Pineapple Burgers? Building A Better Burger

I just finished watching a show on Food TV called “Building A Better Burger,” a competition in the US. Some very interesting entries were shown. As a conossieur of homemade burgers myself, I was pleasantly surprised at some of the innovations, including using artichokes on one and pineapple slices on another.

Two prizes were handed out: $10,000 and $50,000. The winner of the first had a pork loin burger reminscent of Vietnamese sandwiches. She’d previously won a million dollar prize in the past for her burgers. The $50,000 prize winner had something called The Red Fez burger, which included hand-brushed buns with red food dye, dates, and other fairly sweet ingredients with a Moroccan theme.

Personally, I like simplicity in my homemade burgers. I change up the ingredients each time, but my general recipe consists of some combination of the following:

• ground beef
• ground chicken or turkey
• ground pork (rarely)
• soya sauce or worcestershire sauce
• sesame oil
• onions - spanish, white or green
• mustard
• breadcrumbs
• egg
• crushed red pepper flake or paprika or sriracha Oriental hot sauce (with or without chili seeds)
• dried basil
• cheddar cheese

That’s just for the burger mix. I rarely add salt and pepper, because with the above ingredients, it’s rarely needed. I’ve made round, square, oblong, and cylindrical (kebab) burgers. For the buns, I’ve used:

• hot dog buns
• hamburg buns
• italian rolls
• ciabatta buns
• focaccia
• submarine buns
• onion buns
• french loaf
• other choices I can’t remember

For the condiments and toppings, some combination of the following:

• sriracha or sriracha mayo
• red pepper mayo
• ketchup (almost never)
• relish
• mustard
• sliced onions (almost always)
• grilled/ sauteed onions, bell peppers, and/or mushrooms
• pickle and/ or cucumber slices
• tomatoes
• pepperoncini (1, 2, 3)
• red bell peppers

Extras: Gravy to dip into. Never tried it? If you like gravy, you’ve got to try this. Screw etiquette. Alternately, if you live in Canada and eat at Swiss Chalet, save some of the dipping sauce.

Things to try soon: pineapples, pickled artichokes, avocado.

That’s it. Not too complicated, and yet enough options to produce many combinations of flavours. My burgers are never the same because I never measure the ingredients. It’s a homestyle technique that even some restaurants adopt.