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Burger Championship
Monday, March 17, 2008
Lessons From The Burger Road #2: Salt
Posted by Brian Ries on Mon, Mar 17, 2008 at 7:20 PM
I recently received an email about my frequent and unrelenting criticism of chefs who fail to use salt to their advantage.
"[Brian] may be right about the food being unexciting, but his comment about salt is ridiculous. Salt is unhealthy, particularly in a part of the world with lots of elderly folks with heart disease and hypertension. Salt can and should be added as desired by diners -- not slathered onto food (where it cannot be removed). Shame on Brian"
He's wrong, partly. People who are sensitive to salt due to present or incipient hypertension or heart disease are a small minority of restaurant-goers, even in our retiree-heavy community. Even for them, eating food with salt isn't a big deal as long as they regulate the amount and types of food they eat. For healthy folks, salt is not unhealthy, except in excess. Pretty much like everything else.
Problem is, you need salt in order to make things taste better. Especially meat. Careful and assertive seasoning is perhaps the most important thing a restaurant can do to differentiate it's cuisine from that of the salt-shy home cook.
Case in point are the 96 burgers I recently sampled. By far the biggest difference between the burgers going deep in the Tournament and the burgers going home is the judicious and generous application of salt to the meat. The first few times I bit into a sizzling patty of unseasoned ground beef I was incredulous. This is a dish with, essentially, two ingredients, so missing one is a huge and unforgiveable faux pas, and bad cooking to boot. Add salt before cooking, preferably mixed in when the patties are formed, and the meat tastes beefy and assertive. Add it yourself from the shaker on the table and the burger tastes like salt.
Wanna make a good burger? Don't forget the salt. It's not the only step to burger success, but without it I can guarantee you a bland and drab burger.
Not too much, though. I wouldn't want you to get arrested.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Lessons From The Burger Road #1: Burgers Surprisingly Not Like Sex
Posted by Brian Ries on Thu, Mar 13, 2008 at 2:35 PM
No, I'm not referring to sexy man on Big Mac action.
Last year, when I slogged through pizzas for our first iteration of this annual tournament, people kept repeating that old quote: "Sex is like pizza -- even when it's bad, it's still worth having." And, after eating through 96 pizza joints in just a few short weeks, I had to agree. About the pizza, that is. On one evening I visited a dozen pizzerias and still kinda craved a slice the next day. I always had to stop myself from eating more than just a couple of tastes from each place, no matter how bad the pies were.
After one round of especially boring pizzas, I even stopped by Cappy's to take home a pie for dinner.
With burgers, that's not the case. Bad burgers are just plain bad. Mediocre burgers are fine when you're hungry or drunk, but hold absolutely no appeal after you've plowed through several earlier in the day. The best burgers stood out from the crowd, but I never had a desire to wrap up the extra and nosh it on my way to the next stop.
When this is all over, I may even put a moratorium on meat for a few weeks, if only to cleanse the psychic and colonic detritus of this mammoth meat fest.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Burger Haiku Contest
Posted by Brian Ries on Wed, Feb 20, 2008 at 4:55 PM
I've been eating a lot of burgers lately and it's gettin' me down. Although I'm careful not to stuff my face, by the third or fourth all-beef patty of the day my stomach feels tight and my mind slows to a greasy dribble. I crave something to re-start my failing mental faculties and energize my mind for the next burger tasting. As always in these situations, I turn to Japanese poet Basho for inspiration:
Sick on my journey
only my dreams will wander
these desolate moors
Of course, that was Basho's death poem, so maybe it's not quite the inspiration I'm hoping for.
I think you guys can do better, at least when it comes to burgers. Drop your most impressive burger haiku -- following the 5,7,5 syllable form -- into the comments and I'll give the winner a big fat prize. (Probably a burger.) Here's one to get you started:
Sixty four burgers
beloved beef, salt and fat
compete for the prize
You can do better. Get started!
