Posted by kenjialtci, August 25, 2008 at 10:45 AM
Editor's note: Kenji Alt is a food writer for Cook's Illustrated magazine who takes a special interest in burgers. He is also a madman. You might remember his post on The Blumenburger, where he followed Heston Blumenthal's burger recipe, which takes 30 hours, 4 minutes and requires 32 ingredients. He's back, this time with an epic feat that took only 8 hours but seems far more grueling in our book. I mean twelve burgers?
Don’t get me wrong. I love living in Boston, and the city’s got a lot to offer, but among those things, there are a few key items that are missing (particularly for a former New Yorker): delis, decent bagels, pizza (I’d settle for even vaguely edible pizza), good hot dogs, and great griddled burgers. Now there are a lot of locals who will disagree with me and point to any number of restaurants that serve acceptable but unremarkable chopped-meat sandwiches. I’ve yet to find one that I don’t take major issue with.
R. F. O’Sullivan is too damn big to eat with your hands. (Why don’t Boston burger joints understand the concept that bigger is not necessarily better?) Once you get past the atmosphere, Bartley’s Burger Cottage patties, while juicy and greasy, are underseasoned, mealy, and frankly, bland. And despite (or because of) UBurger's spurious claim that their burgers are made of fresh ground beef (don’t believe it—they buy preground chuck just like most other places and mix it together with a nominal amount of house-ground stuff), they cook up with that rubbery feel that only an overcompressed, overworked patty gets.
Yes, I have ground beef envy. New Yorkers have been blessed by a burger renaissance, and every couple of weeks, when my slight burger pangs become uncontrollable fits of sandwiched chopped-cow lust, I’m moved to take the 200-mile trip to the city. (Of course, my New Yorker fiancé believes me when I tell her that I’m coming down just to visit her.)
Like an alcoholic who gets wasted the night before jumping on the wagon, I decided to try to cure my burger cupidity by going on a daylong feeding frenzy. A burger bender, if you will: 12 burgers in 8 hours.
Continue reading »
Posted by Adam Kuban, August 14, 2008 at 11:00 AM
Fun Factoid
According to Wikipedia, "In the AMC Television series Mad Men, the employees of the Sterling Cooper advertising agency frequent P.J. Clarke's."
I've been to P. J. Clarke's a number of times—the original in Midtown East and the one near Lincoln Center (but not the one downtown). But the thing I always have to remind myself before I go is that, even though P. J. Clarke's is a pub, it does not serve a "pub burger."
What I mean is that P. J. Clarke's burger is not a gargantuan ten-ounce slightly flattened-softball-shape burger. You don't need a snake jaw to eat it, unlike so many of the sandwiches served at bars known for their burgers (I'm thinking Donovan's, Molly's, etc.).
Instead, you get what I'm guessing is closer to a five- or six-ounce patty, perfectly cooked to temperature, perfectly seasoned (OK, maybe just a bit too salty), and with just the right amount of char on it to give the surface some crunchy, chewy bits to play against the soft, juicy interior.
This is one great burger.
Continue reading »
Posted by Nick Solares, July 22, 2008 at 10:30 AM
If it's Tuesday, it must be time for another review from Nick Solares. Nick is also the publisher of Beef Aficionado, his blog that explores beef beyond burgerdom.
J. G. Melon has been mentioned quite a bit on A Hamburger Today and Serious Eats:New York lately. I listed it as one of the definitive burgers on Third Avenue as I made the case for that Manhattan street to be dubbed "Hamburger Alley." Bobby Flay named it as his favorite burger in an interview on SE:NY. And just last week Alan Richman ignobly removed it from his top burger list because of the "meatheads" who work there. The J. G. Melon burger is often listed on any legitimate survey of New York City's best burgers, and George Motz intended to feature it in his book Hamburger America, but no one at the bar would return his call. When I asked the manager about the latter situation, he was unaware of it but commented that they were probably too busy making burgers.
J. G. Melon is one of those bars that looks like it's been there forever but actually dates back to 1972. Not that that makes it a spring chicken (or should that be spring calf?) but the well-worn, kitschy decor (replete with numerous watermelon effigies) and tin ceiling all look decades older. The building itself is dark green, not unlike a watermelon, in fact, and the ceiling is red (but does not have any pits painted on). The front room that houses the bar and the kitchen is softly lighted with orange and yellow hues and leads to a rear dining room that is far darker. The kitchen is literally a shack, and despite its diminutive proportions, as many as three cooks work feverishly inside it, cranking out hundreds of burgers a day.
Continue reading »
Posted by lemons, October 15, 2007 at 1:15 PM
Editor's note: A short time ago, Serious Eater Ann Lemons contacted me about contributing some burger intel to A Hamburger Today/Serious Eats. "Sure thing!" I said. Here's the result. For more on St. Louis–area food, check out Lemons's blog: St. Louis Eats and Drinks. Enjoy! —Adam
Some fine hamburgers can be found in extremely humble surroundings. Others have emerged from surprisingly elegant environments, such as Palena in Washington, D.C. One of the nation's great burgers can be found in a near-perfect middle, O'Connell's Pub in St. Louis.
This is a fat hamburger, cooked over a flame and delivered, with a Bermuda onion slice and a pickle spear, on a thick, oval paper plate. Not surprisingly, they're cooked to order, and as big as these fellows are (10 ounces), this is not fast food.
The impatient may spend the waiting time with one of the housemade soups that change from day to day, and those who are burger-averse can consider the other specialty, a fine, freshly carved roast beef sandwich. O'Connell's is—and always has been—a place for eating and conversation. A TV set is used rarely except for the World Series. No music.
Continue reading »
