Last week, I was trying to decide what to make for dinner by thinking of restaurants we like and what we eat there. Every now and then, we go to Works Burger with my folks (my stepdad gets super excited when he gets their coupons in the mail) so I considered burgers. Jeff likes to barbecue in the summer but Canadian winter is not conducive to outdoor cooking. I thought about doing homemade patties and frying them on the stove when it hit me: sliders! Thus decided, I did what a good little novice chef does; I called my grandmother.
The recipe
The following is how Nana has made burgers my whole life:
– Put 1 pound regular ground beef in a bowl (she said lean or extra lean meat make your patties too dry)
– Break up beef a bit, but don’t play with it!
– Whip one egg; pour into bowl
– Add 1/4 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper
– Add a literal handful of bread crumbs (like cup your hand and fill that but don’t heap it too much)
– Use a fork to mix everything, but don’t play with it too much! (I’m getting the impression she helped someone make burgers recently but they did it wrong and said her instructions were no good)
– Spoon out meat and flatten into patty size of your choosing, keeping in mind they will shrink a bit as you cook them
– Cook on high heat, seer both sides for 2 minutes, then lower heat to medium and cook 3 minutes on each side (WARNING: keep an eye on them; ‘high heat’ on my stove apparently means ‘immediately burnt’ so maybe don’t use too high of heat)
Ease (or not) of prep
Overall it took me about 30 minutes to prepare and cook eight burgers, plus a pretty huge garden salad as a side, so I’m pretty happy with how fast this dinner was to make.
Ingredient changes
Nana used to always put chopped onions in the patties but I can’t really eat them anymore so I did not include them. Next time I make them, I’ll put onions in half the batch for Jeff because I’m pretty sure that guy would eat an onion like an apple.
Boyfriend Test: Pass
Jeff was pretty excited for sliders when he got home but said, “too bad you don’t have any bacon to put on them.” I turned around and whipped out freshly fried bacon and said, “Who do you think you’re dealing with?”
He loaded his up with pickles, cheese, bacon, Sriracha, and BBQ sauce and made all the yummy noises while he ate.
Picky Eater Test: Pass!
I was afraid that I’d burnt them but they were cooked perfectly. They were juicy but not greasy. I got Brioche buns (since slider buns are out of season, as I was informed by an unnecessarily snarky sales person at the grocery store) and dressed my burgers with cheese, bacon, ketchup, and mustard.
I also have four patties left over that I laid out on waxed paper and stored in the freezer so next time we made sliders, it’ll take half the time! …I wonder what I’ll have to complain about then?
The Curmudgeonly Cook 