A Man's Best Friend (A Burger)

A Delicious Burger: Beef, bacon, shallots, mushrooms, french blue cheese, aged cheddar, jalapeños, lettuce, scallions, on a garlic aioli-smeared grilled bun

An up-close view of this delicious thing

Forget dogs - burgers are a man's best friend. And with love, I made my burger tonight. Inspired by the summertime and one website's challenge to create the most delicious burger possible, I embarked on a long journey to the Sunday market ravenous. It was a very dangerous thing for me to be in a new food market while hungry, surrounded by fresh food after looking at hamburger pictures all morning. In my salivating state, I compiled a shopping cart full of the most delicious ingredients I could think of. This burger was going to be a medium-rare monstrosity, so packed with flavor that no condiments were necessary.

   After prepping the necessary ingredients (I'm learning! Less frantic mid-cook chopping this time) I fired up two skillets and the fun began. I sizzled three thickly cut maple-smoked bacon strips until they were almost cooked. In the other pan, I began to caramelize my shallots in butter, adding the cremini mushrooms to saute at the appropriate time. Once the bacon strips were out of the first pan, in went the burger patties, two perfect circles of thinly formed 73% lean beef. I had about .4lb of beef cooking. Oh yeah - after over a year's experience of making burgers at Five Guys, I know a thing or two about ground beef. These patties would never get close to well done on my watch!

   Once the meat was almost perfect, it came out of the pan. I toasted two buns in the meat pan, smeared with garlic aioli for extra flavor. In went the bacon around the bread, to heat and finish cooking (bacon cools too fast for my liking).  The shallots and mushrooms came out and into a bowl, and I pressed sliced jalepeño peppers into the vegetable pan, grilling them and blackening the edges.

   After the buns were properly toasted, I assembled the burger in two halves and face-up put them in the meat pan, with some nice French blue cheese on one side and 1-year aged Vermont cheddar on the other. After a quick broil to melt the cheese, I compiled the amazing burger with crisp red lettuce and scallions on the side. At last, my creation was ready. Feeling like Dr. Frankenstein, I wiped the sweat off my forehead and looked at the monster on my plate. It had been a furiously busy 10 minutes, but that golden moment had arrived- the first bite.

All I can say is, "oh my god." It was that good.