Pure perfection with bacon, cheese, homemade bigmac sauce, pineapple and another special sauce!
La pièce de résistance!
Almost 10 years of trial&error, dedication, and perfection condensed in 1 burger!
The dish I’m best known for!
And my personal ultimate guilty pleasure!
With more than 1000 followers on Instagram it seems like it’s time to celebrate! This is a huge milestone for me. When I started on this journey I thought that only close friends and family would pay any attention to my little hobby project. But somehow it grew! Quite a lot! Nothing more to say than a humble:
Thank you all sincerely! Your support is what keeps me going!
But with this big milestone being taken, one more thing has to change: I will start using a real camera… Yes, I have to admit that all pictures until now where taken with my phone! Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but this milestone is the perfect opportunity to take this journey another step further. My dad was so kind to lend me his DSLR, which I started to use this morning. A few more pictures will be posted that were taken with my trusty phone, but gradually I’ll move over to the real stuff.
But back to this gorgeous hamburger! People often ask me: “what is your signature dish?” – personally I don’t really like that question, as it places one in a very particular corner, leaving you with very little potential to grow further and explore yourself. Still, I guess I have to admit that my signature dish probably is a good old hamburger – the one you are seeing here.
I can’t remember how often I’ve made these… But surely more than a hundred times! Back when I was at university, I made these with my buddy Marius practically every single week! A good burger, some curly fries, some beers and a good movie. What more can one ask for?
(For all the film-buffs: Yes, this burger is an homage to the Big Kahuna burger in Pulp Fiction! Serve it with Sprite for the authentic experience)
Over the years I have perfected this burger! There is nothing on it that doesn’t add anything in terms of flavor and depth. The combination of sweet and savory is just amazing and everything just goes so well with each other.
A medium-rare grilled beef patty …
- … on a crunchy Italian bun (you want a solid bun, not one of those fluffy sesame seed ones) with…
- … homemade bigmac sauce (slightly acidic, but rich and creamy – it tastes so much better than the original stuff!)
- … melted cheese (just gooey and delicious)
- … griddled bacon and onions (who doesn’t love bacon and onions?)
- … tomato and lettuce (juicy and crunchy)
- … pineapple? (oh yes – don’t skip this one! It goes so perfectly well with the rest)
- … and a sweet special burger sauce with a slight kick that brings it all together
I am already drooling again while typing this… Though it looks like a lot of ingredients, most of the stuff is probably already in your fridge and pantry. If you are fast you can whip these bad-boys up in 15 minutes! The most time efficient way to do it: Start with the bacon and onions and make the two sauces while the bacon cooks. Remove bacon and onions from pan, griddle the patties in the same pan.
These burgers represents almost 10 years of cooking dedication. Give them a try – you will surely not regret it!
(This will get you 2 burgers – trust me, 1 burger per person is more than enough. You can simply double the recipe for 4 people if you have more company)
The homemade bigmac sauce (done in 3 minutes)
- ½ of a big onion (the other ½ is used for the burger)
- 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
- 1 tablespoon sandwich spread (if you can’t find it use a chopped-up pickled cucumber/gherkin and 1 extra tablespoon mayonnaise)
- 1 tablespoon powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon white vinegar (rice-, balsamic-, or herbal vinegars all work well)
- Dash of smoked paprika powder
Chop the onion as fine as you can. In a bowl, combine chopped onions with all other ingredients, season with salt and pepper and mix well.
Makin’ bacon and onions
- 4 slices of bacon
- ½ of a big onion (the other ½ is used in the bigmac sauce)
- 3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
Put a grill pan on medium heat (use a normal skillet if you don’t have a grill pan)
Cut the rashers of bacon in half and add them to the pan, making sure the pieces don’t overlap. Meanwhile, cut the onion into slices,
When the bacon starts to brown on the edges, flip the bacon slices. Add the sliced onion into the pan. Bake for another 2 minutes.
Splash in the Worcestershire sauce, stir until everything is coated. Brown for another minute. Remove onions and bacon from pan.
The special sauce (done 2 minutes / or 30 seconds in the microwave)
- 5 tablespoons tomato ketchup
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon whole-grain mustard
In a small pot, combine the ketchup, sugar and mustard. Place on medium-high heat and stir until you cannot hear the sugar anymore. Remove from heat.
(If you have a microwave: Combine the 3 ingredients in a microwave-safe cup. Heat up for 30 seconds, stir to combine immediately afterwards)
For the burgers
- 2 beef patties of great quality, about 140grams each
- 2 slices of cheese, cheddar works, but try some old gouda for a bit more character
- 2 Italian buns, use solid buns with a slight crunch
- 1 beef tomato, sliced (that’s what the big fleshy tomatoes are called)
- 2 slices of pineapple
- 2-4 lettuce leafs, depending on their size
(If your patties are smaller than your buns: Place the patties between some parchment paper and flatten them slightly to match the size of the buns)
Place a grill pan on high heat until it just starts to smoke (use the pan that you used for the bacon). Put your patties into the pan. Reduce the heat to medium-high.
Watch the side of the patties for doneness. When you can see that the patty is cooked through about 1/3rd at the bottom, flip the patty and put a slice of cheese on top.
Cook the patty on the second side for about the same time you cooked it on the first side. The cheese on top will be nice and gooey then.
Putting everything together into an edible piece of art!
Halve the buns and put a big dollop of homemade bigmac sauce on the bottom half bun.
Place the medium-rare grilled patty on top, followed by the bacon and onions, a slice of pineapple, tomato slices, a portion of the special sauce and the lettuce. Seal the deal with the top bun.
Enjoy these burgers with a nice beer and some curly fries!
Tell me this isn’t the best burger you’ve ever had!
Also, check out Marius’ award-winning street photography!
Hit me up on Instagram and Facebook, if you haven’t already. And let me know you what you think of this awesome burger! (I expect some pineapple haters…)
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