lettuce – Michael's Test Kitchen

Cheese-Stuffed Gourmet Hamburgers: Cheese-filled patties are smashed into a hot buttered grill to cook. Caramelized onions are mixed into the ground beef before cooking. A special hamburger sauce is smeared on both hamburger buns, and the meat is seasoned with a mixture of steak seasoning and seasoned salt.

And the nice thing about burgers is that they are easy to customize.

SEE RECIPE BELOW:

INGREDIENTS:

(makes 8 burgers)

2 lbs. ground beef

1 egg

1 onion, minced

Cheddar cheese

2 large tomatoes

8 leaves of Romaine lettuce

2 large Pickles

8 pairs Hamburger buns

For sauce:

½ cup mayonnaise

⅛ cup mustard

1 tablespoon sweet relish

1 teaspoon lemon juice

For Seasoning:

3 teaspoons Montreal Steak Seasoning

1 teaspoon Seasoned Salt

Additional Things:

Ketchup

Mustard

Butter for Griddle

NOTE: For higher quality beef (and for health reasons) get grass fed beef. Chances are you’ll be able to taste a difference between good quality and poor quality meat.

If you prefer to remove the egg from the meat, it will not hold together as well, but it’s still and option.

DIRECTIONS:

Mince the onion into tiny little chunks, as shown. Over a nonstick pan (or otherwise) on medium heat some vegetable oil. Once oil is hot, dump the onions in a fry, stirring occasionally, until they a browned well, as shown, about 5-10 minutes. Remove from heat.

Making sure to drain excess juices from the beef’s container, dump the 2lbs of meat in a large bowl, and break it up with your hands. Break an egg into the bowl, and mix it in completely with your hands.

Next, add the recently ‘caramelized’ onions, and stir well into the meat.

Break the meat up evenly into 16 small balls, and situate the first 8 on wax paper. Flatten each 8 of the balls into a thin, medium-large patties. On half of the patties, place a chunk of cheese, not to thick, and be sure that the cheese is at least half an inch from the edges of the patty.

Now fold the empty half of the patties over the cheese-filled ones, and press firmly around the edges and everywhere until perfectly sealed. Take these finished patties using the wax paper, and place them onto a cookie sheet. Do the cheese-process with the remaining 8 patties, using a fresh layer of waxed paper. Once done, place these finished patties next to the other ones on the same cookie sheet, as shown. The cookie sheet is for easy transportation to grill.

Place the sweet relish, lemon juice, mayonnaise, and mustard in a small bowl, and stir well.

Stir the Montreal steak seasoning and seasoned salt in a smaller bowl.

NOTE:

The sauce and the seasoning are very similar to a copycat of Smashburger’s burgers that I found.

You should now cut up the tomatoes, pickles, lettuce, and whatever else you want on you hamburgers. Preheat the grill on medium-high heat, and put a cast iron flat griddle on top of it. Or, alternatively, a flat griddle on your stove top.

Bring you seasoning mixture, and your patties out to your preheated grill (or on your stove top, if you prefer). Melt the butter on the flat griddle. Place four of the patties on the butter. Cover with the wax paper they were on, and smash with a burger-smasher, or with a plate, or whatever else that works. Remove wax paper.

Sprinkle a generous share of the seasoning on each patty. Close the grill, and let it cook for about three minutes.

Open the grill after three minutes, and check to see if the burgers are done on the other side. It should be cooked around the edges, at least. If so, flip the burgers, and sprinkle again on the other side with the seasoning. Close grill, and let it grill for another 3 minutes. When burgers are done, transfer to a plate, and cover with aluminium foil, to keep hot while you grill the other batch of patties.

Do the same thing with the next four patties that you did with the first four. Transfer to plate, and cover with foil until ready to piece together the burgers:

Place the bottom bun on the plate.
spread a generous helping of the sauce on this bun.
Place a lettuce leaf on it.
Put on one of the patties, and then tomatoes
Add pickles.
Spread sauce on the bottom of the top bun, and smash it down on the rest of the burger.

EAT WHILE HOT.

See more pictures below. See my original recipe post on instructables.

cheese-in-patties — Put the cheese in the middle…

grilling-the-patties — Grill the patties…

The bacon is fried first. Then, the mushrooms are sauteed in the bacon grease. Then, on the same bacon grease, beef patties are grilled in mustard and seasonings.

Piece it together with a great Mayo-Burger-Sauce, tomatoes, lettuce, cheddar cheese, and ketchup.

Recipe serves 4.

INGREDIENTS: (makes 4 burgers)

8 pieces of bacon (2 per burger)

1 lb. ground beef

2 large beefsteak/other large tomatoes

4 thick leaves of Romaine lettuce

4 thin slices cheddar cheese

2 tablespoons mustard

3 cups minced Mushrooms

Salt/pepper for taste

FOR BURGER SAUCE:

¼ cup mayonnaise

⅛ cup mustard

1 tablespoon sweet relish

1 teaspoon lemon juice

DIRECTIONS:

Prepare your lettuce, cheese, and tomatoes. Cut the tomatoes in thin slices. You should have about 10 – 12 slices of tomatoes. Place the lettuce, tomatoes, and cheese on a tray until further use.

Shape ground beef into patties. First, with your hands, divide the 1 lb. of beef into 4 equal balls. Break the meat up, with your hands, and then push each of the 4 balls down so that they are proper flatness.

Prepare burger sauce by combining the mayonnaise, ⅛ cup mustard, relish, and lemon juice in a small bowl.

Mince the mushrooms finely. Put them in a medium bowl for future use.

Place a cast iron griddle over a grill and heat it up. Or, alternatively, you can use a flat metal skillet/griddle over your stove top. Once sufficiently heated, cut your bacon pieces in half, so that you have 16 halves, and place on heated skillet. Sizzle until just cooked through. Remove bacon from griddle, and place in a bowl, and insulate it with aluminum foil. Do not turn off griddle, and leave the bacon grease hot.
Get your mushrooms ready. Dump them on top of hot bacon grease, and saute until mushrooms are very brown. Place them back in their original bowl, and insulate with aluminum foil. Do not turn off the griddle.

Now for the patties. Squirt the 1 tablespoon of mustard on the patties, and preferably smear around with a brush. Then place the thick burger patties on the hot griddle–yes the same uncleaned one you used to cook the bacon and mushrooms on.

Sprinkle patties with salt and more mustard, and let cook on one side for two minutes or so.

After the two minutes are up, flip the patties over, sprinkle the cooked sides with salt, and place a piece of cheese on each patty.

Finish cooking on this side for another couple minutes. After the minute is up, place patties and their cheese on top on a large heat-proof plate, and cover with aluminum foil.

Now it’s time to put together the burger. This part is easy.

First, place the bottom burger bun on a serving plate. Then smear the mayo burger sauce over the top. Then place on 1-2 tomato slices. Then 2 halves of bacon. Then one of the cooked patties goes on top, and on top of the patty goes the additional 2 halves of bacon. On top of the bacon goes the sauteed mushrooms. Then on goes the piece of Romaine lettuce, and finally, on goes the last burger bun!

Repeat 3x for a total of 4 delicious Mushroom Cheddar Bacon Burgers!

A couple pictures: (if you want to see all step by step pictures, check out my original post on mushroom cheddar bacon burgers on instructables)