JBug's Kitchen Antics: A Big Guy Burger

10/07/2012

A Big Guy Burger - Beef, Beer and Stilton

Bigger may not necessarily be better in a burger as I found out last night when trying to chow down on this giant. You see, I made it a mission to find out why a regular hamburger bun is a mere 3 or 4 inches in diameter instead of bigger so it can hold more stuff?

I had a lovely 12 inch loaf of Ciabatta hanging around, waiting for the perfect occasion and while I could have made a panini of gargantuan proportions, or simply cut it up to accompany a bowl of soup or chili, I figured a nice crusty loaf of bread could be the perfect platform for a burger we could share and the size of which would make my resident carnivore swoon.

Now that's a big honkin' burger wouldn't you agree? Loaded with a 1.5 pounds of ground 85/15 beef, flavored with garlic and Montreal steak seasoning, moistened with lovely dark lager, and held together with bread crumbs and egg, I shaped that meatloaf sized puppy into a loaf the exact size of the ciabatta. Browned in a screaming hot cast iron pan first, it hit the oven to finish cooking. I know for a fact my carnivore would have preferred it rare, but I wasn't taking any chances because I didn't grind the meat myself from scratch.

Served up on grilled Ciabatta slathered with horseradish and mayo and loaded with golden brown Guinness flavored onions, pungent Stilton and cool refreshing sliced tomato it was all rather impressive, or so I thought.

He did too. Big Guy's eyes were shining and he couldn't wait to get his teeth into all that yummy good stuff. In fact, therein lies the answer to the burger bun question. Get his teeth into it he did with no problem at all while it was a knife and forker for me. It's kinda the obvious answer as to who has the bigger mouth around here too, huh! Now that's a relief.

A year ago - Oven Roasted Pulled Pork