Buns and Burgers: Handcrafted Burgers from Top to Bottom (Recipes for Hamburgers and Baking Buns)
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About this ebook
The reader will learn how to bake a great, simple bun, how to smash cook a perfect patty, and how to construct a photo-worthy burger
Gregory Berger
Born and raised in Ohio, Gregory Berger moved West, first to Chicago then to San Francisco, before settling in Sacramento. He owns a design studio in Sacramento called Pomegranate Design that focuses on graphic design for non-profits and the restaurant industry. After reading a book about sourdough bread, he took up baking as a hobby. Since then, baking has become a passion and a side hustle. He has won blue ribbons for the past 4 years for his breads at the California State Fair, has created bread recipes for some of Sacramento’s top restaurants, and has baked buns and rolls for charity events like the Sacramento Burger Battle and the Sacramento Sausage Fest.
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Buns and Burgers - Gregory Berger
Buns and Burgers
Handcrafted Burgers from
Top to Bottom
Gregory Berger
Coral Gables
Copyright © 2019 Gregory Berger
Cover Design: Gregory Berger
Layout Design: Jermaine Lau
Published by Mango Publishing Group, a division of Mango Media Inc.
Mango is an active supporter of authors’ rights to free speech and artistic expression in their books. The purpose of copyright is to encourage authors to produce exceptional works that enrich our culture and our open society.
Uploading or distributing photos, scans, or any content from this book without prior permission is theft of the author’s intellectual property. Please honor the author’s work as you would your own. Thank you in advance for respecting our author’s rights.
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Mango Publishing Group
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Coral Gables, FL 33134 USA
info@mango.bz
Buns and Burgers: Handcrafted Burgers from Top to Bottom
ISBN: (p) 978-1-64250-116-2 (e) 978-1-64250-117-9
LCCN: 2019944141
BISAC: CKB009000—COOKING / Courses & Dishes / Bread
To Lori, the love of my life, who continually inspires me to be my better self and gives me the confidence to look life in the eye and say, Yeah, I can do this.
To my son Rowan, who brings joy and happiness to our lives each day and isn’t afraid of seeds on buns anymore.
Table of Contents
Part 1: Introduction
How to Use This Book
Your Tools
10 Tips for Baking Buns (In No Particular Order)
10 Tips for Cooking the Best Burgers (In No Particular Order)
Cook the Burger
Bake the Buns
Buy It vs. Make It
Part 2: Butcher, Farmer, Baker
The Butcher
The Farmer
The Baker
Part 3: Recipes
Sesame Milk Buns
The Classic Burger
The Easiest Buns
Oklahoma Onion Burger
Red Sea Salt Buns
The Hawaiian Burger
Caraway Seed Buns
Reuben Burger
Green Olive Paprika Buns
Lemon Caper Burger
Cheddar Jalapeño Potato Buns
Cheddar Apple Burger
Everything Bagel Seasoning Potato Buns
Quinoa Salmon Burger with Avocado Crema
Cornflakes Poppy Seed Buns
The Golden State Kumquat Burger
Black Charcoal Slider Buns
Cod Cake Sliders
Blue Cheese Poppy Seed Buns
Mushroom Swiss Burger
Brioche Buttermilk Buns
Cubano Burger
Peanut Butter Buns
The Elvis Burger
Soft Pretzel Buns
Homemade Nacho Cheese Burger
Roasted Red Pepper Buns
Bloody Mary Burger
Honey Corn Bread Buns
Plantain, Forbidden Rice, and Sweet Potato Burger
Lemon Green Olive Buns
Cauliflower Caper Veggie Burger
Poppy Seed Honey Buns
White Bean and Pea Shoot Burger
Red Beet Buns
Aussie Burger
Poblano Jack Buns
Elote Burger
Dutch Crunch Buns
Southwest Bean and Corn Burger
Popcorn Buns
Figs and Honey Burger
Lemon Poppy Seed Buns
Blueberry Salmon Burger
Vegan Whole Wheat Buns
Vegan Quinoa Burger with Curry Sauce
Leek, Cheddar, and Bacon Waffles
Pimento Cheddar Bacon Waffle Burger
Green Onion Black Pepper Waffles
Black Garlic and Asparagus Waffle Burger
Green Onion Pita Bread
Greek Pita Burger
English Muffins
English Muffin Breakfast for Dinner
Burger
Ciabatta Buns
Bánh mì Burger
Pullman Bread
Pullman Patty Melt
Mini Cinnamon Buns
Ice Cream Dessert Burgers
And Finally, the Rowan Berger
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Sometime in my high school years, back in the early ’90s, my family took a summer vacation to New Orleans. This trip, which seemed like it would be an uneventful sightseeing tour, ended up being a life changing adventure. There was gumbo. There was jambalaya. There was étouffée. At one point, the gumbo was accompanied by a full marching band playing Saints Go Marching In.
The flavors of this trip awoke my taste buds, which up to that point were a little bit adventurous, but barely beyond a typical Midwestern kid’s palate. (I had tried shrimp but it was fried. I had seen an avocado, but never tasted one, and wouldn’t have been able to find the heart of an artichoke if the world depended on it). Bill Knapp’s chocolate cakes on birthdays and Marion’s Pizza were our equivalent of the French Laundry restaurant.
Soon after that trip, I graduated high school and went to college, where I honed my chicken salad (now with grapes!) and gumbo skills. I moved back home after graduating. That’s when the next big, lifechanging thing happened: The Food Network. For real, The Food Network. Before the channel morphed into a bunch of reality shows, there were actual people showing you how to cook actual food! I spent hours watching Essence of Emeril, Too Hot Tamales, and Grillin’ & Chillin’. Bobby Flay and Jack McDavid were roasting red peppers on a kettle grill. Emeril Lagasse was blackening shrimp and making a rémoulade. Susan Finnegan and Mary Sue Milliken were adding mangos to a salsa. Groundbreaking in my head! I would watch a show, run to the store and buy the ingredients, and then make it that same night for my parents. Nine out of ten times, this was a great success.
After that summer cooking so many delicious meals, I moved to Chicago. I applied to the Culinary Institute, but ultimately decided against it, choosing a day job in graphic design over the kitchen life.
Jump ahead to 2013. The previous fifteen years had been spent making a ton of great food. I’d become a fairly good cook. I read cookbooks, cooking magazines, watched the shows. But in 2013, I came across a copy of Michael Pollan’s book Cooked. One of the sections was about making sourdough bread. For some reason, this drew me the most. Then I immediately bought Chad Robertson’s Tartine, and began a baking quest. I collected natural yeast from the air, and pretty soon was producing some very nice loaves.
The loaves got better and better. I started entering them in the California State Fair, and started winning. I started getting offers to buy my bread, to get the recipes, to teach classes. So this is what I did: I started helping local restaurants write recipes for bread that fit their meal schedules, I started teaching classes here and there, I started doing burger popups with my Burger-in-law,
Rodney.
And now, I want to teach you how to do this. Just as I learned how to cook from watching television and reading books, you can learn by reading this book, by seeking out baking shows, and by watching videos on the internet.
Baking and sharing bread has been done for thousands of years, but it seems our culture has forgotten how. There are few things more rewarding than the smell of baking bread and the sight of fresh loaves coming out of the oven. Sure, it’ll take some practice. Some of your buns will be misshapen. Sometimes they’ll overproof, because you had to go pick up your kid or run to the store, and you got distracted. Sometimes you’ll forget to turn on the oven timer, and you’ll burn the buns, or your oven will be too hot, and you’ll toast the tops to a crisp. Don’t worry; it’s just flour and a few ingredients. Start over and try again. You’ll get it!
How to Use This Book
I’m often inspired to bake or cook because of an Instagram photo, or a recipe I see while flipping through a book. Most of the time, when I look at a recipe, I only need to grasp the basics and then make it without referring back to the specifics. Or I see a photo and try to recreate a version of what I saw with whatever I have on hand.
Most of the recipes in this book lend themselves to that style of cooking. They are