Recipe:Mildenburger
Introduction
We ( FHB ) made this burger during the CCCamp_2015 in Mildenberg, Germany from donated ingredients. It worked out well enough that written instructions have been made available under the GPLv3. This instruction set including ingredient list is written in Interlingua for cross-contenental compatibility in a modular fashion to ensure unit-compatibility and scalability.
This recipe has been divided into sections for comprehensibility. Don't forget to take the ingredient list with you when you go shopping. The components section identifies logical divisions of the ingredients based on stratum. Preparation details combining ingredients to make components and assembling the finished product once patties have cooked.
Ingredients
For 5 Mildenburgers from 600G of beef / beef + schwein mix:
- 5 Buns
- 1 Large Tomato (topping)
- Sauerkraut (topping)
- 150g Piquant cheese (topping)
- BBQ Sauce (topping)
- 600g Beef (patty mix)
- 1 Large yellow/white onion (patty mix)
- 1 Egg (patty mix)
- Cinnamon powder (patty mix)
- 1 Flavorful chilli pepper (patty mix)
- 200g Crimini/button mushrooms (patty component)
Components
Bun
As hamburgers are basically sandwiches, the first consideration should be the bread. Bread is a natural product of fermentation. Ideally, your burgers' buns should be too. If you do not find it practical to make your own, then follow these bun guidelines:
- It should have some % whole wheat or rye, it should be soft, absorptive, and not crumbly. If the bun is too hard it can wedge your tomato out of the bun ( which is especially problematic with thourally mustareded buns ).
- The bun, when toasted, must conform to the shape of burger + toppings so not to displace them. Please select carefully to avoid a mess.
- If you can feel with your thumb the presence of a crust the bun is likely too hard for this purpose.
Toppings
These are your burgers and it comes down to your choice. Avoiding lettuce as unsubstantial and superficial, pickles or other fermented products are recommended. Saurkraut, which is mostly pickled cabbage along with BBQ sauce, and a slice of tomato are presented as reference toppings.
Patty
The patty is formed with ground meat, chopped onion, a chilli pepper, cinnamon powder, and egg to bind the ingredients. Thoroughly mix in a bowl for "patty mix."
Preparation
The goal while preparing food is to maintain excellent sanitation. Caution must be exercised to avoid contaminating uncooked food-stuffs with raw meat or other unintended contamination. With practice and planning you may at a minimum wash your hands two times while preparing this recipe. Once before you begin, and once after you handle raw meat. To avoid extra washing it's necessary to prepare all the burger components before handling the meat. Ideally, forming the pattys and placing them on the grill should be your final step or you will end up having to wash your hands a few more times. Washing your hands with soap is one of the most disruptive things you do to your skin on a daily basis so plan ahead to avoid excessive washing.
Latex gloves are an option, but be sure the gloves are not coated with some inedible powder or your burgers may taste like that latex powder!
Besides the art of washing your hands as little as possible while still maintaing excellent sanitation (AKA Cooking), attention should be paid to the order of operations and process scheduling to minimize prep/cook time. Here is the schedule i generally follow to prepare the burgers in as little time as possible. Thankfully these dual-goals of efficiency and sanitation are compatible!
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 20 min
Forming patties
A 1/4lb (113.4 g ) burger is the standard size; 1/9kg ( 111 g) is the analogous metric size. But, no matter the unit system you are using you can follow this simple rule-of-thumb for authentic sized burgers. Take a hand-full of the patty mix about the size of a baseball. Toss the baseball-sized patty mix between your hands about half-a-dozen times to close any air pockets, compact, and settle the patty mix. Once your patty mix is a solid compacted baseball-sized meat-ball, flatten it between the palms of your hand to form a patty and place it on the grill.
Cooking
Cook the burgers over medium heat on a charcoal grill. Once finished forming and laying the patties on the grill/hotplate, cover the top of the burgers with sliced mushrooms. After 10 minutes flipe the burgers over so the mushrooms face the heat. Five minutes later, place the cheese on top of the burger to melt, and 5 min later the burgers are ready.
Serving suggestions
Serve the burgers as a second course following a salad or salsa with a beer, lemonade, or iced tea.