Last week I delved into the haute-cuisine of boxed stuffings with Williams Sonoma’s La Brea boxed stuffing mixes. Today, I nose-dived into the lowest of the low cuisine: cheeseburger dressing. Even though it was made at home, and with love, and from scratch—I have to say, with utmost gravity, I can’t believe people eat this.
It all started with White Castle’s much discussed hamburger stuffing for turkey. The original recipe contains the following ingredients: ten White Castle hamburgers, celery, dried thyme, dried sage, black pepper, and chicken stock. We, at the office, were mesmerized. Could I not recreate a gourmet version of this fast-food slow-cook at home?
So I took stock. I wasn’t just going to do hamburger stuffing—I was going to do Fast Food Nation stuffing: Cheeseburger and Fry Stuffing. Now I was beginning to get excited. Instead of buns, I used freshly baked Kaiser rolls.Ground sirloin was my burger meat, spiced with tomato paste and Worcestershire sauce instead of ketchup. As for onions and pickle and lettuce, I kept the onions, replaced the pickle with celery and the lettuce with fresh thyme. Then, I added chunks of extra sharp cheddar cheese, and, wait for it, steak fries—for contrast. While most stuffings call for stock, I said, hell no, this is a real American stuffing: I used beer. I baked and I waited. I tasted.
Ew! I have to say that my not-so-delicate sensibilities were thoroughly offended. I knew that this would have to be served as a dressing, and not stuffed inside the bird, but the first taste robbed me of my appetite. No Thanksgiving feast for me. Oh no. I’m done. There’s nothing wrong with it exactly. I mean, you wouldn’t die from eating it—at least, not until the cholesterol kicked in. The beer added great flavor, the meat was moist and flavorful, the cheese oozed out in pockets, the bread puffed up and tasted fresh. It’s just a bad idea. I understand why the Indians didn’t bring this to the first Thanksgiving. It would have started a war. I would rather have frozen in my failing plantation and died of scurvy than have eaten this Cheeseburger and Fry Dressing. Or frankly, if this all-American stuffing is what America stood for centuries ago, I would have turned right around, boarded my ship, and set sell for Old Britannia and religious persecution.
The only way I can think to improve this? Bacon. And maybe lard. Or maybe, to just not make it at all.
Has anyone tried the original White Castle recipe? Or made one from scratch like I did here? What did you think? Can you defend Cheeseburger and Fry stuffing?
haha! Thaz funny. Those ingredients sound good on their head, but I can see how baked together bad things might happen. We've all learned a valuable lesson today.
I'll tell you what the problem is here, you tried to make a 'gourmet' version of the white castle stuffing. How can you make white castle burgers any more gourmet?
If you answered 'that's impossible' you'd be correct.
Not to mention, how are you going to recreate that great taste and bowel shaking effect that White Castle has apparently mastered. I think the real deal needs to be made before any real opinions are formed.
I actually made a 6 or 7 course White Castle recipe book meal. It was what nightmares are made of, I'm sure of this. The stuffing was the least offensive out of all the rest of what we made. White Castle mincemeat pie? HORROR.
Normally, I'm all in favor of things that contain beef, cheese, ketchup, potatoes, bread, etc ... all the good things in life. But, this combination, baked in a turkey? Sounds like a good way to lose weight. Think about it and lose your appetite!
Honest to goodness, I had more fun reading all the other bloggers to this horrid gastronomic disaster, and I must concur to most of their sensibilities. If I were still living on west 82nd st. Manhattan, I might give it a try but out here in the wilderness of Hunterdon County, NJ I think I'll stick with natural corn fed venison. Happy Thanksgiving to all.
I've gotta say I'm a little surprised that you made improvements to the recipe by radically changing it before you even sampled the original. Looking over your ingredients list shows you didn't really "get it", have you even had a White Castle hamburger before?
The White Castle meat certainly isn't sirloin, it's something entirely different than any other meat you've ever tasted. There are a number of other qualities to a WC hamburger that you have to experience first hand.
You say you can't believe people eat this. People don't eat what you made, they eat White Castle stuffing in a handful of different configurations.
I've made the original recipe myself several times and think it pretty good, the last time I made it I took the stuffing out and separated it into loose balls. I then cooked it till each ball was a little crispy on the outside, it was really good. Better, I think, than the original. An improvement to something I'd tried, not just looked at on paper.
In short, if you are going to nose-dive into low cuisine, trust the locals.
So let me get this straight: you took a pretty tame recipe that's roughly equivalent to traditional sausage stuffing (it calls for no pickles, and sliders don't come with ketchup or mustard). Then you added beer, frozen fries, ketchup, and cheddar cheese. And this is making it "gourmet"? Yuck, of course that's a bad idea--you broke all of the bones of the recipe while emphasizing its superficial trashiness.
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15 Comments:
Three immediate problems:
Cheese
Beer
French Fries
How many Stuffing recipes do you see with these ingredients?
I suspect the White Castle recipe is quite tasty, except for not excluding the ketchup (perhaps a mistake in the recipe posting?).
Otherwise, it's meat, bread, onions, with added celery and seasonings. Yum.
peekpoke at 10:17AM on 11/24/08
haha! Thaz funny. Those ingredients sound good on their head, but I can see how baked together bad things might happen. We've all learned a valuable lesson today.
Laurel E at 10:30AM on 11/24/08
Um. No. I'll be sticking with Pepperidge Farm Cornbread Stuffing...thanks.
juliebugsmama at 10:38AM on 11/24/08
Yeah, beer was a bad idea -- yeasty, hoppy bitterness isn't a good replacement for chicken stock, which is salty and savory.
And using fries in addition to bread cubes was probably overkill. The bread is there to soak up liquid -- and so would the potatoes.
me3dia at 12:17PM on 11/24/08
I ate like 5 servings of this. But I was probably really hungry.
Robyn Lee at 12:26PM on 11/24/08
This may qualify as the worst food idea I've ever seen or read about. Which is saying quite a lot. Nice work!
ccbweb at 12:37PM on 11/24/08
i'll be honest, i kinda gnarred in my throat a little right there.
gastronomeg at 12:56PM on 11/24/08
I'll tell you what the problem is here, you tried to make a 'gourmet' version of the white castle stuffing. How can you make white castle burgers any more gourmet?
If you answered 'that's impossible' you'd be correct.
Not to mention, how are you going to recreate that great taste and bowel shaking effect that White Castle has apparently mastered. I think the real deal needs to be made before any real opinions are formed.
combo at 1:55PM on 11/24/08
... okay, maybe I'm the only dissenter here (maybe Roboppy agrees?), but that sounds.. kind of good, albeit in a "use in moderation" type of way.
jangkaeng at 2:04AM on 11/25/08
If you added a pound of butter to this mess it could have come from Paula Deen.
RichardCrystal at 1:41PM on 11/25/08
I actually made a 6 or 7 course White Castle recipe book meal. It was what nightmares are made of, I'm sure of this. The stuffing was the least offensive out of all the rest of what we made. White Castle mincemeat pie? HORROR.
O_Leaozinho at 4:19PM on 11/25/08
Normally, I'm all in favor of things that contain beef, cheese, ketchup, potatoes, bread, etc ... all the good things in life. But, this combination, baked in a turkey? Sounds like a good way to lose weight. Think about it and lose your appetite!
Thanks for trying this ...
KuyasKitchen at 6:54PM on 11/25/08
Honest to goodness, I had more fun reading all the other bloggers to this horrid gastronomic disaster, and I must concur to most of their sensibilities. If I were still living on west 82nd st. Manhattan, I might give it a try but out here in the wilderness of Hunterdon County, NJ I think I'll stick with natural corn fed venison. Happy Thanksgiving to all.
asstchief48 at 5:05PM on 11/26/08
I've gotta say I'm a little surprised that you made improvements to the recipe by radically changing it before you even sampled the original. Looking over your ingredients list shows you didn't really "get it", have you even had a White Castle hamburger before?
The White Castle meat certainly isn't sirloin, it's something entirely different than any other meat you've ever tasted. There are a number of other qualities to a WC hamburger that you have to experience first hand.
You say you can't believe people eat this. People don't eat what you made, they eat White Castle stuffing in a handful of different configurations.
I've made the original recipe myself several times and think it pretty good, the last time I made it I took the stuffing out and separated it into loose balls. I then cooked it till each ball was a little crispy on the outside, it was really good. Better, I think, than the original. An improvement to something I'd tried, not just looked at on paper.
In short, if you are going to nose-dive into low cuisine, trust the locals.
tim h at 2:14PM on 12/24/08
So let me get this straight: you took a pretty tame recipe that's roughly equivalent to traditional sausage stuffing (it calls for no pickles, and sliders don't come with ketchup or mustard). Then you added beer, frozen fries, ketchup, and cheddar cheese. And this is making it "gourmet"? Yuck, of course that's a bad idea--you broke all of the bones of the recipe while emphasizing its superficial trashiness.
skizziks at 1:02PM on 03/30/09