THE BIG BURGER

Beef, Recipes

You only live once and might as well go full throttle. This is a single-serving burger, for special people on special occasions. We’re converting half a kilogram of pure-beef mince into four bespoke hamburger patties. They are sealed on a grid over very hot coals and then basted on both sides. Cheese goes onto each hot patty as they come off the fire (in this case, we’re going for the highest-quality processed Cheddar-flavoured cheese spread you can find), ensuring maximum flavour and increased melting. An entirely epic ultimate braai tower of power.

Ingredients

  • 500 g lean beef mince
  • 1 hamburger roll (a relatively substantial one)
  • 2 tots tomato sauce
  • 2 tots chutney
  • 1 tot Worcestershire sauce
  • butter or olive oil
  • lettuce 
  • 1 tomato (sliced)
  • 1 onion (sliced)
  • Cheddar cheese spread
  • 1 skewer

Method

  1. Convert the 500 g lean beef mince into four equally sized, 100% pure-beef patties. Pure mince binds perfectly for a great patty – don’t add anything like onion, breadcrumbs, egg, spices, salt or pepper. Your two recently washed hands are entirely capable of forming patties from mince but a patty press makes the job even easier. To be clear, all four of these patties will go onto the same burger. We’re doing homemade patties because you need the slight imperfection of it for the character of this burger. As you want the stack to hold up, err on the side of a patty with larger diameter as opposed to a thicker one. 
  2. Make the basting by mixing the tomato sauce, chutney and Worcestershire sauce.
  3. Braai the patties in a grid over very hot coals. Aim for 8 minutes’ braai time in total. In this case, you want to baste the patties with the sauce during the braai and after the final turn, while handing and turning the patties as little as possible. Logically, this means gently laying the patties on the grid (don’t press them into the grid and let them get stuck). After about 3 minutes, you turn and baste. After another 3 minutes, you turn and baste. A minute later, as the basted side now facing the coals starts to sizzle, you turn a final time and then spread cheese onto each patty. As soon as the basting on the side now facing the coals starts to sizzle, remove from the fire and build the burger. 
  4. Butter or oil the insides of the cut roll and toast on the grid during the last minute or two of the patties being braaied, taking care not to over-toast (burn) them. 
  5. Assemble the burger: Roll, lettuce, tomato, onion, patty, patty, patty, onion, tomato, lettuce, roll. If things are getting out of control use a skewer straight down the middle to provide some backbone.

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