Tophat665

It's springtime, and in the spring a young man's mind turns to thoughts of charcoal and beef. This evening, for the first time this year, I made my trademark burgers, and they were good. I am going to present an approximation of the recipe, but bear in mind, I do this all by eye.

Ingredients:
<ul>
<li>Charcoal</li>
<li>1 &frac12; cups Water</li>
<li>2 handfuls hickory chips</li>
<b>The Burgers</b>
<li>3 lbs 75% to 80% lean ground beef (no leaner than 80% or it will fall apart)</li>
<li>One large egg</li>
<li>&frac14; cup Tamari or Dark Soy Sauce
<li>2 tbsp Worchestershire sauce</li>
<li>2 &frac12; tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil</li>
<li>1 tbsp granulated garlic</li>
<li>2 tsp dried oregano</li>
<li>1 &frac12; tsp black pepper</li>
<li>1 &frac12; tsp dried basil</li>
<li>1 tsp ground celery seed</li>
<li>&frac34; tsp Chipotle Powder</li>
<li>&frac14; cup grated Parmesan Cheese (the Kraft type)</li>
<b>Fixin's</b>
<li>&frac12; lb Roasted Garlic Cheddar or Imported Swiss Cheese</li>
<li>One or Two large red onions</li>
<li>One or Two large tomatoes</li>
<li>Banana pepper rings</li>
<li>Mayo</li>
<li>Deli Mustard</li>
<li>8 kaiser rolls</li>
</ul>
Before you start the grill, take a large mixing bowl and press the meat into it, making a good sized depression in the center. A Meat Bowl, if you will.

Into this depression, crack the egg, add the liquid burger ingredients, then the dry, and finally the Parmesan cheese.

Wash your hands if you haven't already and mix it up well with your hands.

Form into eight patties of roughly equal size and set aside.

Add water to a bowl and throw in the hickory chips.

Start the charcoal.

While that gets going, slice the onions and tomato into rounds. Slice the buns if necessary.

When all the charcoal has a coat of ash, shake it out into an even bed and adjust the grill draw for a medium high burn.

Drain the water out of the hickory chips and scatter over the coals.

Put the grill on and get the burgers down.

Cover and cook for 2 minutes.

Uncover, flip, and recover, cooking another 2 to 5 minutes.

Flip once more, piercing the crust on top to allow some of the juices to flow.

Cover, cook until nearly done.

Put about one oz of cheese on each burger and lay the buns cut side down around the edges of the grill.

Watch closely - they may take a few minutes, or they may start to burn almost immediately.

Move frequently until the buns are crispy on the cut face.

Remove buns and burgers to separate plates.

<b>Assembly</b>
For each burger, put down a bottom bun, spread with mayo, put a slice of tomato, then the burger, a slice of onion, and a few banana pepper rings. Top with mustard and the top of the bun.

Serve with chips and either a Wheat Beer with Lemon, an IPA, or a Munich or Vienna Lager.

Serves 4 to 8.

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cub4life78

That sounds reeeal good, thanks!

Mister Coaster

Rather involved for a burger recipe, but I'm up to the challenge. Also I'm not a big fan of the hickory smoke, maybe I'll leave that out.

Oh, and keep that lemon away from my beer!

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If you have any poo... fling it NOW!

darkure

I will have to rty this out once I get the grill out. Thanks for the recipe, Tophat.

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COYW