Just Jus

BURGER STYLES. LEARN THEM, EAT THEM.

We toss around references to different burger styles all the time, but it occurred to me that we’ve never really set them out all in one place for easy reference. I’m doing that now. Here’s a list of all the burger styles i could think of. If there’s something here i’m missing, chime in with a comment. Here goes, in no particular order my guide to hamburger and cheeseburger styles…

PUB BURGERS

Large patties usually no smaller than 8 ounces, often 10 ounces or more. Typically ovoid in shape rather than flat. Most often seen in pubs (hence the name), where they’re often broiled. Perfect examples are the burger from TGI Fridays and Hotel Burgers.

FASTFOOD BURGERS

Do I really need to define this one for you? I didn’t think so. I include it only to offer a comparison to …

FASTFOOD-STYLE

We use this term to denote burgers that seem to take their inspiration from fast food burgers but that are somehow better—either in terms of ingredients or preparation or both. Fast food–style burgers will be made with fresh-not-frozen beef; use the freshest, crispest produce; and generally come from a sole location or, at most, a small, local chain. Flame it, Burger Joint, Burger Avenue, and Shake Shack in NYC -these are all fast food–style burgers if not necessarily true fast food burgers. I’d almost even include In-N-Out under this rubric, even though it is technically a fast-food joint. Its philosophy and awesomeness are so far above what I normally think of as fast food that it transcends the category.

SLIDERS

Many people think a slider is just a name for a mini burger. Many people are wrong. 

A slider is something very specific. It is not just a mini hamburger. It’s a thin, thin slip of beef, cooked on a griddle with onions and pickles piled atop patty. The steam from the onions does as much cooking as the griddle. The buns are placed atop the onions, absorbing the pungent aroma and flavor. 

MINI HAMBURGERS

Any diminutive burger that does not meet the definition of slider (see above), often because it has been grilled or broiled rather than steam-griddled and almost always because it lacks the bed of pungent onions.

STEAKHOUSE BURGERS

The steakhouse burger is defined more by where it’s served than by any other unifying characteristics. Though there are some general observations you can make, however. Steakhouse burgers are usually made from the beef trimmings of the various steaks on hand and as such are ground from prime, aged beef. They’re almost always massive, hearty burgers on par with pub-style burgers. And they’re often broiled. You’d think this all would make for some fine burgers, but you’d likely be wrong.

I have ever had a good steakhouse burger experience. Steakhouses seem to always miss on the cooking the burgers properly to temperature, and burgers there are mostly an afterthought rather than the main show.You go to a steakhouse for steak, not a burger. Even worse is when steakhouses try to put some thought into the burgers and end up with some sort of overpriced, mushy ill-conceived Kobe/Wagyu burger. A Kobe burger is always, always a bad idea. Which brings me to …

KOBE/WAGYU BEEF BURGERS

And here I will repeat, a Kobe burger is always, 

always a bad idea. When cooked rare to medium-rare, as most chefs who put these on their menus usually recommend, the texture inevitably renders as mushy. It’s like moist cat food on a bun, with the meat oozing out the sides and back as you try to eat the burger. Why turn a glorious piece of beef into minced meat?

Kobe burgers are most often seen in mini-hamburger form, usually as an “appetizer” plate of three burgers, because A) this expensive beef is more affordable in smaller, sharable portions and B) the Kobe/Wagyu and the min-burger/”slider” trends seem to have peaked at the same time. Thankfully, both manias seem to have abated and you don’t hear as much about these ill-conceived lil’ ditties anymore.

FANCY PANTS BURGERS

Price is a pretty good indication you’re eating a fancy-pants burger. But since price varies from city to city, it’s difficult to set a hard-and-fast dollar border. Let’s just say that if it costs five times what a McD’s QPC Value Meal does, you’re probably in fancy-pants land.

If that’s not enough of an indication, you know you’re heading into rarefied air when any one or more of the following is involved:

• A big-name chef or restaurateur, or a celebrity chef
• Brioche buns
• “House-made” ketchup
• “House-made” anything
• Artisanal or farmstead cheeses
• “Artisanal” anything
• Aioli, remoulade, frisée, microgreens, arugula, etc.
• Designer bacon
• Foie gras
• Dry-aging
• Kobe/Wagyu beef

MEGA BURGERS

Any burger whose sole purpose is to break a record—most often weight, but sometimes price. Typically the result of tired publicity stunts, megaburgers have rapidly increased in number in the last few years thanks largely to social media—it’s almost guaranteed the blogging-Twittering-Facebooking masses will blab about you and your three-ton burger that you need a forklift to flip.

EXTREME BURGERS

Similar to megaburgers (see above), but here the point is less about sheer size than it is caloric overkill, stuffing as much gut-fattening, artery-clogging goo on and about the hamburger sandwich as possible. Example is the Krispy Kreme Bacon CheeseBurger its made out of Doughnuts.

STACKED BURGERS

Anything with two or more patties. Popular examples include In-N-Out’s Double Double, Wendy’s Double, or Burger King’s Stackers. Props to any stacked burger that uses an interstitial bun, like the Big Mac.

DEEP FRIED BURGERS

Just exactly what it says.

CHEESE STUFFED BURGERS

Though it probably didn’t take a genius to eventually try to stuff cheese inside a burger, they all follow a similar formula—American cheese stuffed between two patties, all cooked on a flat-top.

If you’ve ever tried to duplicate one at home, it’s trickier than it would seem. You’ve got to seal in the cheese securely so you don’t have a blow-out, and, as the cheese melts and puffs up the patty, you’ve got to prick it quickly with a toothpick right after you flip it to let the steam escape. It’s better to leave it to the experts.

GUBER BURGERS

Burgers with a generous dollop of melted peanut butter ladeled on.

TOP TEN TIPS FOR BETTER BURGERS

Hey guys its been awhile, just been busy makin burgers! anyway, i’d like to leave you with this guide that helps you make better burgers.

1. GRIND YOUR OWN BEEF

Buying store-bought ground beef is a crap shoot. You’re never quite sure when it was ground, what part of the cow it came from, or even how many different cows are in the package. Not to mention baddies like e.coli, freshness issues, rough handling, and tight shrink-wrap packaging that can lead to leaden patties.

If you’ve never ground beef yourself, the task may seem daunting at first, but take it from me: once you grind, you never rewind.

Don’t have a meat grinder? You can use a food processor. Just dice your meat into 1-inch chunks, spread them on a rimmed baking sheet, put them in the freezer for about 15 minutes until they’re firm but not frozen, then working in 1/2-pound batches, pulse the meat to the desired grind size (about 10 to 12 one-second pulses).

Grind your own beef, and not only do you control everything from the meat blend, to the grind size, to the fat content, but even better, you get to tell people that you grind your own beef.

Instant street cred.

2. KEEP EVERYTHING COLD

Until your burgers are fully formed, heat is their mortal enemy. Warm fat is soft and pliable, and tends to stick to your hands and work surfaces. And if that fat’s on your hands, then it ain’t in the burger. When grinding your own meat (and I certainly hope you are), make sure that everything—the feed shaft, the grinding blades, the plate, and the meat—is wellchilled to avoid fat smearage. I keep my meat grinder stored in the freezer so I’m ready to grind at moment’s notice.

3. WEIGH AND SIZE YOUR PATTIES

Weighing your meat as you divide it and measuring your patties as you form them will ensure that all your burgers will be uniform in shape and size, which in turn will guarantee that they all cook at the same rate. A scale and a good eye are all you need (though the truly OCD like myself will want a ruler as well).

Bonus tip: if you’re into big, fat patties (we’re talking 6 ounces or more), you must have experienced the dreaded “meatball syndrome” at some point. You know—when your patty bulges as it cooks, turning it into an impossible to eat football-shaped blob? Form your patties with a slight dimple in the center, and they’ll maintain their shapely disk-form as they cook.

4. USE A THERMOMETER

Sure, you can be all macho and try and gauge a burger’s doneness by poking at it with your finger (if you can do that with 100% accuracy, you are a far better cook than I), or you can suck it up and buy yourself a good instant read thermometer.

 With really large burgers (8 ounces or more), some carryover cooking may occur, so pull them off a few degrees before optimum, and give them some time to rest. I aim for a medium-rare 130°F, but I understand that inexplicably, not everybody prefers optimizing juiciness and beefiness in their burgers.

Here’s a rough temperature guide:

• 120°F and below for rare (red/raw in the center)
• 130°F for medium-rare (pink and warm)
• 140°F for medium (totally pink, starting to dry out)
• 150°F for medium-well (grayish pink, significantly drier)
• 160°F and above for well done (completely gray, very little moisture)

5. SEASON LIBERALLY

No matter how carefully you select your meat blend, without salt and pepper, you’re better off dining with the King or the Clown, who, despite their significant shortcomings, at least understand the benefit of a little sodium chloride. Freshly ground black pepper from whole peppercorns is a must—it’s far more flavorful than the insipid pre-ground powder.

 Whatever people say, kosher salt is not more or less salty by weight than table salt. I like to use it because its large crystals are easy to pick up with your fingers. Take a large pinch of kosher salt and hold it at least eight inches above the patties as you sprinkle to ensure even coverage.

I repeat: 

do not salt your beef until the patties are formed. Salt will dissolve muscle proteins, which subsequently cross-link, turning your burgers from moist and tender to sausage-like and springy. The effect is dramatic. Need proof? See it here.

7. FLIP YOUR BURGER AS OFTEN AS YOUD LIKE

How many times have you read that you should only flip your burgers once while they are cooking? Well 

forget about it! We recently proved that the nervous flippers are actually right. Flipping your burger repeatedly (as often as once every 15 seconds) encourages faster, more even internal cooking, shaving off as much as 1/3 of your grill time.

In the end, the difference is not particularly great, so there’s no need to go crazy. Who wants to—or can—flip a grillful of burgers constantly? But next time you come across one of those backyard grill-nazis (you know the type) who absolutely insists that one flip is the way to go, just smile, nod, and let him cook the way he wants to. Rule one of grilling is never question the guy with the spatula.

But do make sure to quietly revel in your superior knowledge and maybe make fun of him behind his back.

8. DONT FUTZ WITH YOUR MEAT

Despite outward appearances, ground meat is not dead. 

From the moment you lay your hands on it, it is changing dynamically, reacting to every knead, every sprinkle of salt, and every change in temperature.Working the meat unduly will cause proteins to cross-link with each other like tiny strips of velcro, making your finished burgers denser and tighter with every manhandling of the grind.

For the most tender burgers, grind your meat fresh, and form your patties as tenderly as possible. For griddled patties with superior nooks and crannies for cheese-catching, I sometimes like to grind my meat directly onto a sheet tray and gently coax it into patties without ever picking it up until just before I cook it. Superb.

There’s a corollary point here: adding junk like onions, herbs, eggs, breadcrumbs,anything to your ground meat not only forces your to over-handle the mix, but it instantly relegates your burgers into the “meatloaf sandwich” category. If you absolutely must add junk to your burgers—and with a good, well-selected meat blend, there’s really no need to—mix it with the cubes of beef prior to grinding (but don’t add the salt yet!), so that it can be evenly distributed without the need to overwork the beef afterward.

9. CHOOSE YOUR BUN WISELY

Buns come in all shapes, sizes, densities, and flavors. Make sure you’ve got the right one for the job at hand.

A bigger, pub-style burger can overwhelm a soft bun with juices, soaking through and dissolving the base before the burger even hits your table. Toasting the bun can mitigate some of these effects, but for the most part, you’re better off selecting a sturdier roll, or if you’ve got one nearby, a custom burger bun from an artisan bakery. Brioche has its adherents, but I prefer my buns to be a little more bland, so as not to compete with the flavor of the beef.

Do avoid anything with an overly chewy crumb or a tough crust, unless you want your burger to suffer from the dreaded backslide.

10. DONT LET ANYONE TELL YOU WHAT TO PUT ON IT

The point is, don’t let anyone tell you what should and shouldn’t go on your burger. If you want to go commando, do it with gusto. Do you like pecorino, pimentos, and peanut butter on your patties? Yes? Well, pile it on.

Then get your head checked. Really.

Obviously, this is only the tip of the iceberg. Burgers are an endlessly fascinating subject, and there’s always more to learn. 

A busy week is just about to get even busier.

Ok, so we’ve been preparing our booth for this year’s Inter Auto Club meet and as the date draws nearer we’ve been getting busier and busier. Bimmercebu, the car club that i am actively involved with, has won Best Booth and Best Muse the past 2 years and this year we are going for the hat trick. The past 2 weeks have been all about meetings, errands, more meetings, planning, and finally tomorrow we get to set up our elaborate booth and prepare everything for the weekend’s festivities. We’ve got a really sick ass tent structure, flat screens, couches, bean bags, models, dj’s booth, lights, speakers, an observation deck (yeah a deck) and more importantly, a display of 4 of the fastest BMW’s in the country. More about the car show as it happens.

I THOUGHT IT WAS GONNA TAKE 10 MINS…NOT!

Ok i’m back from being sick and i’m around 90% rejuvenated. So today’s a saturday. Brief background story so you’d understand the rest of the story.

Next weekend, ALL the car clubs of cebu have this big gathering. All the clubs are required to donate 10 used car batteries for i dont know what reason. Anyway, we were told about a month ago bout this thing. saturday;s the deadline and we had FOUR batteries. now fast forward to today…

The rest of the club was on aFrom this point on i will share my day in bullet point form coz im tamad na to tell the whole story.

*Tonyo woke me up at 730am to tell me to be at Caltex Banilad at 10am to pick up some of the batteries while he gets the rest. TOO EARLY FOR SATURDAY MORNING!

*Dragged my self out of bed. Drove to Caltex Banilad.

*Asked for the batteries. they couldnt find it. looked all over. for more than an hour. (coz tonyo was held hostage at the junk shop)

*Turns out the batteries were in Caltex MABOLO!! thank you for the accurate intel tonyo!

*Went to Caltex Mabolo. Got batteries. went bac to Caltex Banilad to meet tonyo.

*Met tonyo. it was lunch time na! so lunch muna. Rode with tonyo.

*Lunch for an hour (thanks for the crispy pata!)

*Went back to caltex to meet Dean.

*Went to Suzuki to drop off batteries. Met up with Tomas, picture taking with the batteries and my car.

*Disperse. GO HOME. by this time it’s 3pm na. love it.