Methods on Bruce loves to cook

Cooking pasta in the pan

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The pasta cooks in the pan it’ll be sauced in, in just enough salted water to cover it. That’s the whole trick. A big pot of water dilutes the starch the pasta gives off; a pan with a little water keeps it, and the starch is what tightens the sauce later.

Forming burger patties

Sat, 10 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A burger patty is ground meat, portioned and shaped, and almost nothing else. Its texture comes from how little you handle it, and its size decides everything after it: how it cooks, how much of it ends up as crust, and which bun it fits. Most burgers here use thin patties, because a thin patty is mostly crust and a burger is mostly about crust.

Pasta sauces

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The sauce either comes from a base you made ahead, like a meat sauce or a marinara from the freezer, or it’s built fresh, quickly, in the time the pasta takes. Either way it goes into the pan with the pasta, not over it at the end.

Seasoning burgers

Sat, 10 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Salt only ever touches the outside of a burger patty made with ground beef or pork. Mixed into raw mince, salt pulls out moisture and binds the proteins, the same way it does in sausage, and the patty comes out dense and springy instead of loose and crumbly. Season the surface, either as the patty hits the pan or as it comes off.

Finishing pasta in the sauce

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

When the pasta is 2–3 minutes from done, add the sauce to the pan and keep it moving. The pasta finishes cooking in the sauce and takes some of it in, and the starchy water binds the two into one glossy sauce that clings. This is the step a restaurant does with its pasta water; here the water is already in the pan.

Cooking the patties

Sat, 10 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

There are many ways to cook a burger patty. I prefer a patty with a crust, so that’s what I’ll outline.

A burger patty cooks for its crust. The surface has to be hot enough to brown the meat before the thin patty overcooks, so the pan is hotter than for almost anything else, and the patty stays still until it’s ready to flip. Done is medium to medium-well, never tough.

Off the heat

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Take the pan off the heat before the finishing notes go in. Cheese turns grainy and stringy over a flame, butter splits out of the sauce, good oil loses its flavour, and herbs go dark. Off the heat they melt into the sauce instead. Then plate it straight away, since the sauce keeps tightening as it sits.

Assembling burgers

Sat, 10 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The patty brings salt, fat, and savoury depth. Everything else on the burger is there to contrast it: something cold and crunchy (lettuce, raw onion, pickle) and something sharp (onion, mustard, pickle, vinegar). Skip the cold crunch and the burger is one note. Skip the sharpness and it turns heavy by the third bite. Get both, on a bun that fits, and even a mediocre patty works.

Sauces and condiments

Sat, 10 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A burger sauce adds sweetness, acid, and sharpness, and sometimes fat. There are two ways to get there: keep the condiments separate and let them meet on the burger, or blend them into one spread. Either way, the sauce sits against the bread, where it soaks in, and it shouldn’t drown the onion and pickle.

Foil packets

Sat, 17 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A foil packet is a small, sealed pan that steams on top and fries on the bottom. The food sitting on the foil browns in fat; everything above it cooks in the steam from its own juices, which baste the whole pouch in one shared flavour. The catch is that potatoes, meat, and soft vegetables cook at very different speeds, and once the packet is sealed you can’t add things in stages. So you stage them with the knife instead: cut the slow things small and the fast things big, and they all finish at once.

Stock

Sat, 17 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Stock is a savoury tea: flavour and gelatin pulled from bones and vegetables into water, then concentrated.

Every stock on this site follows the same five steps: roast, extract, lift out the solids, reduce, strain. The roast sets the colour, the reduction sets the strength, and only the extraction time changes. Bigger, denser bones take longer to give up their gelatin. No bones, no wait.

The Bruce burger

Wed, 14 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

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.

Cherry tomato and garlic pasta

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The fresh version: nothing made ahead, just cherry tomatoes, garlic, and oil cooked in the pan with the pasta. It’s also the best way I know to use up the last of the cherry tomatoes.

Mozza burger

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A&W Canada’s bacon cheeseburger, built around mozzarella instead of cheddar. Mozzarella is mild and milky, so the sauce does the work: Mozza sauce, a creamy, tangy spread of mayo, relish, and chili sauce, goes on both buns. Bacon, lettuce, and tomato fill in the rest.

Teen burger

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The classic diner burger, as A&W Canada still makes it. One seasoned patty, real cheddar, and bacon, under every topping a diner offers: lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, ketchup, mustard, and Teen sauce, a tangy, slightly sweet, savoury mayonnaise spread with mustard, sugar, and spices. The seasoning is what makes it taste like a Teen: Lawry’s Seasoned Salt, not plain salt.

The Whopper

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The big fast-food burger. One wide, flame-grilled patty, and above it everything cold: pickles, raw onion, ketchup, tomato, and lettuce, with mayo on both halves of a toasted sesame bun. The char from the grill is what sets it apart from the griddled burgers. I made these for about five years as a teen, and they’re the base of the burger I make at home today: [[The Bruce burger]].

Big Boy burger

Sun, 11 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve never liked the Big Mac, but I once tried a Big Boy burger. It feels like an old-school, club-sandwich take on the Big Mac, but it’s closer to a diner burger, so it has real texture and sharpness. I admit I still don’t get the middle bun, but when in Rome.

McDouble burger

Sun, 11 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The [[Fast-food double burger]] as one chain fixed it, and the cheapest way to eat two patties. Two thin patties, one slice of cheese between them, and the fast-food condiments: ketchup, mustard, sour pickles, and onion. Nothing cold or crunchy and nothing optional. Every part is there because it’s cheap, fast, and the same every time.

Pub burger

Sun, 11 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This build is the opposite of the smash. Where the griddled burgers press a little beef thin for crust, the pub burger keeps a lot of beef thick for juice: one hand-formed patty, cooked so the centre stays moist, on a toasted soft bun that can hold it. The toppings stay simple and savoury so the beef leads. It’s built to be a hearty meal on its own plate, with a knife beside it and chips on the side.

Smash burger

Sun, 11 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This build is all crust. Each patty is a cold ball of beef smashed thin on a very hot griddle, so the whole underside browns at once and the edges go lacy and crisp. Thin patties have little bulk, so they’re stacked two (or three) high with cheese melted between them. Onion goes under the patties, pickles and sauce on top.

Drive-in deluxe burger

Sat, 10 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This is a variation of the [[White Spot burger]], the drive-in and diner burger I grew up with. I love onions, so it has two kinds.

The build works because everything above the patty is cold, crunchy, sharp, or sour, and the patty below brings the salt, fat, and savoury depth. It’s [[The Bruce burger]] with the drive-in’s two sauces in place of mayo and mustard.

Fast-food double burger

Sat, 10 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This is the rich build. Where the drive-in deluxe is all contrast, this one leans into salt and fat: two thin, soft patties with a slice of processed cheese melted between them. Pickles, ketchup, mustard, and onion keep it from going heavy. It’s the one case where American cheese earns its place on a burger.

Grilled onion burger

Sat, 10 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This build is about one ingredient: onion, cooked down in the beef fat until it’s sweet. Where the drive-in deluxe gets its contrast from cold crunch, this one is sweet and savoury with one soft, even texture. I make these occasionally, especially if I happen to be prepping [[French onion soup]].

Reverse cooking: reverse sear and water frying

Thu, 24 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Most recipes brown first and cook through second. Reverse methods swap the order: cook gently first, then brown at the end. The gentle phase controls doneness; the hot phase is only for crust. Doing them in this order gives more even results and fewer burnt bits.