There is no food as quinticentally American as the hamburger. Everyone that I know has their own way of making them, including Julia Child. In her book “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” Julia says that the French do, indeed, enjoy hamburgers. What follows is perhaps one of the most interesting hamburger recipes I have ever tried to date:
Julia suggests that we go to a butcher and get the meat freshly ground using a rather lean cut of meat. I decided to forego the trip to the butcher in exchange for the ground beef at the grocery. Julia has you add melted butter and egg to the hamburger meat before cooking, coat each patty in flour, and pan fry in butter. None of this sounded anything like a hamburger to me, but I trusted Julia–and followed her recipe to the letter.
The result was something that most resembled a raw meatloaf patty. I had to return the “burgers” to the pan because I prefer my meat cooked. All in all after it was finished I came to the realization that even our idols are not perfect. These hamburgers suck. Here is the recipe. In true Julia fashion it is a bit fussy, but the result is delicious–just nothing like a hamburger.
¾ cup finely minced yellow onions
2 tablespoons butter
1 ½ pounds lean ground beef
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1 ½ teaspoons salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1/8 teaspoon thyme
1 egg
½ cup flour, spread on a plate
1 tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon oil
½ cup beef stock, canned beef bouillon, dry white wine, dry white vermouth or red wine
2-3 tablespoons butter, softened
First cook the onions in oil over medium heat for about 10 minutes. Drain and place in a mixing bowl with the beef, spices, butter and egg. Mix by hand, form into patties and refrigerate for an hour. Melt the butter in the skillet and roll each patty in flour before adding to the pan. Julia suggests to cook each burger for 2-3 minutes on each side. I found them still cold in the center, so I went 5 minutes each side. After finishing the burgers, add broth to the pan to deglaze raise the heat and boil down until you have a sauce. You serve the burgers with the sauce and decorated with parsley. I prepared buttered parslied green beans.
Perhaps I gave this recipe too much heat. The burgers are, indeed, delicious. With that much butter they have to be. I would just never serve this to anyone who grew up in the South. My Daddy would probably not even try it. Unless I told him it was meatloaf.
