The burger I make at home. It starts from The Whopper: one wide patty with everything cold stacked on top. The technique comes from the White Spot burger: a thin griddled patty, seasoned after it cooks, built deluxe. Every part is there because I tested the alternatives and they lost.
The story of how it got here is in The quest for the perfect burger.
Picks
Sharp, sour, and crunchy veg sitting on a loose, seasoned patty.
- Forming burger patties: One thin patty, 140 g, not mixed
- Seasoning burgers: Salt and cracked black pepper, after cooking
- Cooking patties: Griddled hot, flipped two or three times
- Assembling burgers: Shredded lettuce, thin tomato, paper-thin raw purple onion, onion sautéed in the beef fat, double-sour pickles, on a toasted hamburger bun (Chef John’s hamburger buns), wrapped in paper to rest
- Sauces and condiments: Mayonnaise and mustard, kept separate
Why these picks
- Griddled, not grilled. The Whopper’s shape with a flat-top crust instead of char, and the fat stays in the pan for the onions. This is both a practical decision and a flavour decision, as a griddled burger has more browned surface.
- Two types of onions, paper thin. Raw purple onion for sharpness, and onion sautéed in the beef fat for sweetness. Together they do more than either alone.
- Double-sour pickles. The strongest sour on the burger. Hard to buy and easy to make (see Sauces and condiments).
- Mustard. Punchy acidity. I no longer use ketchup on these, as the sautéed onions provide the sweetness more naturally.
- Rest in paper. A few minutes wrapped in burger paper steams the bun and settles the flavours. It tastes better than the same burger straight off the griddle.
How it fails
- Springy, dense patty: it was mixed, or salted raw.
- One-note: the double-sour pickles or the raw onion are missing, so nothing cuts the fat.
- Mostly bun, or mostly meat: the patty and bun don’t match in size.
Variations
- Blended sauce: swap the mayonnaise and mustard for Bruce’s burger sauce or the In-N-Out burger spread.
- Drive-in deluxe: swap the mayonnaise and mustard for the Triple “O” sauces (see Drive-in deluxe burger).