BBQ Journal: hamburgers & gas

Sunday, June 19 — Eric, my brother, and his family were in town for the weekend. There was talk of just throwing a pre-made lasagna in the oven after having had a few meals together, but I figured I could whip up some quality burgers for less.

Dad provided the meat. I added the spices (fresh garlic, chopped onion, parsley, cayenne, cumin, pepper, and salt). The key here was to add the spices slowly. You knead the spices in and cook some of the meat in a pan on the stove to check the flavor along the way. I had Eric check the final flavoring for taste. Then made patties and put them in the refrigerator for an hour.

I also wanted to try to make my own animal style sauce for the burger. So chopped some more onions and got the side burner on the grill setup to grill the onions, melt the cheese, and mix in the thousand island dressing.

Then came the grill. I melted butter to brush onto to the burgers and sprinkled some pepper and salt on one side before I put it on the burner. I had tiny burgers for the kids, big burgers for the grown ups, and onions on the side burner grilling in some oil. It was quite the setup. Timing the onions, the tiny burgers, and the bigger burgers was tough. Made even tougher when I ran out of gas right in the middle of cooking everything.

I was pretty ticked. I wanted somebody to solve my problem for me (basically a result of having a number of things change recently). After a bit of a fit, I ran to the local propane place and got some more gas. Finished the burgers and the animal style sauce.

The result was excellent. We had some quality burgers, even if it was a bit of a hassle with the gas.

BBQ Lesson 1: Know your gas.
BBQ Lesson 2: Butter is better.
BBQ Lesson 3: Animal style works at home.