The Ultimate Burger – Redneck Cooking

Our Guest Clacker today is Jeff Love: Oudoorsman, Chef, Engineer, and all around great guy. To hell with the Rabbit food — I want to eat the Rabbit. https://jeffsshack.blogspot.com/

What is your favorite food? Mine is a cheeseburger. Where do you get your favorite burger? I prefer to make my own. I have yet to find any restaurant that can make a burger as good as mine. A lot of people think that a burger is the easiest thing to cook — just grab a handful of hamburger, smash it into a flat disk and fry it in a skillet. If you want a meal that will satisfy your hunger but leave your taste buds wanting more then this is fine, but if you want to experience the ultimate in taste and satisfaction, the burger is the most difficult meal to prepare. To start with, do not use cheap ground beef to make your burgers.

The Ultimate Burger

Ingredients:

2 pounds ground steak
1 pound pork sausage
1 pound thick sliced bacon
1 medium to large onion
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon liquid smoke
thick sliced cheese of your favorite type

I prefer to use ground back strap from an elk. The smell of elk cooking makes my mouth water like nothing else can. If you do not have elk or deer back strap, you can grind up some beef steak or just buy a couple pounds of ground chuck.

Start by chopping the onions; then in a large bowl, mix the ground steak and pork sausage. Mix them thoroughly then add the onion and mix that in. Mix in 2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce and a teaspoon of liquid smoke. Go easy on the liquid smoke. Too much and your burgers taste like they were slow cooked in a forest fire and people will question what you are feeding them.You are, after all, feeding them elk.

Next, form the mixed meat into 8 patties and place them on wax paper so they don’t stick together and place them in the fridge while you cook the bacon. Preheat a large cast iron skillet over medium heat. I like to use cast iron because it heats more evenly than those aluminum pans. My wife prefers them because they keep me in line without denting. Fry the bacon to your desired crispness, and set aside to drain on a paper towel. If you are concerned about your cholesterol level, drain all but about 2 tablespoons of the bacon grease out of the pan before you cook the burgers. Otherwise just cook them in all that hot grease.

If you are planning on grilling these burgers, you can cook the bacon before you mix the burgers and after the grease cools enough to not burn your hands, mix it into the burgers. After cooking the burgers, add a slice of cheese and two or three strips of bacon. Leave them in the skillet until the cheese melts. While the cheese is melting, lightly toast the buns so they are ready. Add your favorite toppings and enjoy.