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By MARQUES G. HARPER mharper@leader.net
Wednesday, March 12, 2003 Page: 3D
Looking to make a good burger at home? While you might not be able to cook
one over an open flame the way they do at the Olde Cloverleaf Village Stables
Eatery in Danville or offer dozens of toppings as Jim Dandy’s in Edwardsville
does, that shouldn’t stop you from trying new methods and recipes in the
kitchen. After all, it’s in the pursuit of a good burger.
Jim Greer, owner of Sweet Treet in Kingston, said a good burger is in the
bull. The eatery uses a fresh daily blend of 2/3 ground beef and 1/3 bull.
Burgers “go fresh from the grill to your stomach” without the use of
seasonings, Greer said. But if you’re looking for a kick, “I have a real mean
chili dog sauce that we put on burgers,” he added.
At the Beer Deli Restaurant, co-owner Bob Roccograndi said the secret to
making a good burger is how it is cooked. The Forty Fort restaurant uses a
lean 85 percent blend of ground beef and grills burgers along with the buns
before topping them with lettuce, tomato, onion and ketchup.
“Very, very few people ever ask to have it rare,” Roccograndi said.
“People don’t ask for that anymore.”
At Marty’s Blue Room in Newport Township, owner Jim Schonfeld said, “We
just use ground chuck, and it’s all fresh. It’s never frozen and it’s
hand-formed.”
The restaurant allows customers to build their own burgers from a list of
toppings or order burgers named for and created by customers. All burgers are
cooked over a charcoal flame.
“One of the tricks is we use our own seasonings on them,” Schonfeld said.
Ultimately, he said, the one thing that matters in creating a good burger
is having fresh ground chuck, which “makes a world of difference.” Chuck
comes from the animal’s shoulder.
While people might wonder about the fat-content labels on packages of meat,
Schonfeld said anything more than 85 percent lean will produce a dry burger.
Some, however, do prefer a burger made from ground round, or the animal’s
hind leg, an approximately 89 percent lean cut of tender, flavorful meat.
“Ground beef is a little dry” and can come from various parts of a cow,
he added. “Ground chuck is a little bit of a moister meat. Ground chuck has a
little bit better flavor.”