Julia's Perfect Burger

Julia’s Perfect Burger


How do you make the perfect hamburger? I watch cooking shows. I get ideas from them. Maybe I want to experiment.

My latest idea is to make Julia Child’s recipe for hamburgers. I remember Julia on PBS. Her voice, her kitchen. Her flamboyant antics with chickens, flour.

Well, I begin. I am to mince shallots. Hmm. Chopping onions seems okay. I don’t mince, unless I walk in high heels. And I don’t have shallots.

Then divide meat into four portions. It says fresh ground beef. Mine was frozen, then thawed. Guess that will be okay. Then flatten each by chopping and spreading the meat with light strokes of your chef’s knife. What? I make them into patties by hand. I mean, they’re to be patties, right? Season with salt and pepper, season the shallots onions. Blend into the meat, chopping and turning it as you shape it into patties. Didn’t I already do that?

Moving on. It says to toast the buns and give them to your guests. Suggest they dress the bottom halves of the buns as you cook the burgers. Salt the bottom of a large hot pan and when the pan is very hot put in a patty. I am thinking the smoke alarm will go off right about now. So dressing the buns will be done outside, folks. Add the second burger, brown about 20 seconds, turn over cook until done, about 1 minute. Remove meat to platter. Repeat with other two patties. It doesn’t mention cheese. When do you do the cheese?

Place finished burgers on buns of guests as soon as possible so they can eat, if they haven’t already finished all the side dishes while they’ve been waiting outside.

This recipe sounds so stupidly easy, I just may try it next time. But maybe not. Sometimes when something sounds easy, it turns out to be a nightmare to fix. And when what you have been doing for years still works, why change? Hubby always fries the hamburgers. I’ll continue to let him do that job.

W/C 342