I guess before I go on any further, I should mention and clarify a few things…
- If I mention a product or business, it’s because I use said product or business.
- If somebody ever (for whatever reason) decides to toss some cash or comp’d product my way, I’ll be quite transparent about said endorsement.
All good? Let’s proceed.
It turns out this is Le Burger Week in Saskatoon, my new hometown. From what I gather, something like 15 different restaurants are crafting their best/wildest/most delicious burger concepts and letting the public and their patrons decide the winner. I’m not a chef, and the concept of a gourmet $20 burger gives the Scottish skinflint in me the chills, but through trial and error here’s my take on a scratch made burger that’s a winner around these parts.
The buns. I said “scratch-made” and I meant it. If I have time, I’ll knock out a batch of these. Takes around 2 hours to start getting your first batch out of the oven. They’re light and fluffy and you get to knead and punch dough which can help you burn through some frustration. This recipe can apparently be found on the big bags of Ellison’s All-Purpose Flour that at one point (maybe even still) could be purchased at CostCo. I’ve never had a pantry big enough to house one of those bad boys, so I don’t use their flour, but the recipe is a very versatile one (and very forgiving). Mrs Friesen (not my mother-in-law) back in my hometown of Calgary used to use this recipe all the time for buns, cabbage buns, cinnamon buns…it’s good. I go 50/50 whole wheat and all-purpose white flour, I find the whole wheat dries things out more so you’ll probably need a bit less flour overall than if you went straight all-purpose as listed in the recipe. After making a few monstrous buns, I have since learned that about 75grams of dough will give you a good ‘burger size’ bun following the final proof and bake. My wife bought me a digital kitchen scale for Christmas this past year. It comes in handy!
The fries. Okay, I lied about it ALL being from scratch. With the oven being claimed by the fresh baked buns, I really didn’t have time to knock out some roast potatoes (to do ’em right takes about an hour and change…) so good ol’ McCain SuperFries to the rescue. They only take about 25 minutes which I was able to manage while my buns were on their final proof.
The burgers!
We don’t have a barbecue at the new place yet (have a natural gas hook-up though – I can’t wait until grilling season gets here!), but our trusty old George Foreman grill does a serviceable job on making the meat hot. Again, while the Chef’s at all the restaurants will be breaking out crazy meat blends featuring chuck and steak and whatnot, I’m on a budget here. This is my quick and dirty burger blend.
Dad’s Turn To Cook – burgers
- 1 lb lean ground beef
- 0.5 lb ground pork (yup – keeps things very tender)
- 1 egg
- 1 handful of oats (can also use breadcrumbs or crush up some crackers)
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1/4 cup diced onion – chopped REALLY fine so the kids don’t notice 😉
- quick shake of cinnamon (shrug…I like it?)
- 1 tablespoon mustard
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- and then a few cranks of salt and pepper from our grinder (I usually overdo it)
Form them into patties. With that amount of meat, that should make 8 of them. I usually vary the patties in size a bit. A couple bigger ones for Dad and a couple smaller ones for our younger kids. It’s a veritable Burger Family! Toss them on the grill (or Foreman) and cook them until the internal temp is in excess of 160 degrees F. The other Christmas gift I got was a digital cooking thermometer. I LOVE that thing.
That’s it! Burgers! Add your toppings how you like and you’re good to go.
As for the budget, all in all, you’re looking at about $2 (and some time) for the buns. I got 20 burger size buns out of that recipe and then a behemoth to use up the rest of the dough for the fun of it. The ground beef worked out to about $3.50/lb, the ground pork was about $2 for a half-pound. Add it all up, including the SuperFries, and I knocked out 8 scratch-made burgers for the family for about $10 (plus condiments). I’ll take it!
-g
Dad's Turn To Cook 