih-ruh or Tuh-MAR-uh?)

    .

  4. 4.

    jl

    Hello, my name is jl and I am a burger fan.

    Dude, those are not on my healthful slimming diet… at least not often. But this post pushes me back to step one. I admit I am powerless before burger.

    Especially bison burger. Which are V. good.

    So are musk oxen burger, at least in AK.

  6. 6.

    mechwarrior

    I grind my own beef.

    But… onions, mushrooms, sauce, and swiss as the topping. I don’t want much else. The onions/mushrooms are always fried in duck fat, deglaze the pan, add blood, cherry, heat again, add light brown roux and finish off the sauce, it should be thick as puss. Cook the burger with the swiss on top, serve on a toasted bun.

  7. 7.

    Gus

    Can’t wait to try that bean burger recipe. I agree about cooking bison, I’ve had mixed success at best. One time the gods were on my side while grilling bison New York strips, and I somehow got them the perfect medium rare. Still the best steak I’ve ever had.

  8. 8.

    TheMightyTrowel

    @Gus: Ditto. Have a bunch of black beans in the freezer ostensibly waiting to be simmered with beer, honey, chili and kale… now i’m wavering.

  9. 9.

    Redshift

    I’ll have to try the black bean recipe. I’m not strictly vegetarian, but I’m trying to eat mostly vegetables.

    When eating out at some burger places, I’ve had some good portobellos (just grilled and topped with cheese, as far as I know) but I haven’t made them myself.

  13. 13.

    Mayur

    Fresh-ground mix of short ribs, chuck, and sirloin bound with a little goose fat, sous vide cooked to 131 F and then deep frozen (chill using a brine bath or, if you happen to be really techy, liquid nitrogen). Just pull out of the freezer, chuck them on the grill over medium-high until they get a nice char and then eat.

    (Just a base patty recipe; I’m pretty agnostic regarding condiments. Bacon, cheddar, lettuce, tomato, and a tiny bit of ketchup do me just fine.)

  14. 14.

    muddy

    @jl: Get grass fed beef and get omega-3. I have noticed a lot more cows that are not dairied, not just around here in VT, but I went on a road trip recently down the Appalachians, and there were a lot more pastured cows than I have ever seen. I think i has become more popular and hope that brings prices down. Although I can get ground grass fed beef for 3.99#, I’d like to be able to afford the better cuts.

  15. 15.

    Raven

    When I used to eat that stuff, over 20 years ago, I’d put an ice cube in a big burger and put it on the grill. Very juicy! Help, I can’t sleep.

  16. 16.

    Mnemosyne

    @Redshift:

    The Dr. Praeger’s frozen veggie burgers are great if you have a grill. They can’t be microwaved, though, so I don’t buy them very often.

  18. 18.

    muddy

    I had a big crockpot of black beans last week, but just immersion blended most of them with the veg they were cooked with, and ate burritos all week, with a variety of fillers for interest.

    Tonight it’s pork souvlaki with tzatziki sauce, herbs and garlic from the garden.

  21. 21.

    muddy

    @TaMara (BHF): Why Macbeth? With your name he should have gone for Titus Andronicus.

    Never mind, I just realized about “tomorrow”, duh. Still he should have gone for the other.

    It’s better than my physics teacher in HS, I used to fall asleep in there (type of ADD) and he used to post Peppermint Patty cartoons from Peanuts and make me read it out every time I came in the room. He especially liked it from the Sunday paper because PP had red hair like me. ho ho ho

    No one knew about learning disorders in the olden days, they just said you were bad.

  24. 24.

    Cassidy

    Cajun seasoning and Worcestershire sauce. If you want some smoke use ancho or chipotle powder. I just use regular ol’ ground beef. I’m the only one on the house who’ll eat bison, so sometimes I go for that. And pan fried, dammit! No one appreciates pan fried anymore. Turn it up high, get your oil nice and hot, and sear the outside. Then you turn it down and let it cook.

  26. 26.

    Xecky Gilchrist

    I’m still trying to find a good vegan burger recipe (they do one I like at this local joint but I don’t know their secrets.) In the meantime I sure do love me some falafel!

  27. 27.

    wag

    As a fellow denver metro area neighbor I need to know the name of the burger joint that you went to for the burger photo. It looks too good to miss.

    As an aside, your burger recipe is really similar to my basic burger recipe. I add a tbsp of Worcestershire sauce and in the summer I chiffonade fresh basil from the garden and add it, or maybe some fresh rosemary and thyme.

  29. 29.

    Peter

    Grinding your own is key, and using good grass-fed meat. Because it’s lean, I like to grind a little bacon or other fat in there for flavor and moisture. I’ve been getting into baking buns, too. My most recent version included homemade kimchi. It didn’t suck.

  30. 30.

    TaMara (BHF)

    @wag: Yum.

    And Jeffrey kills me almost weekly with his pizza and burger pictures on my/our blog. I swear to FSM I’ve threatened to move to IL so he can feed me. I’m sure he and Mrs. J have an extra room.

  32. 32.

    ruemara

    If the seasoning tasted spicy, it is possible they made a spice blend with ghost chilis. My fave burger is one where I’ve seasoned the meat with bbq sauce, just enough so it’s a nice sticky pile, but not runny; then I take chunks of bleu cheese and craft a cheese core around about a quarter pound circle. These I shape into a nice rounded burger, grill, bake or fry and serve on pretz buns with romaine, balsamic caramelized onions and fresh mater. Or for me, wrapped in butter lettuce since I avoid most starch. I also make a beer based bechamel with cheddar sauce, use that on a simple TJ’s herbed pizza dough, season with pepper, cracked mustard seed, caramelized onions, pre-cooked ground beef or bratwurst, peppers and a topping of cheddar. Bake until you have a pizza that harkens to a beefy, macho, beer laden night.

  33. 33.

    TaMara (BHF)

    @wag: Oh, you were asking about the restaurant (I’m a little slow). It’s called Urban Bliss Cafe, it’s near Flatirons, across the road, on the side where the Best Buy (I think) is.

    When you’re there, ask them about the spice and then let me know.

  35. 35.

    TaMara (BHF)

    @ruemara: I googled that, but it just didn’t seem that hot. It was spicy, but not overwhelming. It was a subtle heat, and nothing about it stood out as a specific flavor, it was a very rich blend of flavors.

    EDIT: Though barring any other ideas, I’ll probably give that a try and see.

  38. 38.

    joel hanes

    @Raven:
    Help, I can’t sleep.

    Warm where you are ?

    Your body’s probably having a difficult time cooling down
    (core temperature needs to drop a bit before you can easily drop off).

    You could take a cool shower, turn it even cooler just at the end, until it’s no longer comfortable.

    You could get a fan and point it directly at the bed, and then try sleeping under lighter covers than usual.
    (You’ll probably want one more layer over your feet)

    Half a glass of cold milk will contribute to the effect.

    Hope this helps.

  41. 41.

    TaMara (BHF)

    @wag: If you go and you can tolerate caffeine, try the Cane Cola – it has a touch of clove and coffee in it.

    And this is why the African Ghost Spice vexes me, I can taste clove and coffee in cola, and I couldn’t figure out what this spice was.

  45. 45.

    NotMax

    Posted this in the wrong thread earlier.

    In the broadest sense, this is cooking related.

    A piece of toast, said to have come from Prince Charles’s breakfast on the day he married Princess Diana, has been sold at auction for £230.  Source

    £230 = ~$350.

  48. 48.

    NotMax

    @raven

    Jet lag.

    May be a personal peccadillo, but find that when I can’t fall asleep lying horizontally in bed, I can nod off for a while in the recliner.

  49. 49.

    J.W. Hamner

    Veggie burgers are really tough. It seems you either have 1) a squishy oozy bean burger that slops out of the back of the bun, 2) or dry crumbly mishmash of vegetables and grains that fall apart as you pick it up, or 3) a weird chewy TVP meat analog that doesn’t actually have any vegetables in it.

    I’ve done a lot of experiments but really haven’t come up with anything worth publishing. The only ones I’ve been remotely pleased with have been along the lines of #2 but using some vital wheat gluten to hold it all together.

  51. 51.

    danielx

    Two pounds ground round, finely chopped Vidalia onion (maybe an eighth of a good sized one), a little seasoned salt and black pepper, and some Worcestershire sauce. Makes 6 decent burgers…

    With bread and butter chips, tomato and mayo on a Kaiser roll. Or lettuce, tomato and…it’s all good.

    Bliss.

  52. 52.

    Yutsano

    I don’t do hamburgers. I do this instead:

    One large container ricotta cheese
    two cloves garlic
    1/2 cup basil (about 25 leaves)
    Zest of 1 lemon
    2-3 tbsp cream
    Salt & pepper to taste

    In a large bowl, grate garlic & lemon zest into ricotta. Chop basil fine, then add to bowl. Mix all together, then add cream to loosen up slightly. Season with salt & pepper. Highly recommended to eat on sliced pieces of baguette.

  53. 53.

    Commish

    The addition of breadcrumbs was the simgle biggest improvement I’ve made to my burgers, especially those made with turkey or very lean beef. Breadcrumbs soak up the juices and help the lean meets stay moist.

  54. 54.

    NotMax

    Meat and potatoes person here (potatoes optional), but the chick pea and spinach patties sold at some Costco locations are pretty tasty as an alternative now and again.

    One thing I like about them is that a lot of the chick peas are whole, not mashed or ground.

    In the chilled deli cases, not the frozen section.

  55. 55.

    Nick

    For one glorious month Burger King Japan did something amazing. The Apple burger.

    burger
    cheeze
    lettuce
    honey dijon
    grilled apple
    cinnamon

    It was crazy, if you make it on your own and season to taste, it is orgasmic

  56. 56.

    Winston Smith

    I sprung it on my parents at the age of 10 and my family has used it ever since.

    Wait. How did you know your parents when they were 10?

  57. 57.

    Timmy Mac

    This thread needs some Ron Swanson:

    “This is hamburger. It is made of meat and served on a bun with nothing else. You can put ketchup on it if you want. I don’t care.”

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