Burgers.

Last Christmas my grandparents bought me a food grinder attachment for my stand mixer, and this week I finally made plans to use it. I decided I wanted one after reading so much about the benefits of grinding your own meat, where you actually know what kind of meat is being ground up and ingested. Also "they" say the flavor difference is enormous.

So for the first try I used as a base this In-N-Out style recipe from Kenji Lopez-Alt, a former Cook's Illustrated cook. I think I may have erred in the fundamental matter of choosing a cut (or cuts) of meat to grind: he simply recommends a beef chuck cut with "lots of fat." Not knowing what exactly that meant, I chose a beef chuck (shoulder) roast that was reasonably well-marbled. The end result was a little bit too lean. Next time I'll try grinding in short ribs for about 1/3 of the meat. The flavor of the meat was fine, though when you're loading it with ketchup, mustard, pickles, lettuce, and cheese, it's a little hard to pick out the nuances of fresh ground meat to compare it with storebought. Hey, at least our chances of getting E. coli are lower.

As for the whole grinding ordeal, it was a bit messy, but I expected that. I've got a couple issues to work out with the grinder---maybe I didn't freeze the meat long enough, because by the time I finished there was a fair amount of very slick meat stuck in the "chamber" or whatever the part before the die is called. That was a bit tedious to clean out.

Here is my Pulitzer Prize-winning cheeseburger photo. I like how it looks like I caught the mushroom in mid-air. Not the case.

Ah, a note about the buns: these were from Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Everyday, the soft sandwich bread recipe made into about a dozen 3 oz. buns. I loved the flavor and texture: not quite as fluffy as storebought buns, but not dense like recipes I've tried before, either. As usual, shaping will take some work; I guess I should have squashed the rolls a bit with my hand before baking them.