Mushroom Swiss Burgers

The burgers you see on many TV cooking shows from restaurants look more like a slightly flattened meatball than a burger patty and as thick as they are, it’s impossible to add many condiments and be able to get your mouth around the sandwich, unless you are Guy Fieri (Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives) who seems to have a giant mouth.  This makes an impressive pic but hard to eat without destroying it.

Since we like our patties thinner, as big as the bun when cooked, and easy to make, I bought a 5” diameter egg ring from Amazon and it worked like a charm for a 6oz. patty.

When I saw the recent recipe post from Chris for Mushroom Swiss Burgers on his "Nibble Me This" blog, it really appealed to me and since Joe and Bev had mentioned burgers for our Friday get together, a plan was born. I changed the ingredient amounts for my number of burgers and the cooking instructions so I could get each item as done as I wanted it - more done than Chris'.  For the original recipe and pics of his great looking burger, you can click on the above link.

Mushroom Swiss Burgers – Adapted from Nibble Me This

Ingredients for six burgers:

54 oz. lean ground beef

9 slices Swiss cheese

3 tbsp. bacon fat

16 oz. baby bella mushrooms, freshly sliced

¾ c. yellow onion, peeled and sliced (I diced them)

7 slices smoked bacon, chopped

1½ oz. bourbon

3 tbsp. stone ground mustard

1½ tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

Instructions:

1. Preheat a 12” skillet.

2. Add the bacon and cook until beginning to brown then remove to a bowl.

3. Add the mushrooms to the skillet and cook to desired donness then remove to a bowl.

4. Add the bacon and onions to the pan and cook until onions are soft and the bacon is at desired donness.

5. Return the mushrooms to the pan along with the bourbon, stone-ground mustard, and Worcestershire sauce, mix well, and simmer for a minute or two until thickened. Taste and add salt or Worcestershire sauce as needed.

I cooked this early afternoon then reheated to thicken and serve at mealtime and I didn't flambe the bourbon per the original recipe.

Our normal Friday group has been Pat, Cindy, Joe, Bev, and I for several years with friends Kathy and Russ joining us recently but since we had plenty of meat (I’m again on a freezer reduction campaign) we also invited our neighbors, Pat and Steve, for a total of nine for dinner.

We served the burgers with baked fries from three partial bags of different kinds that I found in the freezer.  I didn’t get much in the way of pics but this is my burger after a few of bites.  Note that the sandwich it not as impressive as the one above but it was plenty thick enough, easy to eat, and the meat came a little past the bun edge so the egg ring gave me just what I wanted.

The Verdict:

As expected from a Chris Grove recipe, the burgers were a big hit and everyone loved the mushroom topping – I even got a request for the recipe.  I used some store-bought brioche buns and they held up very well vs. the normal hamburger buns.  Cindy made a gluten free blueberry dessert for Joe and Pat L. brought what was probably the best rum cake I ever ate and she said it started with a packaged cake mix.  When she asked if we had a box of vanilla pudding for the cake we said sure but it's expiration date was 2005 so she didn't use it - our freezer is not the only place needing some serious organizing.

The one negative for the evening was that I came in last in both rounds of Five Crowns (card game).

Luckily, there was just enough of the mushroom topping leftover for a very tasty omelet.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry