Burger & Beer Thread!

[betarhoalphadelta]

Lamb burger with feta, red onion, spinach, and tzatziki on a toasted bun. Served with waffle cut sweet potato fries and a Stone IPA.

 

[Airborneguy]

I finally had a "burger" this past weekend, but no pictures because I went sans bun. I've been on a major carnivore kick lately. No bread at all and very minimal drinking. I may cheat on Sunday though, and I am leaning towards, you guessed it, burgers!

 

[miageorge]

Yeah - seasonals have the potential to be slightly different from year to year. Maybe a hop or grain isn’t available in high enough quantities… or something is just cheaper that the brewer can sub in. In other words, the recipe isn’t 100% the same. Some seasonals will be tough to find ever again - like one offs… but fest beers (fest biers?) will be here every fall…

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Double burger with Colby pepper jack cheese, guacamole, homemade bacon, lettuce and RO. With total and black bean corn salad, and a Boss Pour.

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Went full smash burger on the Blackstone for this. Double smash with pepper jack cheese, caramelized onion, and green chile salsa. With totchos and a Green Flash West Coast IPA.

 

[passedpawn]

Smashingly good. Smashburgers on my new griddle. Super simple, no onions (which I love) no tomatoes, etc. Just crusty smash, cheddar, lettuce, and pickle relish. I was in a rush to get football up tonight.

 

[day_trippr]

Dinner was wonderful, shot was sub-optimal as the burgers were perfectly medium rare

 

[Airborneguy]

Happy National Cheeseburger Day! I have to be very careful as I’m still trying to figure out if I am suffering from Alpha Gal Syndrome. If you’ve never heard of it, you’re lucky. It’s a tick borne red meat allergy.

I made smashburgers today. One the bun is a triple, double plain. Colby Jack cheese, onions, and hickory burger sauce. No beer with dinner as tonight is our monthly club meeting.

 

[Airborneguy]

Picture wouldn’t attach to the original post:

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

A few different things here. I dropped the patty size from 6oz to 5oz. My wife was saying the patties were too big for her and the two younger kids, and do my oldest and I really need 12 oz double burgers? Probably not. With some slightly thinner patties they didn't "plump" as much so that was actually good.

We were trying to make waffle fries. Turns out my mandolin cutter doesn't have ridges deep enough to set the thickness where it needs to be for waffle fries and still cut through. So they were sorta like thin waffle chips. Deep fried in peanut oil and still delicious, but we're going to have to find a better way to cut them.

 

[Airborneguy]

We had a wonderful dinner with friends last night at a long time favorite of mine, Killmeyer’s, a German restaurant. It has recently changed hands and the new owners have stepped up their game. Unfortunately, the burger, while good, is not a priority (being a German restaurant), so while everyone else’s dishes were amazing, mine was just “good”.

I paired this guy with a Franziskaner and a Spaten Oktoberfest. Good times!

 

[Airborneguy]

Simple beef/venison blend burger with cheddar and apple bbq sauce from my birthday dinner, paired with duck fat-baked potatoes and the barrel aged imperial brown my club brewed this past spring!

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Wednesday night dinner. Not my best. Used a store bought chub of 73/27 ground beef instead of my usual home grind. It was finely ground, so on the grill the patties plumped up like little meatballs.

Not easy to eat, but it still tasted great...

 

[Airborneguy]

Smashburgers on my Blackstone with onions, bacon, Colby Jack, and a homemade sauce of mayo, ketchup, dill pickle mustard (key!), and garlic powder. They were fantastic! Paired with a vodka seltzer I mixed up to fill an empty tap.

 

[day_trippr]

So that's what those drones are looking for!
And who could blame them - those look killer!

Cheers!

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Sadly no pictures...

But my wife and her best girlfriends have had a >25 year tradition now of doing Christmas Eve together. Over the years it's modified a bit, from just drinks, to prime rib, to "themed" and not only on Christmas Eve. This year we didn't have our kids on Christmas Eve and everyone wanted to make sure we did it with the kids, so we had it last night. And the theme this year was "tailgate". So it was burgers and wings.

Why post if there are no pictures? Three reasons, or perhaps lessons, that I thought are worth stating regarding burgers:

1. Grind your own meat. I ended up grinding a large chuck roast using the KitchenAid mixer attachment with the coarse grind setting. Having fresh ground meat, nice and fatty (yay chuck!), and the coarse grind, give a perfect texture for burgers. I ended up with 12x 6 oz burger patties and one tiny one for the youngest attendee.
2. Invest in a burger press! I was hand-forming patties for the longest time, and eventually ended up with a LEM burger press off Amazon. Super-cheap ($32) for how often it gets used, but with a parchment paper square below and a parchment paper square above, I get a perfectly formed patty that doesn't overly "plump" when cooking. Part of this of course is the coarse grind, which doesn't overly want to plump excessively. The burger press is a hack I wish I'd found a decade+ ago.
3. Cooking method is your own, and obviously I like direct fire with charcoal for the flavor aspects. You can get a really nice sear on charcoal. But I did all these on the Blackstone griddle since I had so many patties to do at once, and I had 36 wings cooking indirect on my Kamado. The griddle gives a crust that a grill won't, so whether you like a nice grilled burger or a nice flattop burger, you really can't go wrong.

Or, for nothing else, I'm posting to bump the thread because burgers are awesome

 

[Airborneguy]

I’m making my smashburgers again for our NYE party. It’s a tradition for us because I “got stuck” with NYE in my divorce, but turned it into a blast of a night with the kids once I met my now wife.

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

I’m making my smashburgers again for our NYE party. It’s a tradition for us because I “got stuck” with NYE in my divorce, but turned it into a blast of a night with the kids once I met my now wife.

We trade off years with the kids and my ex for NYE... This is the "off year" for my wife & I, so now kids.

That said, our tradition going on 5 years or so now is Julia Child's Boeuf Bourguignon on NYE, and then (maybe last 2-3 years) is Michael Symon's Lucky Pork Stew on NYD.

I think the kids will be jealous

 

[AzOr]

Sadly no pictures...

But my wife and her best girlfriends have had a >25 year tradition now of doing Christmas Eve together. Over the years it's modified a bit, from just drinks, to prime rib, to "themed" and not only on Christmas Eve. This year we didn't have our kids on Christmas Eve and everyone wanted to make sure we did it with the kids, so we had it last night. And the theme this year was "tailgate". So it was burgers and wings.

Why post if there are no pictures? Three reasons, or perhaps lessons, that I thought are worth stating regarding burgers:

1. Grind your own meat. I ended up grinding a large chuck roast using the KitchenAid mixer attachment with the coarse grind setting. Having fresh ground meat, nice and fatty (yay chuck!), and the coarse grind, give a perfect texture for burgers. I ended up with 12x 6 oz burger patties and one tiny one for the youngest attendee.
2. Invest in a burger press! I was hand-forming patties for the longest time, and eventually ended up with a LEM burger press off Amazon. Super-cheap ($32) for how often it gets used, but with a parchment paper square below and a parchment paper square above, I get a perfectly formed patty that doesn't overly "plump" when cooking. Part of this of course is the coarse grind, which doesn't overly want to plump excessively. The burger press is a hack I wish I'd found a decade+ ago.
3. Cooking method is your own, and obviously I like direct fire with charcoal for the flavor aspects. You can get a really nice sear on charcoal. But I did all these on the Blackstone griddle since I had so many patties to do at once, and I had 36 wings cooking indirect on my Kamado. The griddle gives a crust that a grill won't, so whether you like a nice grilled burger or a nice flattop burger, you really can't go wrong.

Or, for nothing else, I'm posting to bump the thread because burgers are awesome

Thanks for the LEM suggestion. I was just looking at other Patty makers and nothing stood out as quality or adjustable. I just bought a full brisket at Costco and I’m debating whether to grind it or smoke it. Hmmm.

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Thanks for the LEM suggestion. I was just looking at other Patty makers and nothing stood out as quality or adjustable. I just bought a full brisket at Costco and I’m debating whether to grind it or smoke it. Hmmm.

Go back and buy another, and do both?

 

[Airborneguy]

For tonight’s smash burgers.

 

[DonT]

For tonight’s smash burgers. View attachment 865677

Smoky Maple sounds good... where did you obtain this?

 

[Airborneguy]

Smoky Maple sounds good... where did you obtain this?

Amazon. I’ve already tried it on a steak. It’s really good. Strong presentation of both flavors.

 

[DonT]

Amazon. I’ve already tried it on a steak. It’s really good. Strong presentation of both flavors.

I'm thinking ribs... yum!

 

[bailey mountain brewer]

Pic doesn't do justice since I didn't cut into these, venison burger with sauteed onions in the burger mix, topped with jalapenos and pepper jack cheese, with a side of all day ipa, well the side is sweet potatoes but they didn't make it into the pic.

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Lamb burger.

 

[Airborneguy]

Well seasoned local beef on brioche with ketchup, cheddar, and pickles. Keeping it simple today. Paired with my Atonement Brown Porter.

 

[Airborneguy]

Just two burgers with a negroni.

 

[bailey mountain brewer]

Hey! That's not beer... but looks delicious and probably a good combo.

 

[Airborneguy]

I’m loving my negronis lately!