Are you ready for a Cheeseburger Throwdown?

Sure am!

About 3 weeks ago, a cheeseburger challenge was issued and since then food websites were scoured, cheeses combined, and flavours were tested in order to come up with cheese burgers worthy for competition among friends.

Only 3 people decided to throw down, but we had more than enough snacks and conversations to keep us busily chatting and munching away as we waited for Burger Challenger 1 (aka M).

Burger Challenger 1 : Smokey Jack with Special Sauce

Being first has an obvious advantage — hungry people.  Though there were snacky foods to munch on, we all knew what we were there for — the cheeseburgers!  As the flames on the grill grew higher and higher, so did our anticipation.  Excitement aside, burger 1 had some delicious merits: big smoky flavour, juiciness, and special sauce.

Recipe: M does a  lot of eyeball measuring, so here is a list of ingredients he used for the patties and special sauce.

Patties:

• Regular ground beef (this is what keeps it juicy)
• smoked Himalayan rock salt
• liquid smoke
• chili pepper powder
• onion powder
• garlic powder
• black pepper
• dried oregano

Mix all together. Form large patties (gotta account for the shrinkage) and freeze slightly so that it doesn’t fall apart on the grill.  Top with jalapeno monterey jack cheese and dress with your favourite fixins’.  Serve on a crusty roll type bread. M used buns from Cobs Breads.

Special Sauce:

• mayo
• honey
• paprika

Play around with the flavours. The taste is similar to the mayo half of White Spot’s Triple O sauce (only better, ofcourse!).

Burger Challenger 2 – Triple Cheese Tease

The name says it all, but how does it compare with burger 1?  Well, let me just say that not only was it stuffed with 3 cheeses (feta, goat, and parmesan), but it was also stuffed with bacon and rolled in a brown sugar spice rub that gave the meat a nice caramelized look.  Beef, bacon, THREE cheeses, and a spice rub???  Add some fixins and a nice roll and you have one complex burger with big bright flavours that complement one another.

Tea, got the recipe? Send it over!

EDIT: Tea sent the recipe! See comments.

Burger Challenger 3 : Mystery Meat Surprise

By the time burger 3 came around, people were feeling pretty full.  We had eaten about 1 and a half burgers and a whole lot of snacks.  Still, we pushed through (sans bread) and had Tree’s Mystery Meat Surprise.  As you can see from the photo, the “mystery meat” was SPAM.  Now, you’re probably thinking, “Would that even count as a burger?” I say it does! The requisite for this burger challenge is to use ground meat and I think SPAM is quintessential ground non-descript meat.

Recipe: Tree didn’t just want to serve a slab of SPAM so she tried to do something different.  Here are the ingredients:

• mashed potatoes (prepared as you like)
• SPAM, mashed
• roasted cumin seeds
• egg
• panko/bread crumbs
• oil for shallow pan fry

Mix mashed potato and SPAM and cumin seeeds.  Form into patties.  Beat egg in a bowl and coat patties in egg.  Once coated in egg, coat patties in panko or bread crumbs and pan fry.

It was a good effort, tasty, and certainly creative.  The mashed potatoes toned down the saltiness of the SPAM and the panko provided a nice crust.  Her method of using mashed potatoes and cumin seeds reminded me of pakoras.

And there you have it! Our first Throwdown.  Apologies for not having better photos as I know the proof is in the pictures.  As for the winner… like I’ve said in a previous post, everyone in attendance were winners. BUT!  If I had to choose the best of the evening, it would be Tea’s Triple Cheese Tease!  Now, try saying THAT with a mouth full of burger!