Sunday 9 August 2015

Hamburger and home-cooked chips : perfect on a lovely sunny day

I often find myself saying the word in the way Lady Bracknell famously uttered ‘A Handbag!’ in ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ because that’s what it is  – not a burger or a beefburger or any other variation on the name – but a Hamburger!

But then I hear people say, “It can’t be ‘hamburger’ because it hasn’t got ham in it”, to which my standard response is that neither does a Frankfurter have Frank in it.  The name has nothing to do with ham or any other kind of meat but derives from its place of origin, Hamburg.  The word ‘Hamburger’ simply means in German ‘of Hamburg’ in the same way as ‘Frankfurter’ means ‘of Frankfurt’ and ‘Berliner’ means ‘of Berlin’.  (They are also what the citizens of those three cities are called.)

The term ‘burger’ generally relates to an inferior product usually served swamped in grease and all kinds of unpleasantry, and is now used in some restaurants to mean anything served in a bun and includes chicken, fish, etc.

Whatever the Germanic associations of the name, we now of course think of the hamburger in all its manifestations as coming from the USA, within which the state of Wisconsin in the north with its very large German-origin population is accepted as its true home.

Quality steak is the secret of great hamburgers.  Forget the greasy apologies of things you can buy in frozen packs.  A good hamburger  is a wonderful, substantial meal.  I once asked my butcher for 2 lb. of rump steak and told him I was going to grind it up for hamburgers.  He told me that if that was what I wanted it for, he could have given me some nice chuck steak, to which I replied,  “You do it your way and I’ll do it mine, and I know who’ll make the better hamburger!”

Once the beef is ground, anything mixed in needs to add two things: flavour and moisture.  By its nature, barbecuing meat dries it out and the more moisture that can be retained in what is grilled, the more succulent it will be.

I found my recipe in a Sunday Times colour supplement many, many years ago.  The article was generally on American food and featured the tuna mayo sandwich, the edible submarine (the Sub), the hot dog, etc. and of course the hamburger.

It is very simple and the two principal ingredients, tomato ketchup and soy sauce, both add flavour and moisture, making for an especially juicy piece of meat when cooked.

The main thing about cooking a hamburger (or a steak for that matter) is NOT to keep pressing down on them with a spatula in the hope that it may make them cook a little quicker.  All that achieves is dry meat with all the lovely juices squeezed out and burned.

Serving a hamburger is also a matter of personal choice.  I like it in a seeded bun fried off in some meat juices, and topped with American mustard, tomato relish and gherkin (or a cucumber relish), but there’s no right or wrong way, merely personal choice.

So burger off, all you ‘burgers, and make way for the magnificent Hamburger.