Bacon Cheeseburgers

30/18: Bacon Cheeseburgers

30/18 – Bacon Cheeseburgers:

This was actually a bit of an error! I was meant to cook Hay smoked burgers but totally forgot to add the hay when cooking! Instead, this was Bacon Cheeseburgers and I did some Hay smoked burgers for lunch the next day!

I have done a few burgers over the last 12 months in an attempt to cook something close to my perfect burger, I got close with this previous cook:

BBQ106/17: Bulgogi Burger

But there was still some room for improvements. I prefer a basic burger with just cheese, bacon and a sauce. A burger with a thousand things in that all spill out as you try to eat it and which mask the meat are not what I am looking for!

The Meat:

BSR (Brisket Short-Rib) burgers from Turner and George again. £7.20 for 4x 180g Coarse ground burgers, down from £8 when I bought them last. I haven’t found a better burger than these yet, the meat is top quality, good ratio of fat and meat but the dry aged meat adds a great taste to the meat. 

The Buns:

Previously I have used Brioche Buns and I have tried every type I can find in the supermarkets but not been happy with any of them, they seem to collapse once the hot burger hits them. Probably the butter in the brioche melting. What you end up is a strange shape, squishy bun that can’t contain all the juices from the meat. This time I made my own burger buns again – Byron recipe but without the activated charcoal this time!

BBQ47/17: Lamb Shish Kebabs

Very easy to make but a cracking bun, hefty in weight and structure. More capable of holding it’s shape and containing all the juices!

The recipe calls for Vitamin C powder to make the buns fluffier. I bought mine from Amazon for £4.99. 

The Prep:

I fired up a full chimney of Oxford Charcoal Maple Charcoal, it smells fantastic but that’s the last of that bag so I will need to buy some more! Once fully lit I poured it over the base of the grill then placed the grill grates on top, inverted as always to use them like a griddle. I left everything for 10 minutes to heat up. The burgers had a good sprinkling of salt to help with the crust when cooking.

The Cook:

Burgers right onto the hottest part of the grill. I keep burning the bacon when doing burgers, I kept reminding myself not to burn it this time! This was my home cured Ribman Holy Fuck Streaky Bacon smoked for 60 hours over hickory and cherry. I put the bacon on the outer edges where the heat was less fierce. I seasoned the top of the burgers then flipped them (about 3 minutes in).

Bacon Cheeseburgers

The bacon took a couple of minutes to cook so I took it off, finally I hadn’t burnt it!

The buns were cut and spread with butter then placed onto the bacon fat on the griddle. A square of Mexicana cheese was placed on my burger. I forgot to take water out so poured some beer on the griddle and put a small metal bowl over the top to act as a cloche to steam the cheese and melt it.

Bacon Cheeseburgers

The buns didn’t need long so I took them off and put them to one side. I took the bowl off the burger, oh my – awesome melted cheese!

Bacon Cheeseburgers

Time to Eat:

The burgers were probing 55c on the Thermapen so I took them off and started putting everything together. Same burger sauce as usual (Mayo, Tomato Ketchup Chipotle Tabasco and Worcestershire sauce) on the cut surface of both bun halves.

Bacon Cheeseburgers

The bacon burger was looking pretty fine, loads of bacon as I had managed to cook it properly at last! I was happy with the shape of the buns, they had worked well.

Bacon Cheeseburgers

The bacon cheeseburger was looking epic! Loads of bacon, nicely melted cheese, loads of sauce and juices oozing out the bun!   Bacon Cheeseburgers

Final step – I always whack the built burger back on the grill with the lid on for 30 seconds to a minute to heat it all through again.

Bacon Cheeseburgers

Summary:

Oh my goodness! Just holding the burger I knew it was going to be good. The bun was hefty, loads of juices flowing out and it smelt fantastic. First bite was epic, it really was the best burger I had cooked so far. Cooking to 55c had kept it nice and pink with plenty of juice! All the components worked well together and every bite was a joy! The Mexicana cheese had a nice bit of spice to it that worked well with the Holy Fuck bacon, I will use that again.

The buns were cracking, these will become my go to burger buns now I think.

As I mentioned at the start – I was meant to hay smoke these! Next blog post will cover those!

Cook Difficulty: 2/5 
Cook Duration: Short: 2/5
Cook Equipment: Weber Kettle
Cook Method: Inverted Grill Grates
Charcoal: Oxford Charcoal Maple
Smoking Wood: N/A
Cook temperature: 250C
Cook time: 5/6 minutes
Internal temperature: 55c
Notes: No major changes

 


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