Chuck, Chuck, Chuck!
October 27th, 2005So let’s talk hamburgers…
If you go into a pub/restaurant, there’s a good chance that there will be a hamburger on the menu. If the menu, in an attempt to fancy-up the joint, says, “made from 100% lean ground sirloin,” you might as well just turn around and leave. That burger’s no good.
You see, a decent hamburger really can only be made from one thing: ground chuck, straight from the shoulder of the cow. And the meat needs to be pretty darn fatty, something like 10 to 15% fat. Otherwise, you’re going to get some dry, tasteless puck that you’ll have to quietly endure as you watch you’re friends devour what looks like a pretty decent Ruben.
Chuck, people! Sure there are exceptions—I think the people at [Shake Shack](http://www.shakeshacknyc.com/) mix skirt steak with the chuck, [Peter Luger](http://www.peterluger.com/), I’m sure, uses their amazing porter house steaks, probably a well-marbleized sirloin would do, but why waste you’re money? The chuck is sitting right there.
Maybe they shouldn’t even serve a burger at pub/restaurants—they’re invariably way too big, served on some monstrous 5-inch high bun; who needs it? If you order it rare, you’re biting through 2 inches of cold, pink flesh (too much).
My latest feeling is that burgers should be kind-of small, loosely-packed, greasy, and delicious…
October 27th, 2005 at 6:18 pm
I like the picture: it looks like an attempt by the server to make the hamburger look like a pie with only its first slice removed.
My main complaint with hamburgers in restaurants: they end up being logistically impossible to eat. Why do hamburger pattyists insist on making hamburger spheres? What of the folks slicing tomatoes and onions? Don’t they recognize that fat slices of these vegetables may look great on the plate, but when assembled render impossible the goal of fitting between the upper and lower teeth of one single human jaw? Messy! All this of course just highlights my Felix Unger side, which cringes at the idea of ordering a grease-flinging dish like spaghetti con vongole when wearing a nice shirt.
I guess I am saying that I agree with the keep it small idea.
October 28th, 2005 at 1:46 pm
I think the Shake Shack burger is actually part sirloin and part brisket. We tried to duplicate their burger at home with hand-ground (at home, by the Fox, not by the butcher) sirloin and brisket and it was darned tasty. You are right about the fat. Fat’s the key. Fatty, freshly ground, loosely packed meat. Yay, meat.
October 31st, 2005 at 8:56 pm
right, part sirloin, part brisket, I knew that. At least, I knew it was something…
I’m amending my fat percentages for burgers: 15 to 20%. that’s also a good percentage for humans.
March 25th, 2006 at 6:44 pm
I was just going to post that Danny Meyer actually uses brisket and sirloin, but I see that Christina beat me to the punch 5 months ago. Typical.
October 19th, 2009 at 11:04 am
Praise you and your site for your guidance.