Experimental Cookery 'Tuesday' #45: A Cracking Burger

I forgot to get anything out of the freezer for dinner today. So, a quick trip to Tesco was followed by a spell of making burgers. Oh no!

Steph/ven's all-time top foods:

1. Lasagne
2. Curry
3. Burgers
4. Pizza (pepperoni, of course. It is the Knig of pizza toppings.)
5. Chilli

(Honourable mention for calamari, which despite being seafood, and therefore not suitable for human consumption, is nonetheless rather nice.)

Jamie has already managed to convert me from jarred versions of two of the above to the home-cooked alternatives, and is set to have a crack at Lasagne in a few weeks. He tackles pizza in an entirely different book, which I don't have but might invest in at some point (since I do like Italian food).

So, how does he do with the burgers?

Well, it was rather fun bashing up the cream crackers. Quite relieved the stress of a rather difficult day. And then there was some chopping, cracking an egg, mixing, mixing, mixing, then chopping salad, cooking the burgers quickly (I thought), and then an assembly innabun. From start to first bite took about fifty minutes, and I now have four homemade burgers in my freezer ready for later use.

But never mind that tosh. With a burger, only one thing matters. Was it good?

Oh yes. It was a gooood burger. It was so much better than the boxed Bird's Eye burgers I usually have as to be insulted by the mere comparison. It similarly blew the 'Big' Mac out of the water. (Though these days it should really be the "Average Mac", or perhaps just the "Mac". It's been shrinking, see, and now there's nothing Big about it. But that's another rant entirely.)

(Though, seriously, why did they have to shrink the Big Mac? Despite its failings, it used to be a real burger. Now it's a toy burger. It's like those "Fun Size" Mars bars. I tell you, there's nothing 'fun' about having to eat fifty of them just to feel like you've had a real Mars bar. I blame Morgan Spurlock.)

Anyway, the bottom line is that I'm almost converted. One test remains: I need to know how well the homemade burgers freeze and defrost. If they work well, I'm going to have to bid farewell to the store-bought variety, because they just don't compare.

Curse you Jamie Oliver, you win this round!

Also, 3-0 in the "Homely Mince" chapter. Next up is "Minced Beef Wellington". Although, as this is a 'real' meal, I'm not entirely sure when I'll get around to it.