A Burger Scholar Breaks Down Classic Regional Burger Styles | The Burger Show

How many ham

burger

s have you really eaten? You think probably the last 15 years of intense research has probably listed like 12,000 ham

burger

s. Gosh, for some people, hamburgers bring to mind the perfect proportions of an emoji keyboard because of the familiarity of the golden arches, but fans like it. To me, the beauty of the burger is in its differences, no one understands the nuances of burgers across the country like burger Lord George Motz, whose badass book Burger America became the holy grail for burger fans. Today I'm heading to his house in Brooklyn to take a break. Of course, in three

regional

burger

styles

, so along my burger journey, I'm starting to realize that burgers are like barbecue, you know, there's Carolina-style barbecue, there's barbecue of Texas or Santa María Saal and many people do not know it. the burgers are the same, there are a lot of

regional

differences, I mean there must be about a hundred different ones, I know a hundred different regional varieties and burgers in America and each one is a little piece of history that is attached to the original.

American hamburger What is the history of the original hamburger in the United States? It can actually be traced back to 13th century Russia. The Tatars and Mongols apparently rode around and took pieces of lamb and put them under their saddles as they rode away. They tenderized the meat and took it out and ate it somehow, raw lamb crossed the Baltic Sea all the way to Germany and then it became raw minced meat and it was in Germany that they first started cooking meat and serving it. on a plate and called it Hamburg steak because it was mainly served in Hamburg when people emigrated and left the port of Hamburg, they would end up in New York City at the base, they were happy but they would once again encounter Germans selling Hamburg steak.

Hamburg. By the turn of the century, the popularity of the Hamburg steak had grown so much that it was served at state fairs. Things were becoming portable, so someone said, why don't we take the Hamburg steak and put it on bread? And that was the beginning of the burger. Yes, in the United States, the rest is history. What I've learned is that it's not really about seasoning. I mean, anyone could take the tops and put them on a burger, but in America it seems like in these regional pockets it's all about method. the burgers done I'm going to make three regional burgers today okay I'm going to make the Tennessee fried burger the Oklahoma fried onion burger and the Connecticut steamed cheeseburger amazing let's do it before the days of flat tops or drains and you know they get stuck in the cooked pans and the pan will eventually fill up with beef tallow, they realize they don't have time to throw it away, it's too hot to move on and they realize after a while that people he likes the taste of fried meat there's a place you go to in Tennessee called Dyers, they actually had the oil and the same fat in the pan for over a hundred years.

Wow, infinite, the Japanese have that with their yakitori sauces as if it were a continuum. It's exactly like that, that's what love comes from, a marble surface so measured just because this is what they use. Dyers, I don't know what, also over 100 years of using marble are relatively inexpensive. You can find this for a couple of dollars. This is a four dollar pogi bone marble piece, right, it's a sample from Home Depot, they crush you, press it down, look, this thing gets nice and thin, yeah, so we try to gently scrape it out of here, boom , there you have it and it sets. here yes, you know, they cooked very quickly, but it's crying, it's exactly forming a crust, it's almost ready, it's already done so quickly, this is what they do so terribly like Tennessee, they take the cheese correctly and I put it back in gently. the fat somehow, yeah, yeah, it's melted, yeah, we're done, that's it, it's out of the picture, but bad looking, actually it would be a little bit of onion right on top of the pickles here, this is the devil's oil 375, yes, we are talking about a little. a little over an eighth of an inch of thick cheese, there you do that part, yeah, yeah, sledding, back, come on, this part is driving me crazy, yeah, I'm not, I'm not the best, but that's Pretty good, so I did.

Yeah, that's just a beautiful thing, go ahead, man, this is so good, there's no ketchup, no mustard, no mayonnaise, you can do it if you want, but a Jew doesn't need it. I mean the economy of Greece, the cheese, yes, it's almost as if. the cheese was like pouring it into every crevice of the meat, oh my goodness some reason they keep their traditions alive in Tennessee. I feel like we just broke the DaVinci code on what the next level of burger trend will be in America, which is frying everything. Alright, George, you got me to Tennessee, where we're going next.

We're moving to Oklahoma. So what happens when we have all this heavy machinery here? We have the Oklahoma fried onion burger. Okay, it's located in the center of what I like to call America's Burger Belt, there are some of the best burgers in America that can be found from Texas South Alwin North to Wisconsin Minnesota, okay, and of course , that makes Oklahoma the right buckle, it makes a lot of sense because some of the best primary source burgers can be found in Oklahoma, they are not affected by the weather trend. The trick to the Oklahoma Fried Onion Burger is thinly sliced ​​onion, so we're high here, so let me do this.

The glasses have to go and I can't handle that money-safety-first guy. Guys, try this at home, don't try to be a hero because it will ruin the next 10 minutes of cooking. They can't see anything. I am right. I tell people if you're making onion juice, just take one step. more and then you are almost ready, you can see, so you have made onion strips, a little bit of onion, you get a tablespoon of meat, put it in the pan, a little salt, here is the cool part, look at this, done, everything the onion juice. it's actually going to give up you need a heavy spatula because this thing has to be smashed this is okay actually we take this and we're going to push this then like the time of your life here that's it the onions are marrying the meat like I did me to see that the cheese marries with the meat, this happened because there was a time when there were people who did not have enough money to pay just to eat meat, all the meat burns, we had it on this side for maybe a minute and half of us always make cheese on the flip this is something I always give myself everything is this all the rides is everything is turning into some kind of hamburger country yes, yes, yes, a lot of hamburger magic happens exactly there again, you're getting into the story there.

It's a very important part of Americanness, it's everything, it's ugly, it's beautiful, it's like Willem Dafoe's hamburgers were like anything with onions in my entire career. I've never really liked having an onion that tasted like that because it's usually slowly caramelized or yes, fried. crunchy what's up yeah Rob this is like a hybrid between the two the beauty of this burger is that the sum is greater than its parts Oklahoma yeah you know what you're doing this is the steamed cheeseburger from Connecticut right it exists only within about seven one mile radius of this geographic center of Connecticut, what do we do?

It's kind of an anomaly in 1930s Middletown Connecticut, a place called Jack's lunch, so there's a tank in the back that's boiling water, and then inside you have shelves. but the trays come in here, they slide in and they cook the meat and the cheese separately and then it comes out and it goes on the bread, that's serious, that's serious business, yes there is a place in Connecticut, this place existed around 1959 and it's called Ted's so I put two get five this from the tents if you talk to them you're nice I'll tell you it's the guy down the street who's a gift she's like I'm Asian so steam meat you know it's natural right, does the meatballs make sense to me and we also have a very large block of Vermont cheddar cheese.

It has a very specific size. It has to fit in this thing, so let's cut the blocks. Release it, it will go to the steaming trays on this tray. We will get meat. so we're going to pack meat right here because it's not just easy, Chuck, it's a very difficult way to make a hamburger, obviously, you're packing in a hamburger, what do we do? It's a burner mold, right, it's strange, I don't think so. actually making a mold of the hamburger we will put it in the mold in the buttermilk only yes oh that hot steam here the meat enters the cheese enters we close it the kaiser buns are hard a little harder I needed something sturdy Handle it as if it were hot, you'll see what comes out of it so yeah hot soft melted cheese the soft stuff in a roll will just collapse and fall apart so a little bit tougher any good kaiser roll leaves this structure yeah to get it. a traditional steamed cheeseburger, Mayo ketchup and mustard together, they use green leaf lettuce.

You're adding a lot of all that because it's estimated exactly. Oh, normally, this would take about 15 minutes to arrive, Christy, right? This spatula is perfect for this bad boy. oh so I'm going to do this it comes out of here look it's not there it looks a little weird okay I'm used to liking my lewd opening and

show

ing off cool yeah we're fine here we go this is the other is the part crazy here yeah, this is magic, magic here, yeah, so you gotta make sure that oh yeah, baby, yeah, oh yeah, that's a steamed cheeseburger, that's the craziest thing you've ever seen, that's why We change the bun. because you're going to need that stability, man, look at that, yeah, okay, try, oh my God, oh, there's no cheese dough, it's like a dumpling.

I got some, it's really delicious, it's very meaty, that's what I like actually, a really berry flavor. meat like pure meat shines, so no amazing burgers today. I think burger makers think you have to add a lot of things to the burger, you know? Avocados and foie gras fried oysters, you don't need that. Things you know, things you asked these people when you go to

classic

American places, why don't you add more things? And they said because grandpa never did it that's the way we've been doing it for a hundred years. Why would we change? Do you have a favorite?

Oh man, you know, I think I'm a burger aficionado. Epirus. I like the Oklahoma onion burger, which was amazing. Yeah, I think that's one of those burgers that you know you need to get away from. Oklahoma, this is amazing, you've definitely taken me to three places I never knew existed. It's my pleasure, thank you for coming to House Hospice, you can't tell me, but that's very appropriate, don't tell me.