There’s something on TV right now where a guy is in Connecticut eating a steamed burger. The burger is actually cooked in a steam cabinet. WTFO?
They say that the burger is juicy but the fat and oils are drained off. OK, so maybe it’s somewhat healthy. My dad covered his (extremely large) burgers when he cooked them, then covered them again after adding cheese. Similar concept, but the burger was actually cooked in a pan and the steam was that that was contained under the cover. They were pretty good, but I still preferred cooking mine uncovered. The Clover Grill in New Orleans cooks their burgers under hubcaps, and I liked them.
But I’ve never heard of a burger being cooked in a steam cabinet. It just sounds wrong.
Yeah, I saw a restauranteur do the “cover the burger with a metal bowl to steam it” trick on Man vs. Food. He was cooking the burger on a grill, but he covered it to keep more moisture in the burger and also to make the toppings melt/cook evenly.
As for totally steamed burgers, I’ve heard that White Castle or Krystal (maybe both) totally steam-cook their burgers, but I’ve never been to one of those places. It would make sense, though; they’re pretty thin patties and flipping all those little burgers by hand would be tedious, I imagine
Kinda sorta. They’re made in a process they call “steam frying.” Onions are laid down on a griddle, the patties are placed on top of them, along with the bun, and they sit there until they’re cooked. You can see the process here.
The type of process Ted’s uses (I’m assuming that’s the place the OP is talking about–it’s kind of famous for those people who read up on these sorts of things) it’s done in a cabinet like in this video. I guess the process is similar, but all the fat is allowed to run off in this process, and that’s not quite the case in White Castle’s approach.
I’ve never had a burger steamed like that, and I can’t possibly understand why anyone would want to do that, but, who knows? Maybe it’s good. I like White Castle well enough to enjoy them from time to time, but I’m not sure that experience would transfer over to the big hamburgers Ted’s uses.
That’s the main problem for me. They look like colorless turds in that video. Not appetizing at all. At least with your dad’s method, you’re hopefully getting some browning action from them sitting on the pan and in the grease. With these, nothing. That’s my favorite bit of the burger. While I like a nice half-pound grilled burger cooked rare from time to time, I love the six-to-a-pound, super-thin fast-food style patties, too, because you can get a lot of Maillard browning going on and nice crispy bits. Sure, you sacrifice the rare goodness of a thick burger, but a double or triple stack of those 1/6 pounders, with all that browning. Yum.
That does look like my kind of burger. Next time I find myself in Seattle, I’ll have to pop in.
I’ve actually quite gotten into the “smash” burger technique when I make the thin style at home for myself. Every instinct in my soul tells me not to do it, the juices run out, the burger will end up dry, etc. But I saw someone post about it last year here and I tried it. You know what? It works awesome for me. Yes, the juices do run out, but they also brown up really nicely, almost as if you’re giving the burger a nice thin coat of meat glaze/glace de viande.
I make 1/3-pound burgers at home. I make them as flat as I can and still have them fit in a 7" pan. They shrink a bit, but still tend to hang out over the bread if I get them flat enough.
Agreed. I was very skeptical about this, but they’re outstanding. I make a ball, put it between two pieces of wax paper, and smack it with a cast iron skillet. They cook quickly and are remarkably juicy.
