start with great beef, there’s really no need to jazz it up with anything other than salt and pepper. Like a ripe tomato, they’re delicious as-is, whereas a tomato in winter is going to need serious work even to get it to “OK.”
Fat content controls the flavor and juice of a burger. Simply put, if a grind is too lean (90 percent or more), a burger will taste dry, tough, and pretty bland. A grind that is too fatty (30 percent or more), will eat greasy, and good luck trying to cook these on a grill. (Good-bye eyebrows.) At my butcher shop, V. Miller Meats (shameless plug), we shoot for 80/20. This allows the burgers to be flavorful, cook easily, and taste great. We start the blend with about 50 percent chuck for a good base (chuck is naturally about 25 percent fat), and add various trimmings from the morning butchery action. This usually includes sirloin (lean), rib eye (fatty), and other delicious bits from all over the animal—always shooting for that 80/20 percentage.
The grind and patty processes are overlooked all too often. I have very few absolutes in my world, but one of them is grinding beef only once. This allows for the burger to still have a meaty texture, and for the fat to cook into the burger, and not fireball on the grill. One way you can tell if your beef has been ground more than once is to ask. Butchers love to chat about this stuff. What’s in the grind today (remember fat content)? When was this ground (freshness counts)? How many times was it ground? If more than once, it tells me the fat is likely to break out when I cook the burger. If the butcher seems disturbed or annoyed by your questions, maybe go looking for a new butcher. When making the patty, I find a ring mold works great. I put down parchment paper and lightly pat the beef into the mold. Lightly packing the meat makes a little more delicate patty, and gives a great meaty mouth-feel to your burger.
I hope this helps. I hope you dig this book. Greg has been a great partner in crime on many meaty top-secret projects, and you’ve never seen a bunch of butchers swoon like when he comes into the shop with a batch of “tester buns.”
Eric V. Miller
V. Miller Meats Craft Butchery
To me, organic farming is not just a method of growing fruits and vegetables, but is more like a way of life, dedicated to preserving and protecting our agricultural lands, enriching our understanding of natural biological processes, and creating a more vibrant community centered around the food we eat every day.
The true meaning of organic agriculture begins and ends with the health of our soil. The earth has, over millennia, provided us with all the nutrients and minerals we need to grow spectacular produce, and, as an organic farmer, it is my job to preserve the biological processes already present in the soil, so that we can enjoy the bounty of the harvest for generations to come.
By avoiding pesticides, herbicides, and other chemicals, I can allow the hardy ecosystem of earthworms, good bacteria, and other parts of our living soil to thrive and work their magic in giving us delicious crops to enjoy at our dinner tables. Several techniques, including good crop rotation, well-timed plantings, minimal tillage, cover cropping, efficient irrigation, and the incorporation of organic compost into the soil, all contribute to building a robust organic farming system.
One of the most essential aspects of being a farmer is the opportunity to help foster community around the food we provide. So while we build our soil, we also share the fruits of our labor with all our friends and neighbors at our local farmers’ market. If I can introduce a customer to vegetables they have never tried before, and get them to take those vegetables home to their families, where they cook new meals, share different tastes, trade stories, and create stronger bonds over the food I produce, it makes the hard work, effort, and dedication I’ve put into becoming a good farmer all worthwhile.
Jay Cuff
Hearty Fork Farm
“There is no chiropractic treatment, no Yoga exercise, no hour of meditation in a music-throbbing chapel, that will leave you emptier of bad thoughts than this homely ceremony of making bread.”
―M.F.K. Fisher, The Art of Eating
I still don’t really identify myself as a baker, even though there are a lot of folks that only know me as a baker. I still say “graphic designer” when someone asks what I do. But what I really do is bake. I bake all the time. I bake loaves, I bake buns, I bake English muffins. There is always a loaf either on its way, or noodling around in my brain, trying to get out. But I don’t work in a bakery, and I never have. I did plenty of time in a kitchen, but never in a real, working bakery.
Baking allows me time to breathe each day I do it. It gives me a break from the bustle of getting my kid to school, packing lunches, answering emails and texts, plus cramming in a full day of work. Baking has little moments built into the process that force you to take a break. It’s been an hour—time to punch down the dough. It’s doubled in size—time to roll the buns. It’s rested for 20 minutes—time for the salt. These little moments bring me out of my head and my regular work life, and force me to be present, even just for a few minutes.
There’s a magic to taking a few ingredients, mixing and kneading, and turning them into a work of art. I think it’s important to know how to make and serve your friends and family the bread that came from your own hands, and was baked in your own oven. No thiamin mononitrate. No soy lecithin. Riboflavin? Nope. So, it’s going to get moldy more quickly. It’s going to dry out after a few days. But those are good things! It’s scarier to see a loaf of bread that doesn’t get moldy. I’ll take the mold.
Another thing baking does is that it allows one to make connections that might not have happened without bread. I bake so much that my little family couldn’t possibly eat all that I make, so I give it away. I call it “bread bombing,” and it’s the best. Think of it as a “ding dong ditch,” but instead, you leave a loaf of fresh sourdough. I think that sharing food, especially something you created, is one of the most rewarding things you can do. It fills my cup, and fills someone else with bread.
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