it was!
6.Turn out the dough onto a cutting board. With a dough scraper, cut the ball into eight equal pieces, like a pizza.
7.Line two sheet pans with parchment. Take each dough triangle in your palm, and make a ball with it.
8.Make an “OK” sign with your fingers, and push the ball up through the hole in the “OK”, so that the top of the ball gets stretched smooth. Then pinch the bottom of the ball to seal it.
9.Now, on your cutting board or other work surface, place a dough ball seam-down, cupping your hand in contact with the top. Quickly roll the ball inside your cupped hand a few times to finish the shaping. Do all eight like this.
10.Place the balls on the baking sheets a few inches apart from each other. Cover and let rise for 1.5 to 2 hours.
11.Now they have risen again to about twice their original size. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
12.Mix an egg yolk with a few drops of water, and using a brush, paint the tops of each ball with the mixture. Cover the whole top, but don’t worry about the sides, because drips are fine! Then sprinkle the tops with seeds. Be generous!
13.Bake for 10 minutes, and rotate the sheets. Bake for 8 to 10 more minutes.
14.You’ve got buns! Eat them today, or store in a plastic bag for 2 to 3 days. You can also freeze them!
Buns: Uh…
Ketchup: Buy it. You don’t need to use ketchup, but if you must, there’s really only one ketchup that you should buy.
Mayo: This one is tricky. Homemade mayonnaise is great, but so is mayo in a jar. If you are worried about using raw eggs in homemade, then buy mayo from the store. But if you have access to fresh organic eggs, try homemade.
Pickles: Tie. There are plenty of great pickles on your store shelf. Some of them, like sweet little gherkins, are hard to make, because you may not be able to get the right kind of cucumber, unless you grow them yourself. But dill pickles, that’s another story. They are easy to make, and you can find perfect sized pickling cucumbers and fresh dill at your farmers market. And the Quick Pickle recipe in this book is super easy!
Mustard: Tie. Mustard from the store usually contains the same few ingredients that you’d use at home. But making it is also fun.
American cheese: Buy. For this book, I tried to make homemade American cheese. No good.
Ground beef: Buy. I don’t grind meat. I just don’t. I let Eric the Butcher do that. You can grind it yourself if you want 100 percent control of what goes into the burgers, but if you know your butcher, you can trust that they’ll do it right.
Veggie burgers: Make. 100 percent. Veggie burgers are great! Making them at home will get you 100 percent real ingredients, with no weird fillers.
Immersion Blender Mayo
• 1 cup avocado oil
• 1 large egg (fresh, organic, room temperature)
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• ½ teaspoon Dijon mustard
• ¼ teaspoon salt
Place all ingredients in a jar or cup. Insert the stand mixer, and mix on high for about a minute. Then slowly move the mixer up and down, until it’s all white and looks like mayo! (About another minute or two.) Refrigerate until ready to use. Will keep for about two weeks.
Refrigerator Dills
• 4 pickling cucumbers
• 8 sprigs fresh dill
• 4 garlic cloves, peeled but kept whole
• 4 teaspoons black peppercorns
• 4 teaspoons coriander seed
For the Brine
• 2 cups water
• 4 tablespoons white vinegar
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt (or pickling salt)
Cut the cucumbers into round slices or spears. Divide the dill, garlic, peppercorns, and coriander seed between two clean pint jars. Then pack as much cut cucumber into the jars as possible.
In a pot, bring the water, vinegar, and salt to a boil. Remove from heat. Carefully pour this brine mixture over the cucumber and fill each jar. Screw on the lids, and put in fridge for a day or two before using. They will keep like this for a few months.
Dijon-Style Mustard
• ½ cup mustard seeds, a combination of brown and yellow
• ½ cup white wine
• ½ cup white wine vinegar
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon honey
In a small bowl, mix everything except the honey, and let it sit for about 24 hours.
The next day, add the honey, and mix in a blender. Put it in a lidded jar, and keep in your fridge for a day or two before using. The mustard will stay good until you eat it all.
Peas and carrots, Forrest and Jenny, peanut butter and jelly, and most importantly, Burgers and Buns. All legendary couples.
Simply put, if you begin with a great patty, and use a fresh homemade bun, you can stop there. With nothing else, you’re already a winner. Taking the burger further to legendary status is easy after you have the two key components.
I am a butcher. I’ll stick to the meaty parts and leave the bun part to Greg. He’s a bread wizard.
There are as many opinions on what makes a great burger patty as there are leaves on a tree. I think it comes down to three key factors: source, fat content, and grind.
