June 09, 2007
Bratburgers.
After decades of getting by with rusty scavenged lessthanwebers, I finally bought a serious grill. Still charcoal fired of course. If I want to cook on a stove, I'll do it in the kitchen. With a side chamber which makes cold smoking easy, and grills made from cast iron instead of coat hanger wire, it is well suited to gourmet grilling, but I do burgers and sauseges a lot more often than I do herb-marinated spatchcocked game hens. Whatever I grill, I use chunk charcoal and not particle board briquets, and I light them in a chimney without a drop of petroleum distillates.
Our local Lena's Market had a special last week on burger patties. Five pounds, 24 patties, for $7.99. At that price, they obviously weren't grinding up sirloins or anguses, but I didn't care, because cheaper cuts of meat have at least as much flavor, and beef heart isn't tough once it's been ground.
As per the instructions on the box, I threw the patties on the grill without defrosting. Unlike the handpressed burgers I used to grill, they never fall apart this way. I immediately sprinkled bratwurst sausage seasoning on them from a salt shaker. After a few minutes, when the tops of the patties looked well defrosted, I flipped them over. This is vastly easier with the spatula-tong combo, which is another tool no griller should be without. At this point the former bottom showed barely cooked meat between the grillmarks. I administered another sprinkling of sausage seasoning, and let them cook about twice as long. The next time I flipped them, I took advantage of the gripflipper, and waved them over a plate. The less juices you get on the coals the fewer flareups you get. One last shake of bratwurst seasoning, and then I watched and flipped them as needed so they all cooked evenly whether over hot spots or not. They didn't taste exactly like bratwurst, but they sure tasted good.
Posted by triticale at June 9, 2007 08:08 AM | TrackBack