Burger Geek: Whole Food's Releases iPhone App Featuring Burger Recipes

As much as I love iBurger (and the hilarious sounds my daughter makes while playing it) I haven’t found a truly useful burger app for the iPhone (note to self – get off high horse and invent truly useful burger app for iPhone). To the rescue comes a new app from foodie grocery chain Whole Foods featuring a full slate of burger recipes presented in a truly slick interface.

Over 25 burger recipes are featured ranging from the uber-healthy (beef and bulgur burgers) to the truly decadent (stuffed burgers with gorgonzola and smoky bacon).

Nutritional info is provided (and thankfully placed strategically so it is easy to ignore) as are diet keys which help point you to offerings that may/may not fit into your diet (you’ll be happy to know that Sliders are good for those who are “sugar conscious”).

One of the best features (though not burger specific) is called “On Hand” which allows you to type in up to 3 ingredients you have “on hand” and then suggests recipes in the library based on that.  Pretty handy to have when you are scraping the refrigerator bottom before shopping day.

We’ll be testing out the slider recipe soon and probably checking in on the app while out shopping to see what we can create.

Whole Foods annual “Buck A Burger” sale ends tomorrow (July 7th) I think.  We loaded up and cooked off some of their bacon and blue cheese burgers for lunch yesterday (tweet – Rounding out a weird weekend with some Bacon & Blue Cheese burgers from Whole Foods Buck A Burger sale. http://twitpic.com/9eezw10:41 AM Jul 5th from TweetDeck ) – pretty tasty.

ps:  If you are a budding iPhone app designer and are interested in helping create the burgatory iPhone app (and enjoy working for free) drop me a line…we actually do have a neat idea!

Home Cookin': Buffalo Bill/Dabney Coleman BBQ Bacon Cheese Burger

Sunday night is burger night around the house and this weekend’s version was inspired by a viewing of a PBS The American Experience episode about Buffalo Bill Cody, which when trying to cook and tweet at the same time somehow morphed into a reference to Dabney Coleman’s early 1980’s sitcom Buffalo Bill (see tweets here – heck, sign up to follow if you wish).

What made these burgers even more special was that the beef and bacon were procured from our local farmers market.  In most parts of the North East farmer’s market season has just kicked off and that is great news.  Within walking distance of our house are a bevy of delicious, seasonal options produced and sold by the person behind the till.  Stories, suggestions, recipes and heart are all within easy reach of the consumer and we are all a bit better for taking the time to slow down and interact on a more personal level with our food and those that grow it.  Of course these markets are famous for their veggies but we have found that many offer great quality meats as well.  Whether “farm-raised,” “grass-fed,” “organic” and/or “natural” meat, options abound and include not only beef from cows, but good quality bison and small-batch bacons.

Not so much a recipe on this one…more a parts list:

85/15 all-natural ground beef

Thick-cut all-natural bacon

Ultra-sharp cheddar cheese

Onion rings

BBQ sauce

Whole-wheat Telera rolls

Bobby Flay calls his version a Cheyenne Burger.

Carl’s Jr.’s call it a Western Bacon Cheeseburger.

Dabney Coleman Fever movie on YouTube (kiss 8 1/2 minutes of your life goodbye before clicking)

Home Cookin': The Burger Explosion

More than a little hat tip to the gents over at BBQ Addicts whose invention, the “Bacon Explosion,” was the creative jumping off point for this monstrosity.

No shot of getting this thing in the New York Times, but my concerns (and those of our crew of culinarily curious friends) were in getting this in our bellies.  The idea just seemed like the logical next step and although it took about 3 hours start to finish, it is more than worthwhile trying it out at home for your next get together.  This one is guaranteed to stop people in their tracks.  As always, I will note that I am not a professional chef and though these directions worked for me, they may not work well for you.  This recipe is fairly forgiving so as long as you are certain to cook these beauties all the way through I can see little danger in making a minor misstep (and tons of upside in creating your own variations).

I actually made a Bacon Explosion alongside the Burger Explosion for comparison’s sake.  The recipe for the “Bacon Explosion” which is packed with pork sausage is best picked up at BBQ Addicts, though I will note that I tweaked that recipe a little, swapping out the bbq rub for a home spun mixture of salt, pepper and rosemary.  The rosemary worked out very well.

Burger Explosion (serves 8-10)

1lb 80/20 ground beef

4 slices of white American cheese

9 slices thick cut bacon

3 slices of regular bacon

1 butt of whole grain bread – toasted

1 large egg

2 tablespoons Oyster Sauce

1/3 cup BBQ sauce (any kind will do)

Step 1 – Fry up the 3 slices of regular bacon on a griddle as you would for morning breakfast, when done remove from griddle and pat dry (don’t worry about getting too much grease off, this ain’t health food!)

Step 2 – Take the butt end of the whole grain bread and sop up the rendered bacon fat from the griddle.

Step 3 – Place the bread into a food processor and whir it up for a few seconds to make breadcrumbs (yes, even the breadcrumbs are gonna taste like bacon!).

Step 4 – Put your ground beef, egg, oyster sauce and 3 tablespoons of the bacon-y breadcrumbs into a bowl and mix thoroughly by hand.

Step 5 – Make a 4×5 lattice pattern with the bacon (this may be the most fun part of the recipe)

Attack Of The Leftovers: The Haroset Burger

Post holiday weekend and we’ve got an impenetrable wall of leftovers in the fridge from Saturday’s Passover Seder and Sunday’s Easter dinner.  Tons of great food prepared by family and friends and lots of late night snacking and experimenting opportunities.

This burger was pretty much inevitable after the first bite of haroset at the Seder.  On the Seder Plate haroset represents the mortar which the slaves used to build the pyramids in Egypt.  The almost too simple recipe of chopped apples, nuts and wine is available everywhere on the web (see here, here and here) and is ideally prepared by your mother/grandmother.  The version we had was just on the happy side of “too sweet” and as used here was the perfect burger topping.

The burger itself was an 80/20 mix of ground chuck and was produced using “The Great Burger” recipe from John Torode’s new book “Beef and other bovine matters.”   The secret to Torode’s recipe (and how these burgers are served at his Smiths of Smithfield restaurant in London) is his use of Chinese oyster sauce instead of salt.  His theory that salt dries out the burger too much and that this side-effect outweighs the benefits of the taste it imparts is an interesting one and I have to say I kind of agree.  We grilled the burgers and I purposely left one patty on to the point of overdoneness and it was still juicy.  More side-by-side tests are necessary, but I’m willing to buy into the logic.  The oyster sauce doesn’t overpower the burger either.  In the end it was much more subtle then the sniff from the bottle might have suggested.

At this point I am not sick of matzo…that will come soon enough though.  Sadly, as anyone who has eaten a Hillel sandwich knows, matzo is not the best sandwich delivery vehicle, but even as it crumbled to bits with the first bite it remained the only logical choice for this burger and the rare bites that did include burger, haroset and matzo were perfect.

Our pantry will be filled with matzo for months (do they sell it in anything but 5 lb. boxes?) so this dish will pop up again in our house very soon…just have to make more haroset but that is easy and is a great use for any leftover wine you might have laying about.

By the way, the perfect beverage for this burger is of course Passover Coke.  The local Genuardi’s supply was waning considerably the other day…load up while you can!

Next up is an Easter burger with cabbage roll topping on a potato roll!  Stay tuned.

Home Cookin': Burger Topping Game Changer

Almost a year ago I gave up watching TV.  With only minor exceptions I have avoided the giant glowing orb in our living room, having instead spent my time in other more high-brow pursuits (like writing a burger blog).  But when I do break down and turn on the tube I tend to gravitate towards the lowest common denominator (i.e. Cheaters).  These forays back into TV land never go well and I always end up redoubling my resolve, having decided that all programs must be this bad (especially since Joey Grecco replaced Tommy Grand as Cheaters host/staff psychologist, but I digress).  After tonight, however, my mind has been changed.

Last week while watching an episode of Man Vs Food (yes, it’s come to this…) I caught a glimpse of a burger whose toppings I have never seen nor imagined.  Toppings that conveniently exist in my refrigerator 365 days a year, but whose combination and placement on ground beef has never even been considered.

Host Adam Richman dropped by Duffy’s Cherry Cricket, winner of Best Burger Bar in Denver (2008), and among the 21 different toppings (and myriad of combinations) we catch a glimpse of what I am calling a “Game Changer” for burgers (at least in our house because I swear I have never seen cream cheese offered as a topping at any burger joint anywhere).

What stared back at me from the screen was a humongous burger topped with a thick slab of cream cheese and a handful of chopped jalapenos.

Oh yes, cream cheese and jalapenos on a burger! Where have you been my whole life?

Cream cheese, like burgatory.com’s reigning best friend bacon, has the innate ability to “make anything better” and in this application is the perfect foil providing a critical antidote to the overbearing hotness of the jalapenos. 

We grilled our burgers inside and once we broke through the seared  crust the cheese commingled with the loose meat, filling pockets of empty space with a blast of dairy to offset the beefiness of our 93/7 grind.  As if that weren’t enough, the cheese hit the trifecta by matching the pillowiness of the Martin’s Potato Rolls.

Denver natives have known about this topping combo for some time and according to the Cherry Cricket’s website, the cream cheese/jalapeno combo is the # 1 burger topping by a whopping margin.  80% of respondents called it their favorite, easily distancing such mundane fare as smoked cheddar and bacon or swiss and mushrooms.  I worked briefly in the Denver metro and have extreme remorse recollecting that the only burgers I ever ate in the Mile High City were from Red Robin.  But I can’t dwell on the past, especially because this one is so easy to recreate.

I’d provide a recipe, but it is too simple to get technical.  Just do what we did and open the fridge, pull out the slab o’ cream cheese buried in there, chop up your jalapenos and when the time is right, apply generously and consider the game changed.

Burger News You Can't Use: Can Butterburgers Sweep The Oscars (And The Nation)?

(UPDATE: Commercial via YOUTUBE)

Interesting missive from MediaWeek today about an ad buy for this Sunday’s Academy Awards. The Midwest (and slightly beyond) chain Culver’s has bought national TV time during the February 22nd ABC broadcast.

So here’s the big question – is the nation ready for ButterBurgers (or at least ButterBurger envy since most of us don’t live anywhere near a Culver’s – East Coast Cardiologists rejoice!)?

What is a ButterBurger?

Urban Dictionary Definition: the best food in the world. … a hamburger smothered in butter… then covered with a thick slice of cheese.

According to Culver’s:

Our signature ButterBurger^® is made from fresh, never frozen, 100% U.S. raised beef and seared on a hot grill to seal in that juicy flavor.

ButterBurger stats (amazingly below 500 calories and “healthier” than a McD’s Quarter Pounder w/Cheese)

Oh my.

In a hopeful sign for the economy:

Chris Contino, vp, marketing for the chain, said in a statement: “Culver’s roots are in the Midwest, but we’re spreading across the country. We’re proof that good companies grow even in challenging times.”

And I hope they do grow.  George Motz featured the infamous ButterBurger at Solly’s in his film Hamburger America and I’ve been too scared to even try and recreate this at home.  Here’s a recipe courtesy of roadfood.com.  Proceed with caution.

I’ll be tuning in to see the spot on Sunday night.

Culver’s “I Am A Pickle” TV spot (Note: this is not the spot that will run during the Oscars)

Culver’s vs. In-N-Out Burger?

Philadelphia, PA: The Sidecar Bar & Grille's Sidecar Burger

2201 Christian St
Philadelphia, PA 19146

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I’m cringing at the thought of including that picture…ugh!  On the short list of Philly’s great gastropubs, the Sidecar Bar’s dim lighting is the foil to any food blogger hoping to snap a quick pic of their meal without throwing off a flash (and thus garnering the stares and smirks of other diners). My words may have to hold you over until you can get there in person (and I strongly encourage you to do that).

We hit the Sidecar on a recent dad’s night out for burgers and beer and everything was perfect (1. George Costanza-esque parking spot right out front 2. awesome beer selection 3. truly eclectic and enjoyable background music which took us from 70’s funk to 90’s shoegaze and of course 4. the burgers – billed as half-pound angus beef burgers).

I had the namesake Sidecar Burger which featured my favorite condiment – more meat! In this case, it was some top notch Tasso Ham. Add on a truly tasty Marchand de Vin sauce (described to us by the waiter as brown gravy mixed with a red wine reduction), provolone cheese, lettuce and tomato and this burger, which leans heavily on Cajun/Creole influences (the Tasso & the MdV sauce), hit the spot.

The burger itself was perfectly seasoned, almost as ordered (asked for just a bit below medium – got pretty much medium) and ridiculously huge (I had to cut it in half for decorum purposes).  The Marchand de Vin sauce didn’t hit me at first but the last few bites had been soaking in it for some time and the flavors really popped (wine + butter rarely fails).  The bread sopped up the sauce pretty well too and my mind quickly drifted to thinking about how good the sauce would taste on some leftover Thanksgiving turkey.  But I digress.  Oh yeah, it came with pretty good thick-cut steak fries and a mini salad with cider-dressing, too!

The Sidecar Bar is a neighborhood bar that really seemed welcoming.  Even later in the evening we saw a family with kids sitting down to dinner.  I am certain that the next big burger poll in Philly will feature this place towards the top.

Go check it out for yourself next time you are in “G-Ho”, you won’t be let down!

Recipe for Marchand de Vin sauce (not from The Sidecar Bar, but probably pretty darn close)

The Sidecar ranked #29 on Philly Weekly’s list of Top 50 Bars.