Monday, February 16, 2009

Here's the beef




Hackney's Inside-Out Burger
Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives Copyright 2008

2 pounds ground beef
4 ounces bacon, cooked and chopped
1 cup grated Cheddar cheese I used Monterey Jack
salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons canola or olive oil
4 hamburger buns, optional

Special equipment: 1 (4-inch) round mold (lid to a jar or other round container recommended); plastic wrap

1. Divide ground beef into 8 even portions. Line round mold with plastic wrap. Pat half a portion of the ground beef into the round mold. Top with a quarter of the cheese and bacon, being careful not to go too close to the edges. Cover with other half of the portion of ground beef. Press down edges of ground beef together to seal. Remove patty from mold by the plastic wrap and shape into an even patty. Repeat to make 4 inside-out burgers.

2. Season the burgers with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat, add the burgers, and fry, until the cheese melts and the burgers are cooked to the desired degree of doneness. Serve the burgers solo or on a bun.
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Stuffed burgers really aren't nothing new but there's something about Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives that makes even mundane things look incredibly enticing.

This is a BIG burger. Rachael Ray's recipes for burgers usually call for 2 pounds of meat to make 4 burgers and I've always been appalled by that but here I found myself making these huge half-pound burgers. Shame on me.

I doubt I'll be making these very often due to their heft but I did enjoy it. It had some flaws. I would have preferred it a bit pinker but by the time the cheese had melted most of the pink was gone. I don't think the bacon was prominent enough but that could have been my fault. I wasn't measuring the fillings so maybe I didn't put a full ounce in each burger. I thought I pinched the edges together quite well but the meat started to separate anyway. I managed not to lose my fillings.

This picture probably looks good if you like burgers but I imagine it's pretty gross looking if you don't. Sorry to those of you that don't care for burgers.

Question of the Day: Can you describe the last burger that you ate? Where was it from? What was on it? Did you enjoy it?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think the picture looks yummy :)
I think the last time I had a great burger it was a turkey burger from some chain restaurant. Go figure I dont get out much LOL

Anonymous said...

Okay, I want HotHeaded's burger! I haven't had a burger out in a long time, so the last one was a homemade one. Dull, dull, dull. Just the regular with mayo, tomatoes, lettuce and onion and sometimes cheese. By the way, I'm drooling over your picture just as I do when watching D,D and Dives.

Jan

Unknown said...

The last BURGER I had was Labor Day 2007. I had it bunless on top of lettuce with portabella mushrooms sauteed, tomato, pickle, and mustard. I'm pretty sure the burger had feta inside it. It was yummy!

Now, I have had frozen veggie burgers quite often through the past year but I don't count those. I just don't eat much beef...I mean, I just ate steak for the first time in about 3 years last THursday!...and it was pretty good!

Wanda said...

I rarely eat burgers out. If I'm out, I'll usually eat more of a 'plate meal' choice. And since Papa's here in town started making gyros, I eat that for a fast food sandwich rather than their burgers. The last burger I had was at home - grilled beef, french bread, mayo, lettuce, tomato, pickles.

Anonymous said...

Actually it looks pretty good to me..and putting cheese and bacon inside sounds wonderful.
We actually just cooked some burgers the other night. We splurged at a gourmet grocery store and bought some ground American Kobe beef. Interesting taste. Not sure at that price I'd make them often but it was fun to try it.

www.gerona-3d.com said...

It won't work in actual fact, that's exactly what I suppose.