The classic cheeseburger

For my last burger I really didn't know what I wanted to do. I thought about a fancy sauce. I thought about using a new cheese that I have never tried. I thought about using thirty separate ingredients. I thought about using two pancakes as my buns and covering it with maple syrup. No, I really did think about that. At the end of the day it hit me. What's better than just a good cheeseburger? When a burger is done well you don't need fancy ingredients or themes. You just need the basics. Excellent quality fresh ground beef. Melted yellow American cheese. Crisp romaine lettuce. A slice of Jersey fresh tomato. Sliced Kosher pickles. All on a sesame seed bun with mustard and ketchup. I went to Whole Foods and had the butcher freshly ground 80% lean beef. I wanted the beef to be the star here and not the toppings. I made a monster burger with lots of ground beef. This ground beef looked and smelled great. It was the type that you could almost eat raw. I hand formed a pattie and seasoned it with just some salt and pepper. I also used my thumb to make an indentation on one side. I learned this from Bobby Flay. He does this to all of his burgers because it creates a pocket to help keep the moisture in when you cook the burger. For those of you who live in New Jersey the weather this past weekend was gorgeous. It was in the 70's with sun and no humidity. Because of this I was able to break out the grill and cook my last burger outside. I can't remember the last time I was able to cook outside on the grill. It was probably back in November. After I cleaned the grill off I was able to turn the heat up to high. When the grates were nice and hot I placed the thick burger seasoning side down to sear in the flavor. It has been a while since I last cooked outside so I had to really watch the burger to make sure I didn't overcook it. Also, this burger was a lot thicker than the ones I had made the past few weeks. I closed the lid to create a convection like cooking enviorment. I had to really create an even heat or the burger would be charred on the outside and raw in the middle. After I cooked the burger for about 8 minutes I flipped it over to see beautiful grill marks that you just can't get from cooking inside. I then covered with two slices of yellow American Cheese and covered again to melt. At this point I lightly toasted the bun on the grill. When the bun was done I added the ketchup and mustard on the top half. After about 14 minutes total cooking time the burger was done and I placed the burger on the toasted bun and covered with one piece of lettuce, a slice of tomato, and three kosher pickle slices. Wow was this burger good. In the end I have learned that sometimes less is more. The burger itself was really good and without a doubt it was the star of the show here. A lot of times a restaurant will make up for their lower quality beef by using a sauce to mask the flavor. When you make a good burger you really don't need all the other toppings. The fresh lettuce and tomato just compliment the burger. The pickles with the ketchup and mustard are up to the individual to decide but they are generally considered part of the classic cheeseburger. Well, the time is here for this burger blog to be done. Next Friday I will be thirty years old. What first seemed like an impossible task is now done. Honestly, I feel like I could keep going. I learned that burgers are limitless. Whatever your individual tastes are you can create into a burger. I am not sure what I plan to have for dinner next Sunday but I do have some left over chopped ground beef in the freezer. I do have one more blog entry to write before I say goodbye. Next week I plan to write a recap of the last 30 weeks. That should be fun. I want to take a look back at the highs and the lows and recap all of the different burgers. I guess I will finish with a quote from Tim McGraw's "My Next Thirty years". Oh my next thirty years, I'm gonna watch my weight. Eat a few more salads and not stay up so late. Drink a little lemonade and not so many beers. Maybe I'll remember my next thirty years. My next thirty years will be the best years of my life. Raise a little family and hang out with my wife.