Plain Ol’ All American Hamburgers
 |
Plain ol’ hamburgers. What’s so good about them? Everything. Identified as decidedly American, hamburgers are a connectional food within our culinary melting pot. They’re eaten in every culture and cuisine that consumes beef.
Backyard cookouts will feature hamburgers and hotdogs more often than anything else. When we had out-of-town company at our house, one meal was sure to be grilled hamburgers. They were quick, easy and crowd pleasing. My mother didn’t enjoy cooking and she found preparing large meals stressful. Hamburgers filled the bill for a stress-free meal that everyone enjoyed.
My grandparents loved homemade hamburgers. They loved hamburgers in general, but homemade hamburgers were a special treat for them. They looked forward to those with the same anticipation as I do Thanksgiving Day. Beef wasn’t a staple for them in their earlier years. If they had meat at all, more than likely it would be chicken or pork. Perhaps that contributed to part of their excitement over hamburgers. And you can’t escape the fact that grilled hamburgers just flat-out taste good. The lilt of Granddaddy’s diction resulted in hamburger being pronounced as ham – BUR – ger. He placed the emphasis on the second syllable instead of the first. It wasn’t done to call attention to the word or himself, that was simply his pronunciation. I loved it when it talked about homemade ham – BUR – gers. The music still rings in my ears and I consider that a blessing. May I remember that the longest day I live.
After I was grown and returned to visit my grandparents, I would always suggest that we take a drive around. As I child, they would take us on drives frequently. We would drive around town and out in the country with Granny narrating the trip and pointing out the high points such as who lives in which house and who had recently died. A drive was entertainment to them. Granddaddy had stopped driving anymore than was necessary and Granny never learned to drive. I was sure they were missing their drive times. So, off in the car we would go with me asking them to tell me what they wanted to see. It wound up being the same thing every single time. ‘Let’s go on the highway t’wards Samson.” Lest you be under the delusion that the Sampson highway was scenic, let me reassure you there was nothing to see. Well, almost nothing. There was a grain silo. Granddaddy would tell me each time, “You see that grain silo, Jack? I delivered either the first or second load of peanuts they ever was delivered to that sil0. I delivered ’em with a mule and wagon.” We talked about that and how he waited in line to deliver his load and how he always wondered how many acres he could plow if he’d ever had a tractor instead of mule and plow. Then, they would suggest that we go to the first fast food restaurant that came to their town of Geneva: Hardee’s. Granddaddy would say, “They make good little ham – BUR -gers. I would have taken them anyplace they wanted to go. They always wanted to see the grain silo and get a Hardee’s hamburger. While that might seem boring and uninspired to some, to my grandparents it was Disney World. I was happy being the engineer driving the monorail.
Y’all come see us.
***********
Plain Ol’ Hamburgers
You need ground beef that’s an 80/20 composition. If it’s any leaner, you’ll need to use a binding agent like bread and/or eggs. It’s hard to pin down a cooking time because of so many variables: thickness of the patties, cooking temperature, personal preference for doneness. When the edges of the burgers have started to turn grayish/brown, that’s a good time to flip them. Then, it’s up to you how much longer you want to cook them. The second side takes a few minutes less than the first unless you want to cook the burgers to death. The FDA recommends that ground beef ‘s cooked to an internal temperature of 160 degrees which is well done. I didn’t make up the rules, I’m just reporting them. The 3 inch wide, 1 1/2 inch thick burgers that I had today cooked a total of 18 minutes, 10 minutes on the first side and 8 minutes on the flip side, and were juicy and just a tad bit pink on the inside. They were perfectly suited to my liking.
For juicy burgers,you must follow two rules. Rule number one: Only flip your burgers once. That means one time. That means you’re not going to stand there flipping the things back and forth like they’re soccer balls. Rule number two: (I’m so sorry, but I have to yell this one) DO NOT SQUISH DOWN ON YOUR BURGERS WITH THE SPATULA YOU’RE HOLDING IN YOUR HANDS. WHEN IT COMES TO BURGERS, SPATULAS ARE FOR FLIPPING, NOT SQUISHING. (Back to normal voice now). Every time you squish down on your burgers, you are sending flavor and juice right down to the grates of your grill. Unless you plan on eating your grates, you’re losing flavor and juice that you’ll never get back. That’s a cryin’ shame in this world.
For beef patties:
1 pound 80/20 ground beef
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon Season-all Seasoned Salt
For bread:
Hamburger buns
olive oil
salt and pepper
For toppings:
lettuce
tomato, sliced
dill slices
onion
ketchup
mayonnaise
mustard
Mix ground beef, water and Season-all.
Shape into patties. Out of this scant pound of ground beef, I made 3 patties that were 3 inches wide and 1 1/2 inches thick.
Place on a hot, well-greased grill.
Cook until the edges lose their pink color and turn grayish/brown. Flip one time. DO NOT SQUISH. So sorry that I had to yell again. Meanwhile, drizzle olive oil over the buns and sprinkle with salt and pepper. If you’re not accustomed to seasoning your bread, you should try it. Salt, pepper and olive oil adds flavor to bread just like it does to anything else.
Cook the burgers to your liking, top with a slice of cheese and place the bread, cut side down, on the grill to toast. It will take about the same amount of time to toast the bread and melt the cheese.
Time for burger making. Let’s start with the toppings: lettuce, tomato, sweet onion and dill pickle slices. We are between tomato seasons now. The only tomatoes I can find that are consistently good are grape tomatoes. My preference for a good hamburger is a thick slice of big, great tasting tomato. Instead of buying big tasteless grocery story tomatoes, I would rather use grape tomatoes with taste even though the grapes tomatoes will keep falling off the burger while you eat it. I refuse to compromise flavor for convenience. You can’t eat convenience.
Condiments: mayonnaise, ketchup and mustard. Yes, we put mayonnaise on hamburgers. It seems strange that folks find this strange. A hamburger is a sandwich. Sandwiches require mayonnaise.
Here’s your ham – BUR – ger.
|
who doesn’t love Hamburger, I guess I was only 6 years old when hamburger first taste and after that I am really fan burger I love eating it specially when it is grilled.
Raquel,
There’s nothing like a good grilled hamburger! Enjoy!
Seems like we all used to drive around more! It was a Sunday thing at our house. Mom and Dad would have lunch and then off we would go maybe to the river and see what was going on or maybe when it was fall drive to where the trees were the prettiest. Shame we don’t do that anymore.
I agree about the grape tomatoes. Could you chop them with the onion and put on your burger? That might stop the falling off!
Jean,
Your suggestions about chopping the grape tomatoes and onions is EXCELLENT! Why didn’t I think of that??
We don’t do pleasure driving like we used to. Maybe we get tired of all the driving and traffic that’s become part of the daily grind. That’s a shame, too!
As always, thanks so much for reading and commenting, Jean!
I love our stories. My heart twinged at the thought of you and your grandparents zipping off on those nostalgic drives. There’s just something about the twinkle in an old persons eyes as they relive moments. It captures my full attention. (Good thing I wasn’t driving!!) Thank you so much for sharing.
We love burgers here, too. We’re not beef snobs either, we’ll do pork, turkey and even goat burgers.
I’ve never added water to the meat mixture…I’m excited to use that recipe today! We were planning burgers for our Labor Day fun anyway. Now they’ll be super awesome with my new tips.
Hugs and Happy hamBURgers,
Nancy
Nancy,
I wish for you a safe and happy Labor Day celebration. Enjoy your ham BUR gers!
Jackie, hope you and your family have an Awesome Labor Day!! You made me smile at my husband–he is like your Grandfather..a hamBURger kinda guy. We went to Outback, you know the place with the Vidalia that blooms, and he got a hamBURger and said it was the BEST!!
Margaret,
I agree that you just can’t beat a good ham BUR ger! Kudos to Mr. Martin! Have a happy Labor Day!
Growing up we always went for Sunday afternoon drives. My two sisters and I would sit in the backseat singing and pretending to be the McGuire Sisters (what a hoot). I bet we gave mama and daddy a lot of laughs – we thought we sounded like the originals!! LOL!! You are right the best burgers are just plain burgers – no fancy fixins! Hamburgers cooked on the grill are the best. Happy Labor Day! Keep bringing us your memories, and reminding us of ours!!!
P.S. Yes, MAYO on burgers!!!!!! Mayo ,lettuce, tomato makes a Deluxe Hamburger!!
Mary,
Yea for mayo on burgers!! I would have loved to hear the “McGuire Sisters” in the backseat of my car. Thanks for sharing, Mary!!
I always enjoy your stories Jackie brings back some great memories. My parents religiously had BUR gers every Saturday night (rain or shine) along with baked beans, usually some frozen wavy french fries and a large toss salad with oil and vinegar dressing. Those fries were usually stale, hard, all dried out and would make you gag and you could chip a tooth if you did not soak the ends in ketchup for a few minutes. If company came over it was, “Hi come on in and have a glass of ice tea. Pull up a chair how would you like your BURger?” My mom’s always made her oil & vinegar dressing in old jelly jar never measured anything don’t think she ever used anything fancy. She always toasted the rolls in the oven I guess because of my dad. So every now and then someone would forget about the buns in the oven and it would get rather interesting as the kitchen filled with burning bread aromas as the smoke alarm go off down the hall way. I had to remove the one in the kitchen it never had a chance. We normally used cheap paper plates, plastic cups & silverware anything to save from doing the dishes in our household. I don’t know why because I usually got stuck doing them anyway? My mom normally just salt & peppered the BURgers with a dash of meat tenderizer. Nothing fancy she made them thick and then if not grilled outside fried them up with a bunch of vidalia onions in her iron skillet. The whole house would fill up with smoke even with the exhaust vent on high it was no match for my momma fried foods.(lol) Don’t know how many times the smoke alarm went off down the hallway? Thus after a few request we eventually went back to grilling outside again because the kitchen was usually filled with smoke before we ate. My mom always put out a plate of regular or fancy lettuce, sliced juicy red roman tomatoes, sliced and chopped sweet vidalia onions, grease fried onions, sliced dill or sweet pickles, relish, sliced cheese, ketchup, mayonnaise, mustard, salt & pepper. Sometimes we had cucumbers, beets with onions or melon. So the table was loaded. We usually had ice tea or milk to drink. My dad always put x-sharp cheddar cheese on his burger, my mom was not a burger nor hot dog fan she had issues with red meat. If she saw any pink in her BURger it was send back. So it was always something eventful when we ate out. Your joy rides reminded me of my parents who often took Sunday rides in the country (must have been a mental vacation for them with 5 kids) just to get out of the house. My dad was so funny whenever he would get involved in a good conversation he would kind of forget he was still driving so it was always a religious experience.
Tom,
What a delightful story!! Those kinds of memories are just the best. It seems that you appreciate your humble beginnings just as I do. I wouldn’t trade my upbringing for anything in the world.
I have a couple different burgers on my blog that I love to grill but good ole basic All American Burgers are always my favorite standby burger – you probably knew that already though, didn’t you?
Hope you had a blessed and wonderful Labor Day holiday weekend Jackie & may your labors continue to bring you your heart’s desires.
Mary,
I hope you and your family enjoyed a wonderful holiday weekend. We will be getting ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas before we turn around good.
If I’m going to eat a hamburger, I want a classic All American just like I wrote about in this post. And I want them cooked right. They are supposed to be abundantly juicy. It should be a crime to squish down the burgers on the grill and send all that juice and flavor right down to the grates. Just sayin’…….
Thanks for stopping by, Miss Mary!
Love grilled hamburgers, not matter how you say it! but…if you want to bring it up a notch, homemade hamburger buns are absolutely amazing with homemade patties (I see a trend here) … and so, so easy to do. Homemade condiments are much better too, but one step at a time. And to finish it off, homemade ice cream. I love it when the kids and grand kids come over — makes it a reason to do all this!
Brenda,
It sounds like you serve hamburgers in style! What a lucky family you have. I’m sure they appreciate your efforts.
When I moved to the south, they teased me about the way I said it : hambugger”. One syllable. I love mine with everything and extra pickles.
Chris,
I’m like mine all the way, too! Just make sure the tomatoes are good!
Jackie, I am so enjoying your recipes, stories and memories. Your grandparents and me would have been the best of buddies. Hamburgers are my most favorite food. I loved hearing of you driving them to Geneva and eating at Hardees. My grandparents were from Geneva, my Mom was born and raised in Geneva but moved to Opelika when she was 12. I also have many fond memories of visiting Geneva as a child. Do you remember the Cafe and Oyster Bar? My great-grandparents owned the cafe and then my Aunt Mae and her husband owned it and the oyster bar. Enough rambling thanks for bringing back great memories.
Hamburger hugs,
Cathy
Cathy,
I just sent you a private email message.