BBQ115/17: Bacon Cheeseburger
I bought the Brisket Short-Rib (BSR) burgers from Turner and George for a previous cook and really enjoyed them. They had a great taste from the well aged, quality beef but were incredibly juicy as well. After eating them that first time I knew I wanted to do a bacon cheeseburger with them!
One of my favourite burgers is the Bleecker Burger bacon cheeseburger. Bleecker keep the burgers fairly simple and don’t fill them with loads of stuff. They concentrate on top quality meat cooked well. Different to most these days they use a seeded bun rather than a brioche bun which I also like. I haven’t been down to London for a while so I decided to try and recreate a Bleecker bacon cheeseburger.
This was the previous cook with the BSR burgers:
The Meat:
As previously mentioned, these are BSR burgers from Turner and George – 4x180g course ground for £7. They have a good amount of fat visible and you can smell it’s well aged beef when you take them out the packet.
The Prep:
Now that it’s colder I have started cold smoking again and on the morning of this cook I had sliced into my first lot of whisky oak smoked streaky and back bacon which tasted fantastic! I kept some streaky bacon to one side to go in the burger.
I had also cold smoked some extra mature cheddar the previous week which I also had ear marked for this dish.
Looking online, the reviews seemed to suggest Bleecker use a burger sauce, burger, cheese, bacon and some onions. There was mention of raw onions and lightly fried onions, I decided to go for lightly fried.
I needed a burger sauce and one of my favourites is from Jamie Oliver’s insanity burger. I made it without the chopped lettuce as I wanted a smooth sauce: Mayo, Tomato Ketchup, Tabasco Chipotle and Worcestershire Sauce.
To make the cook easier I fried the bacon and put it to one side. I then fried the onions in the same pan to soak up the bacon fat. I then sliced the burger buns and lightly toasted them in the same pan! Don’t worry about it all getting cold, I will come back to that later.
The Cook:
I fired up a full chimney with Oxford Charcoal Hardwood Blend and when fully lit I poured it into the charcoal baskets set to one side. I left it a few minutes to settle then put the grill on top then the inverted grill grates to use as a griddle. I left all this for 5 minutes to get up to temperature and I salted the burgers on both sides.
With the grill up to temperature I placed the burgers on the hottest part. They started sizzling and smoking instantly.
My plan was to leave them to sear and form a good crust as per the last cook so I didn’t want to flip them too much. I kept an eye on progress with a Thermapen and was aiming for 55C internal. As I was melting cheese and warming the bacon I wanted to add them once the meat was around 45C internal.
Once the cheese and bacon were on I put the onions in a cast iron pan to warm then shut the lid. It only took a couple of minutes to melt the cheese and for the meat to hit 55C so I took the burgers off. I took the buns and spread the burger sauce on the top and bottom then placed a burger on top followed by some of the onions. With the burger built I put it back on the cooler side of the grill for a minute to heat back up. My wife isn’t a fan of cheese which is why the front one doesn’t have any cheese visible!
Time to Eat:
How was it? Have a look at the photo below!
Summary:
I previously said the Bulgogi burger was the best burger I had cooked. This trumped it! The meat tasted fantastic – It had a nice, strong beef taste but was so juicy. The crust from the salt and high cook temperature was great and my cheese and bacon worked really well with the burger. The onions and burger sauce were a nice touch. The buns were just from the Co-Op but also worked well. It wasn’t as good as a Bleecker burger but it was bloody tasty! I can see this getting cooked a fair bit from now on!
The burger was served with Byron seasoned fries. Twice fried with a cracking seasoning, so addictive. Overall a great meal!
| Cook Equipment: | Weber Kettle and Reversed Grill Grates |
| Cook Method: | Direct Sear |
| Charcoal: | Oxford Charcoal Hardwood Blend |
| Smoking Wood: | N/A |
| Cook temperature: | 250C |
| Cook time: | About 5m |
| Internal temperature: | 55C |
| Notes: | Repeat it often! |