Sorta like I made a vow to make ice cream every summer weekend in 2016 after getting an ice cream maker for my dad’s 90th birthday celebration, I had this idea I would get a grill and GRILL EVERY WEEKEND in Summer 2018! Grill bought, check. Big grill utensils, check. I already had charcoal and a charcoal lighting stove thing, so check and check. I even had a pound of ground beef in the freezer so I could make burgers, plus I had homemade buns in the fridge (recipe online here).
Of course, I went fishing online to see what inspiration. The NYTimes How to Grill was actually the original impetus for all this – it was linked in one of their roundup emails a day or so ago. I borrowed this guy’s idea for grilling onions cuz I had onions but no tomatoes or lettuce. I was thinking of the burger from Chili’s from “back in the day” when I was a server there, oh, mumbledy decades ago, called Chili’s Trip – grilled onions and cheddar cheese were its dressing. (as in, “you want that dressed?” in New Orleans, which means with lettuce and tomato) And of course, I always look at Kitchn for their recipes and tips, and sure enough, there was a post from this past week from Emma Christensen called How to Grill Juicy Burgers. I think this last one might have been my downfall.
Here’s the timeline – first, I put together the burgers (vaguely using the Kitchn recipe) and the onions (the Learn to Cook version)
Second, I had this notion that I was supposed to let the burgers “rest” after forming them. I also learned that you shouldn’t handle the meat too much – wow, how did I get to this age and not know this stuff? So now is when I lit the charcoal.
Third WOWZA how did I not remember how freaking HOT this is? Holy moley. My little kitchen mitt was not adequate. Then when the coals were finally a little ashy (at about 20 minutes in spite of several websites saying 15…), and I dumped them and put the grill on top – OW OW OW the grill was cool but the charcoal was not! Oh, and yeah, the grill only goes one way – the opposite of the way I put it in there, so it got sorta stuck and wonky. Right.
Fourth, I was torn over whether to put the onions on and do them before the meat, but decided since there were only the 2 slices of onion and 3 patties, I had room for all. How to time them? I really am overthinking all of this. But what I missed was this: duh, you have to let the grill itself heat up after putting it on if you want those cool burn stripes. Sigh.
The above photo is after turning everything and dropping about 2/3 of a patty into the charcoal, plus that little plug of onion. Whatevs. Note how I made 2 cooking regions, a hot and a – uh, less hot – by putting all the coals at one side! And burning my hands and arms and face trying to do that before putting the grill on the wrong way! So smart! College grad! Again, not sure how I got to this age, having participated in grilling activities with friends and family and even having a little hibachi grill at my dorm at aforementioned college, without actually knowing (or remembering) how to grill. It’s gonna be a long, hungry summer.
Ok, where were we – forgot to mention the huge flare-ups of fire that paid no attention to my handy water sprayer but did finally behave after I shut the lid for a few seconds.
Fifth, I put yummy cheddar cheese on them! It didn’t melt after several minutes even though every photo online shows melted cheese. Maybe my slices were too thick, and I was concerned my meat was gonna be too well done.
But look how good my toasted bun looks! Homemade bun! Here’s the bun post-slicing with the cheese post slicing – this was done before all these other photos but I forgot to add it.
OK – bottom line, my dad turned 92 this year – go Dad! – and the burger tasted INCREDIBLE! and messy as all get out. Maybe I’ll tackle burgers again tomorrow, and make a boat load for all week at work – I always forget how long the charcoal continues to cook, like you could cook for a month on the heat from this thing. I’m thinking I might need to get a little better on burgers before graduating to chicken or ribs or steak. This means a trip to the store for better fire protection (maybe a welding mask), more meat and more charcoal.
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