We were craving a good burger the other day and decided to channel one of Derek’s favorite burgers at The Ely Steakhouse, the Buckie Burger. They make some of the best burgers you’ll ever have – if you’re ever in town stop in and try one. But we live 4 hours away so we were on our own.
We made our own 10,000 Lake Burger Sauce as a riff on the thousand island type sauce on theirs. Topped our patty with cheddar and bacon and added some fried onions. I swear between every other bite Derek would have some type of comment about how great the burger was.
Here’s what you need:
Plus cheese, I forgot to put the nice sharp cheddar cheese we used in the picture. Oops!
It’s the middle of summer, but rather than grilling exclusively we’ve probably been making at least half of our burgers on the flattop. There is something so awesome about searing and getting a crust on them. Don’t get me wrong we still love the grill but you can’t cook bacon on a grill and then use the bacon grease to sear your burger on a grill. And perfecting this method of cooking allows us to plan for burgers any night of the week and not worry about rain. If you don’t have a flattop, use a griddle, or a large cast iron pan.
Start by laying bacon across the whole griddle heated to about 300 degrees, we’re going to use 2 to 3 slices for each burger, but hey leftover bacon doesn’t go to waste in our house.
Derek got me these cool steak weights (#EarnsCommission) for my birthday that help make nice flat and crisp bacon.
See take a look at that – perfect bacon.
Toss some diced onions on the griddle and cook for 5-7 minutes until softened and starting to darken. You could take them all the way to caramelized if you want – however you like them.
Once the onions come off, turn the griddle up to 375 degrees.
Now at this point we decided to make burgers with the smash method. Now those of you who’ve eaten at or heard of Smash Burger may think they revolutionized this practice. But according to my Great American Burger Book (#EarnsCommission) the smash method of making a burger was first developed in the 1910s or 20s before the burger press was invented.
Start by gently forming the ground beef into balls weighing a third pound each. Then place them on the hot griddle.
Now immediately press them into a patty with the steak weight or other heavy item like the bottom of a cast iron pan. This is the one and only time you get to press a burger as it’s cooking. Press meat later in the cooking process and you’ll press out the juice making it dry. As you press you’ll hear a delightful sizzle as the meat spreads out on the griddle.
Once both burgers are pressed season with kosher salt and pepper.
Flip burgers after 3 to 4 minutes. As the burgers cook, toast buns on the back of the griddle. The bacon grease will help them toast but you can always add a little butter too.
After 3 minutes add cheese to the burgers and cover with foil or with a metal bowl to help the cheese melt.
We like our burgers medium-rare to medium, if you like your burgers cooked more you’ll have to adjust cooking time based on your liking –and instant read thermometer like the Thermopen works great for this.
Now it’s time to build the burger.
Spread the 10,000 Lakes Burger Sauce onto both sides of your toasted buns. Add the fried onions.
Add the burgers and a couple slices of bacon to the prepared bun.
And take a big bite of this awesome burger.
- 4-8 slices bacon
- 1 onion, diced
- ⅔ lb ground beef, loosely formed into 2 – ⅓ lb balls
- Kosher salt
- pepper
- 2 buns
- 2 slices cheddar cheese
- 10,000 Lakes Burger Sauce
- Heat flattop griddle, cast iron griddle, or large cast iron pan over medium-low heat (300 degrees).
- Lay bacon across the entire flattop or pan - you need 4 slices for the burgers, the rest is to season the cooking surface for later. The amount you need will depend on the size of you cooking vessel. Cook bacon until crisp. Remove to paper towel lined plate. Leave grease on griddle.
- Sauté onions in bacon grease until starting to brown. Remove onions to a plate or bowl.
- Increase heat to medium/medium high (about 375 degrees).
- Place burgers onto griddle. Immediately squish with a steak/burger press or heavy cast iron skillet to form a patty – think a little larger than your bun. Season with salt and pepper.
- While burgers cook, toast the buns on the back of the griddle. Optionally butter the buns first.
- Cook 3 to 4 minutes on the first side. Flip. Cook 1 to 2 minutes. Top with cheddar cheese. Cover with tented tinfoil or a metal bowl and cook until cheese melts, about 2 minutes.
- Spread top and bottom bun with 10,000 Lakes Burger Sauce, to your taste. Top bottom bun with fried onion.
- Add burger to bun. Top with 2 slices of bacon. You can use more than 2 slices of bacon or save the restt for another use.
- Dig in.
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