Day 105: The Guerrilla Burger

With the Labor Day holiday coming on Monday, my thoughts always revolve around the grill. And what is more iconic grill fare than a burger? I love a cheeseburger almost as much as any food. To me a burger is like sex. When it’s good, it’s really good and when it’s bad, it’s still pretty good.

Dave and I were in the kitchen designing a signature burger for Guerrilla Canteen and here’s what we came up with. This will be an item you can get on our truck every day, our version of the Big Mac, but better.

The Guerrilla Burger starts with a hand crafted, quarter pound of 80/20 ground USDA sirloin cooked to your liking. I suggest medium rare but Dave is in the medium to medium well camp. We take that burger and season it with a mixture of three parts black truffle salt to one part pepper and a splash of liquid smoke. The Guerrilla burger will be primarily cooked in a saute’ pan and finished  on the char-broiler. I know what you are thinking, Why don’t you put that cheeseburger right on the grill? Burgers  cooked on the grill lose most of their juices and tend to be dry. By caramelizing the beef in a pan, all the juices are locked inside creating a more juicy product. The charred effect can be achieved by simply putting the burger on the grill after the caramelization process takes place. I like the char and so do you and that’s why we are taking the time to put it there. Who doesn’t like diamond-shaped grill marks on their burger?

While the beef is happily sizzling in the pan, we will saute’ onions and green peppers in butter. Seasoned with salt and pepper and a splash of balsamic vinegar, we think it compliments our burger quite well. You will too.

 The cheese. In our test we used gouda which was really delicious. Cheddar came in a close second but I have to say I think Blue cheese would be even better. Dave and I debated this point for a considerable amount of time and reached a stalemate. You can help us decide who is right by taking the poll at the end of the post.

Bacon Jam. Oh yeah! What’s a burger without  crispy, smoky, salty  bacon. It’s like Laverne without Shirley; Rocky without Bullwinkle or  Simon without Garfunkle. ( Scratch the last one, Paul Simon is doing fine without Garfunkle.) This is bacon heaven folks and you need to eat this today. You can find a great recipe for bacon jam here.

Guerrilla Sauce. No it’s not thousand Island dressing but it is our secret sauce. The recipe was discovered in a clandestine military kitchen in Area 51 and smuggled to us by a nameless source after the cold war.  It has mayo, smoked chipotle, cumin and other ingredients that are top-secret. It’s a little spicy but not abrasive and Dave and Pam said they would like to dump it on everything they eat. It’s really good. So good, that in the future we would like to put it into bottles and sell you some.

The Bun. For our test we used toasted potato rolls which tasted great. Dave and I agreed that we need to shop for a better roll for the Guerrilla Burger. We need a roll that can stand up to the bold flavors that we are throwing at you. We are searching for the perfect brioche.