Hamburger America Test Kitchen - Big City Slider Station

When Billy Mays is screaming at me to buy something I usually mute the TV as fast as possible. That is, until last month when he was a shill for the new Big City Slider Station. The wacky contraption caught my eye not just because it was hamburger related but because the 'station' employs the scoop-and-smash method, one of my favorite for making burgers. You need to click the link above to see the actual TV commercial that sold me. While you are watching, notice that the meat is never touched, it's scooped then pressed into tiny sliders. Regardless of the goofiness of Mays, I had to have this thing.

It took 3 weeks to receive my Slider Station. When it arrived it was much smaller than I had imagined and smelled of noxious chemicals (which I'm assuming was the non-stick surface that was clearly brush painted on). I washed the station thoroughly and left it to heat up for 15 mins to burn off any crap residue that may have made its way from China.

While the Slider Station heated up, daughter Ruby and I ground fresh chuck (twice) in my grinder. We scooped balls of the fresh ground, placed them in the 5 slider receptacles, sprinkled with salt, and pressed (gently) with the cover. In about 2 minutes, we had sliders! I was amazed. The damn thing actually worked. The method of extraction for the finished sliders is to lift the cover off, flip the station upside down and smash on a flat surface (like a cutting board). This is where things went wrong. Only one slider came out, the rest were stuck and had to be pried out in pieces with a knife. I chalked it up to new equipment and vowed to butter this non-stick contraption next time.

Ruby and I enjoyed the sliders the only way you should - on tiny potato rolls with melted American (under the broiler) and grilled onions. Didn't Mays sell Oxi-Clean too? He was right about that for sure. Maybe he's right about this as well.

Hamburger Wagon Has New Owner

I knew she'd sell the place (because she told me she would). When I interviewed Michelle Lyons for my book back in March 2007 she told me she wanted to sell the nearly 100 year-old burger wagon outside of Dayton and move to Hawaii. I didn't believe her, and didn't even include that in the book. And then this showed up in the Dayton Daily News. The new owner, Jack Sperry, is as wise man. He told the paper, "I'm not going to change anything - it's working just fine as it is." Damned right it is. These little deep-fried wonders stole my heart. When I showed up to sample the burgers for my book I ate 2 doubles then went back for another. Thank goodness tradition prevailed once again and a burger steeped in history was spared.

Five Guys Park Slope Goes Thinner

The thin patties at one of my favorite burger chains just got thinner, at least at my local Five Guys location. For those watching the action behind the counter as the burgers are being griddled, most are horrified that the standard practice is to 'smash' the burgers into thin patties. What most do not realize is that 1) this was the standard practice for all short-order burgers made before there were such things as patty formers and 2) that Five Guys has a secret. The griddle cook at every Five Guys employs a sort of channeled bacon weight that only allows the press to go so far before its edges touch the griddle (see Adam Kuban's photo above). The result is a patty that does not get the life pressed out of it. Seems as though the cooks at the new Park Slope Five Guys have been doing some serious pressing because the channels on their 'smasher' are bent out of shape rendering the design useless. I tried to explain this to the cook on duty and naturally she looked at me like I was a crazy person. I actually like the thinner, looser patties so don't tell anyone that their burger press is busted...

Dram Shop is Good!

My neighborhood of Park Slope, Brooklyn is seeing a true hamburger renaissance of sorts with the opening of 4 new burger joints in just the last few months. Two are not worth it unfortunately but the other two are outstanding. One of my faves, Five Guys, is now open only 5 blocks from my house and the bar Dram Shop on 9th St. serves up a damned fine burger. Good friend and burger confidant Josh 'Mr. Cutlets' Ozersky sent me this email:

"George, have you eaten this Dram Shop burger? It's great! I went there today and they made it for me mediumish, and it was fabulous! Loved it! Eat it and tell me what you think."

Now, understand that Josh and I have very similar tastes when it comes to burgers. Josh loves thin-patty wonders and, like me, tries to avoid burger behemoths and bloated wallet-busters. But it was seeing 3 exclamation points in his short email that had me itching for more.

The Dram Shop burger, at the top of their short menu, is most definitely a thin-patty wonder. The burger comes with shredded lettuce, tomato, chopped onion, mayo, and mustard on a white squishy bun. By default the burger is a double and the patties are fresh ground, thin, and square and cooked on a flattop griddle. I noticed on the menu that the burger 'recipe' comes from the owner's family's Mallow Grocery in Dallas. There's no question, with the mayo, the twin patties, and the shredded lettuce that this is a classic Texas drive-in burger. It is as authentic as it gets for NYC - close your eyes, take a bite, and end up in Texas. Josh was right. It was fabulous.

Visit To Hildebrandt's

I was in the neighborhood of the only Long Island burger spot in my book today and it just happened to be lunchtime. Expert burger taster Kris was also along so burgers at Hildebrandt's was the call. We sat at the long, classic, marble counter and ordered doubles and were confronted with an alternate possibility. The counterman asked, "Do you want two separate patties or should I smash them together?" Hmmm, think quick. A bigger burger or two thin patties? Forgetting that Hildebrandt's serves 1/4 pound burgers we opted for the "smashed together" version and were presented with enormous 1/2 pound burgers. Remembering that 2 patties see more grill surface thus have more griddle char we chose incorrectly, unless you like large burgers. Next time, a double with two patties (and bacon) for me. It's still a great, fresh-ground burger though and nice to know you can order your burger here two different ways!

The milkshake in the photo was a chocolate malt and was enormous. Believe it or not, the contents of the metal cup filled the glass three times.

Excerpts From the Book On A Hamburger Today

My burger-buddies over at AHT have started to run excerpts from Hamburger America on their blog. The plan is to roll out an entry every two weeks, 25 in all, until next summer. The posts are accompanied by photos from the book and so far 2 of the 25 have been posted. Look closely at the double cheeseburger in the photo (from Bud's in Colorado) and see if you can figure out why the bun looks like that...

Motz Goes Hamburger Flipping

Last weekend I did one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life - I spent 2 hours flipping burgers at a very busy beach cafeteria. 

I know a lot about burgers. However, I don't know a lot about making burgers. Given the time and space I've been know to make a mean, tasty patty in my great-grandmother's 100 year-old skillet. Making burgers for waiting, hungry, PAYING, customers was an experience that was foreign to me, until last Sunday.

The beach club on Long Island, NY that I've been going to since I was born has a very efficient short-order kitchen that can serve over 400 lunches a day, mostly hot dogs, fries, sandwiches, and burgers. The burgers on the menu are frozen so I agreed to a lunchtime shift on the griddle making burgers from fresh-ground 80/20 chuck. Mostly I wanted to see if the patrons at the beach could tell the difference between frozen and fresh. I chose the scoop-and-smash method popular at most burger spots across America and threw in the onion-fried burger from Oklahoma for good measure.

For those that have run a short-order griddle I have all new respect. My hamburger heroes across America that spend hours, day after day, year after year, doing what I did for 2 hours are true martyrs. It's hot, loud (exaust fan), and greasy. At one point I was behind by 27 burger orders but still moving as fast as I could. By the end of my shift I had sent 120 burgers out to waiting patrons that were thankfully impressed. I was wiped out.

Here's to my first and last trip to a working griddle. A lesson learned, not to be taken lightly.

Reading at Half King

If you are near Chelsea tomorrow night (Monday) I'll be reading from the book of burgers at Half King on 23rd Street. The bar has a projector so I'll be running the 'Endless Burger Slideshow' before and after the reading. The slideshow is made up of just about every shot I took during the research phase of Hamburger America the book.

The readings at Half King are usually done by well-respected authors, not goof balls like me. I apologize in advance if the evening is not as 'academic' as you had hoped for. On the other hand, if you don't know a thing about burgers in America this may just be the event for you. I hear the burgers at Half-King are pretty good too.

Five Guys Park Slope Now Open

We arrived at my neighborhood Five Guys (the whole family) on opening day only 20 minutes after opening and were greeted immediately by owner Craig offering us a high chair for our 1 year-old...WOW.  Now that's the way to open a restaurant in Park Slope, home to the largest stroller mafia on the planet.

Business was brisk and the burgers were great. The physical space is larger than Craig's Montague St. location and he told me construction has already begun on his next location in Bay Ridge. I had a cheeseburger with grilled onions that was cooked through (standard practice) but was still a very moist grease bomb. The vegetarian wife loves the Five Guys veggie, which is basically a grilled cheese on a burger bun with all of the condiments. The clientele were mostly from across the street at Methodist Hospital standing in line, smiling, with scrubs and stethoscopes. It's always comforting to see an army of med-schooled doctors scarfing down burgers. The family was joined at lunch by omnipresent burger blogger Adam Kuban. I would recommend visiting his blog entry here for more details on opening day.

The comment corkboard had only been up for an hour and it already had two comments posted. Adam and I got a kick out of this one (pictured) but realized that what it lacks in grammar it makes up for in passion. We all know what this dude was trying to say (and MAN was he tryin' hard!).  I'm glad I'm not the only one out there as nutz for Five Guys.

Hamburger America Test Kitchen - The Squealer

Tonight I attempted to re-create one of my favorite burgers in America, the Squealer from Tookie's in Seabrook, Texas. Tookie's has guarded secrets so I was on my own with this one. From what I can tell, bacon is ground with the beef to create a one-of-a-kind experience, a burger with the unmistakable essence of bacon mixed right in.

You have to use a grinder to blend the bacon with the beef properly, so naturally start with a good chuck steak from your butcher. I cooked 3 slices of Boar's Head bacon until browned, not crispy. I then cubed a 1 pound chuck steak and sent it all through the grinder. The bacon strips went in whole, which was a mistake because some of the undercooked bacon fat gummed up the grinder.

I scooped balls of the mixture, placed them in a hot skillet, and pressed them to the shape of the patty. The chuck I used was too lean though and the burgers came out a bit dry. I'm guessing that the bacon may have also dried out the burger as well. The result was pretty damn good for a first try. It tasted close to Tookie's Squealer, the taste of bacon very present, but needs more work. Next time, more bacon, and more beef fat.