Flavor: I want a strong savory beef flavor to be there, along with a wave of rich umami meat juice. This meaty salty tsunami should be mellowed with some sweetness, and the greasiness should be cut through with some tartness.
Miso brings to the table everything but the beef here. It's a great salt substitute, and packed with umami. There's a subtle sweetness and funk with the miso too, which complements meat flavors without overshadowing them.
Texture: The burger patty should be tender and falling apart. I always appreciate a bit of crunch, and the bun itself should not be so soggy that it's falling apart. Again, miso contributes by bringing some enzymes to the table, which break apart meat proteins and tenderize the meat. This is the same enzyme as koji, but without the mold (which don't survive the salting process of miso and soy sauce).
Eating: I don't want something that's so big that I feel that there's a risk of my jaw being dislocated, but not too thin that the burger lacks bite or chew.
Your preferences may differ, so please feel free to adapt this recipe to suit your tastes.
Patty Size: I'm aiming for something around 110g / Quarter pounds in size, with the diameter slightly larger than a Hawaiian bun or a milk bun, around 8cm /3 inches across. I'm using approximately 100g of ground beef with about 12g of miso (4700mg of sodium / 100g). This brings the salinity to around 1.5%. Check your miso sodium level and adjust the recipe accordingly for your ingredients.
I've made this with ground beef, as well meat that I've chopped up myself. Try to remove any gristle, or to cut them up very fine if incorporating them. This also works well with ground pork and chicken, as the steaming process prevents the meats from going too dry, and the miso helps with that juicy texture.
Don't overwork the meat, try to play with it as little as possible. When cutting your own meat, I find that if I coat the meat in miso before I cut it, the miso will work itself into the meat with little effort. When using ground meat, I'll try spread the miso out on the meat as much as i can, then fold the meat on itself, tear it apart, and stack it on itself again, repeating several times, trying not to squeeze it too hard. Make little balls of meat, and use your thumb to press a dimple in the middle of the ball. We will push them down onto the cooking surface later.
I make these patties first, using fridge temperature meat, then let the patties rest while I get the buns and other ingredients ready, and get my cast iron pan pre-heated.
We are going to put a hard crust on the burger, by oiling the pan up, putting our meat on the pan and then immediately pressing down onto the meat so it makes good contact with the pan. This will give it hard sear and get a nice crust in about 2 minutes. Then we scrape and flip it onto a fresh (hot) part of the pan, without pressing down again. Pressing down on the raw meat doesn't squeeze any juices out, but once that burger patty is hot, any more pressure on it will cause it to lose juiciness.
Cooked Toppings: (Red wine onions): No matter how careful we are with the burgers, I also feel that I'm leaving juice and flavor behind on my cast iron pan. So, I've taken a page out of whitecastle's burgers and added some sliced onions to the pan. Slice these onions top to root, to help them keep their shape. Add these to the cast iron after the first flip, to where the burger was cooking originally. Optionally, sub a vinegar for wine.
After two minutes, we'll flip the burgers back onto the pile of onions, crack some pepper, add cheese to melt, and steam them on top of the onions for another 4-6 minutes (depending on how done you want your burgers). Splash a little red wine onto the onions before putting the lid on things to encourage steaming. The pepper might have some anti-carcinogenic properties.
Cheese: I've found that I prefer some smoked gouda and a little cheddar. I like to stack a few slices of different cheese together, then slice them into small squares to put on the burger patties after flipping.
Raw Toppings: I'm partial to a thick slice of tomato, and a few thin slices of onions. Place the tomatoes on top of the onions (this time, sliced to get you onion rings) for easy plating later. Slice of pickle optional.
Buns: Slice them in half, and lightly toast them on both sides in an oven, or on the flat side on a frying pan. You want some crunch on it. I find the milky, buttery sweetness of the buns a good complement to the salty umami of the burgers. Potato buns are also wonderful.
Secret sauce: Two parts ketchup, one part mustard, one part mayo, half part horseradish sauce with a little garlic, paprika powder and black pepper. Chopped pickle optional. This goes on the bottom bun, then raw onions, tomato, burger and cooked onions. Hopefully the sauce will prevent the bun from getting too soggy with the meat sauce. Assemble the burger right before eating.
MINI MISO BURGERS : INGREDIENTS
 |
| I like my toppings overflowing from the burger. |
 | |||||
Make sure you have everything ready to go
Place the burgers on your bun once the cheese melts  Panfry the onions, making sure to get all the fond from your pan  Smother your burger with your sautéed onions |
There are some studies that show the health benefits from miso come from the compounds in fermented soybean. There aren't any studies yet on the probiotics, but if you have access to a Japanese supermarket, go to the refrigerated section and get some fresh natto. If you are making miso soup, let the temperature of the water drop below 115F / 46 C before mixing in your miso.
Comments
Post a Comment