Perfecting the Grip: Bone Marrow Burgers with 24 Hour Pickles and Herbed Hand-Cut Fries
02 September 2011, 08.15 | Posted in Culinary | 4 comments »
I think that everyone knows what I mean when I talk about “the grip.” When you get a sandwich (like a burger) into your hand, and you just can’t put it down. There are a few reasons for the grip 1) you know that if you were to put down the sandwich, it would just fall apart and explode everywhere (you will never put the puzzle that is a half-eaten sandwich back together again), 2) you have the angle just right and you are getting all of the layers and flavors and textures, and just can’t put it down, or 3) someone is waiting for you to put the sandwich down, so that they can take it. Additional considerations for the grip are: Dominant fry and/or chip-eating hand, beer/cocktail sipping hand, or if you are a big poacher when you eat with friends, or use a lot of hand gestures – you want to leave that hand free and use the opposite hand for gripping the sandwich. If you had some kind of war injury or for some reason had your hand amputated obviously the additional considerations would not be relevant – someone would have to be really sick (or hungry) to steal your sandwich if you only had one hand and had put your burger down to re-load on fries. Additional additional considerations for the grip are: Gripping force – certain sandwiches are looser or more delicate than others – you don’t want to crush the sandwich or worse; lose some mayo or possibly a pickle, due to excessive over-gripping. A general rule of thumb for properly gripping a sandwich is to never hold a sandwich over the area of a plate which contains crispy sides that could become soggy with sandwich juices dripped from overhead. That last one is a no-brainer.
For this particular sandwich, the bone marrow addition gives the meat a juicier and more tender texture. In this instance, I do suggest cutting the sandwich in half (often considered a less-manly way to eat a sandwich, which in this case is not true – due to the bone marrow content) as a technique for decreasing your feed to savor ratio.
What you need:
24-Hour Pickles:
- 4 Large cucumbers, sliced to ⅛-in
- 2 Shallots, sliced thin
- 1 Jalapeno pepper, seeds removed, chopped
- 1T. Korean chili flakes
- 2T. Pickling spice (bay leaf, cloves, mustard seed, allspice, etc.)
- 1c. Apple cider vinegar, unfiltered
- 1/2c. White vinegar
- 3/4c. Granulated sugar
- Salt
- Pepper
Burgers:
- 4-5lbs Beef rib end cuts (about 25-30% fat), sliced into cubes and chilled
- 4oz Beef bone marrow, removed from bone cold
- Salt
- Pepper
- Olive oil (for work surface)
- 1/4lb Manchego cheese, sliced thin
- 1 Heirloom tomato, sliced thin
- Mayonnaise
- Whole grain mustard
- Portuguese sweet rolls
- Butter
Fries:
- 4 Russet potatoes, cleaned, sliced into french fry shapes
- Flour
- 4 Sprigs fresh thyme
- 48oz Vegetable oil
- Salt
The Process:
Tossed the sliced cucumbers and shallots in a light sprinkle of salt in a colander, until too salty to comfortably eat. Let sit for about an hour. Brought the vinegars to a light boil, stirring in the sugar, pickling spice, Korean chili flakes, garlic, and jalapeno pepper. Packed the still salted cucumbers and shallots into a glass jar, and poured the hot mixture over top – making sure that the liquid level covered all of the cucumbers. Allowed to cool to room temp, then threw the top on the jar and tossed it into the refrigerator for a day.
Tossed the fry-cut potato strips in all-purpose flour until lightly coated, and fried in a deep sauce pan filled about half way with vegetable oil. During the first frying period, the potatoes were cooked until crisp, but not brown, and then placed in a kitchen towel-lined colander to get soggy. Immediately before serving, fried the potatoes for a second time, this time allowing them to get a little brown, then tossed in salt and finely chopped thyme. Both frying operations were completed in small batches, due to lack of a deep fryer.
Ground the beef rib end cuts and bone marrow into a large bowl, using a coarse grinder die. Reground one third of the mixture, to act as a better binder, then mixed that back into the rest of the ground meat. Coated the entire top of the mound of beef in the bowl with a even blanket of salt and then did the same with pepper. Thoroughly mixed the meat together with bare hands until noticeably homogeneous (without breaking the fat down too much), then formed into enormous patties (6 or so) – indenting the top to avoid making meatballs when they cooked.
Fired up the Napoleon Grills Prestige II Freestyle Portable Series Infrared Grill from CSGrills.com, wiped down the grates with a little olive oil, and grilled the burgers for about three to five minutes a side, until nicely charred but still tender feeling. Placed each burger on a Portuguese sweet roll from Central Bakery (which had been pan fried in butter), topped with a few thin slices of Manchego cheese, some of the 24 hour pickles, mustard and mayonnaise. Plated with a healthy portion of herbed, hand-cut fries, and enjoyed with some beers.
