Tastes and smells can bring back memories faster than anything else. My grandmother was a good cook, but I most remember the one thing, the only think I've ever seen my grandfather, my dziadziu, cook: hamburgers.
These were not the flame grilled burgers from a box you might see on a grill today. These were griddle cooked patties reminiscent of what you'd find in a diner. The stove my grandparents had included a built in griddle between the two sets of burners. Whenever we came for a visit and saw the white cover plate removed, revealing the steel surface with six circular brown stains where the burgers always cooked, we knew we were in for a treat. That griddle was only ever used for hamburgers!
The burgers were simplicity themselves.
ground beef (don't get fancy with this. Plain old ground beef is best)
yellow onions
salt & pepper
hamburger buns
Peel the onions, and slice them into disks. Do not separate the rings. Form beef into golf ball sized chunks. A little bigger is OK, but don't make them too big. Place the onion slices on a flat surface so that the rings nest inside each other like stacked bowls. Yes, this does make a difference: upside down and the onions will fall apart. Salt and pepper the onion slices.
Place a ball of meat on each slice, and press into the onion, forming a flat patty. The meat should just reach past the edge of the onion slice. Salt and pepper the top of each burger.
Onto a heated griddle or frying pan (cast iron is always best) place the burgers onion side down. Now you wait. Don't fiddle wit them or try and flip then too soon. You want that onion to cook through and brown, a good 5-7 minutes. If the first one you flip isn't quite there, hold of on the rest and give them a couple of minutes more. Once all burgers have been flipped onion side up, cover each with the top of a bun and let the burgers cook and the buns steam in the juices for another 4-5 minutes.
Remove each burger/bun from the griddle and place on lower half of bun.
You can dress these as you see fit, but they don't need anything. Try them plain. The flavor of the simply season beef infused with the onion is delicious enough. We would devour these as kids (yes, even with onions, which usually turns kids off) and the memories stick with me still.
Submitted by Rich, from The Northwoods Notebook
These were not the flame grilled burgers from a box you might see on a grill today. These were griddle cooked patties reminiscent of what you'd find in a diner. The stove my grandparents had included a built in griddle between the two sets of burners. Whenever we came for a visit and saw the white cover plate removed, revealing the steel surface with six circular brown stains where the burgers always cooked, we knew we were in for a treat. That griddle was only ever used for hamburgers!
The burgers were simplicity themselves.
ground beef (don't get fancy with this. Plain old ground beef is best)
yellow onions
salt & pepper
hamburger buns
Peel the onions, and slice them into disks. Do not separate the rings. Form beef into golf ball sized chunks. A little bigger is OK, but don't make them too big. Place the onion slices on a flat surface so that the rings nest inside each other like stacked bowls. Yes, this does make a difference: upside down and the onions will fall apart. Salt and pepper the onion slices.
Place a ball of meat on each slice, and press into the onion, forming a flat patty. The meat should just reach past the edge of the onion slice. Salt and pepper the top of each burger.
Onto a heated griddle or frying pan (cast iron is always best) place the burgers onion side down. Now you wait. Don't fiddle wit them or try and flip then too soon. You want that onion to cook through and brown, a good 5-7 minutes. If the first one you flip isn't quite there, hold of on the rest and give them a couple of minutes more. Once all burgers have been flipped onion side up, cover each with the top of a bun and let the burgers cook and the buns steam in the juices for another 4-5 minutes.
Remove each burger/bun from the griddle and place on lower half of bun.
You can dress these as you see fit, but they don't need anything. Try them plain. The flavor of the simply season beef infused with the onion is delicious enough. We would devour these as kids (yes, even with onions, which usually turns kids off) and the memories stick with me still.
No comments:
Post a Comment