Hemingway Burgers
Printed From: Foods of the World Forum
Category: Latin America
Forum Name: The Caribbean Islands
Forum Discription: A whole cornucopia of flavor.
URL: http://foodsoftheworld.ActiveBoards.net/forum_posts.asp?TID=5482
Printed Date: 26 March 2026 at 20:34
Topic: Hemingway Burgers
Posted By: gracoman
Subject: Hemingway Burgers
Date Posted: 04 August 2019 at 10:06
|
This has been on my to-do-list since 2014
when ..."about two thousand newly digitized documents of Ernest Hemingway’s
personal papers in Cuba finally wending their way to the John F. Kennedy
Presidential Library and Museum in Boston. This was the second batch of
Hemingway papers to arrive from his home in Cuba, where he lived from
1939 to 1960"... This is why the Hemingway burger recipe is in the this section. It was likely developed there by Ernie and/or his fourth wife Mary but who knows for sure. I knew about this hamburger almost immediately but it took until now to follow through. What was I waiting for? The original digitized recipe with footnotes describing other additional ingredients which can also be added or used as substitutes. I left these out so no minced standard ham, chopped tomato, grated cheddar, grated apple, grated carrots, mushrooms or parsley was added. https://imageshack.com/i/pm1Tt3HIj">  FROM EXPERIMENTING, PAPA’S FAVORITE HAMBURGER. There
is no reason why a fried hamburger has to turn out gray, greasy,
paper-thin and tasteless. You can add all sorts of goodies and flavors
to the ground beef — minced mushrooms, cocktail sauce, minced garlic
and onion, chopped almonds, a big dollop of piccadilli, or whatever
your eye lights on. Papa prefers this combination. Ingredients — 1 lb. ground lean beef 2 cloves, minced garlic 2 little green onions, finely chopped 1 heaping teaspoon, India relish 2 tablespoons, capers 1 heaping teaspoon, Spice Islands sage Spice Islands Beau Monde Seasoning — ½ teaspoon Spice Islands Mei Yen Powder — ½ teaspoon ** 1 egg, beaten in a cup with a fork About one third cup dry red or white wine. 1 tablespoon cooking oil What to do — Break up the meat with a fork and
scatter the garlic, onion and dry seasonings over it, then mix them
into the meat with a fork or your fingers. Let the bowl of meat sit out
of the icebox for ten or fifteen minutes while you set the table and
make the salad. Add the relish, capers, everything else including wine
and let the meat sit, quietly marinating, for another ten minutes if
possible. Now make four fat, juicy patties with your hands. The patties
should be an inch thick, and soft in texture but not runny. Have the
oil in your frying-pan hot but not smoking when you drop in the patties
and then turn the heat down and fry the burgers about four minutes.
Take the pan off the burner and turn the heat high again. Flip the
burgers over, put the pan back on the hot fire, then after one minute,
turn the heat down again and cook another three minutes. Both sides of
the burgers should be crispy brown and the middle pink and juicy. ** Spice Islands discontinued its
production of Mei Yen Powder three years ago. If you don’t have any in
your pantry, here’s how to recreate it: 9 parts salt 9 parts sugar 2 parts MSG If a recipe calls for 1 teaspoon Mei Yen Powder, use 2/3 tsp of the dry recipe (above) mixed with 1/8 tsp of soy sauce.The burger mixture on its second marination with added beaten egg and wine. Total marination time for both marination's was 30 minutes. https://imageshack.com/i/plchOcrhj">  The recipe doesn't mention to not overwork the burger mix when shaping into patties so I will do that here. This mix with wine and egg could easily turn into a meatloaf so don't overwork the mix. I opted to form the one pound of ground meat mixture into four equal sized balls because these are going to be Hemingway Smash Burgers on account of the overworking thing. https://imageshack.com/i/pomlkdE4j">  Up close and personal https://imageshack.com/i/pm0nRiRQj">  Papa preferred his burgers pan fried but I used a better option along with a better smash burger technique "The patties should be an inch thick, and soft in texture but not runny." They were exactly that. https://imageshack.com/i/pmsZfm8Lj">  Flip em https://imageshack.com/i/pl9O5HD5j">  A beautiful evening was in store for enjoying a Hemingway Wild West Hamburger. Sometimes everything just falls together. I'm stoked. https://imageshack.com/i/porhnVkKj">  These burgers are some serious gourmet s**t  No condiments required. Worth the effort? Yes, and very little effort was made past tracking down the ingredients. https://imageshack.com/i/pmMPvAt6j">  The Hemingway's would have undoubtedly used what is now referred to as "grass fed" beef for these burgers. Grain fed hadn't happened yet. I don't think. |
Replies:
Posted By: Margi Cintrano
Date Posted: 04 August 2019 at 12:17
|
Cool .. Interesting that Hemmingway documented his beef Burger. He was a grand fan of Spain and Spanish regional cuisine .. Very well done post and photography as always. ------------- Volamos a Mediterraneo, un paraiso que conquista su gente u su cocina. |
Posted By: Hoser
Date Posted: 04 August 2019 at 13:15
|
Good stuff there Gman....I just may have to give this a shot myself ------------- Go ahead...play with your food! |
Posted By: gracoman
Date Posted: 04 August 2019 at 14:11
|
India Relish is a part of my childhood and it was nice to find it again. Only on Amazon of course. India Relish was invented by Heinz BTW so I'm using the same relish
as the Hemingway's did. I don't believe it has anything to do with
India but there is cabbage in it if that makes a difference. Low demand
caused the disappearance of that. I can also use the other ingredients I collected for these burgers with the exception of one pound of msg. What am I going to do with that? https://imageshack.com/i/pmRmOTE6j">  There was once a "flavor enhancer" on the market named Accent. It was available in small round red and white tubelike hard cardboard containers and the ingredient list was 100% msg. That also disappeared from supermarket shelves when msg fell out of favor with the general population. It too was available on Amazon but for more money than the one pound plastic bag. |
Posted By: pitrow
Date Posted: 05 August 2019 at 10:54
|
Looks superb gman! I would have never thought of capers in a burger. And I've never heard of India Relish. Going to have to look that one up.
If you're up for it, I'd buy some of the msg off you. As you noted Accent disappeared from the shelves around here about a two years ago and even then it was hard to find, and a couple months before that my favorite seasoning salt dropped the msg from their ingredients. Personally I like msg because it allows you to get the flavor enhancement without using as much salt as would be required using regular table salt. I've never noticed any ill effects from it.
------------- Mike http://lifeinpitrow.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow - Life in PitRow - My often neglected, somewhat eccentric, occasionally outstanding blog |
gracoman wrote:Posted By: gracoman
Date Posted: 05 August 2019 at 13:36
|
Mike, msg is cheap. It would cost more to ship it to you than I paid for it. I bought a pound of it in a plastic bag because it was cheaper than smaller amounts in plastic spice containers with shaker lids. I believe it was $5.00 on Amazon with Prime "free" 2 day shipping. It's likely available in any local Asian food mkt for half that much, but I was ordering India Relish anyway so why not add the msg. Hindsight being 20-20 I should have just left it out but my OCD wouldn't let me. I think I only used 1/16 tsp. Must be potent stuff, this msg. Most of America's ridiculously high sodium intake comes from canned and other processed foods. Highly processed meats like hot dogs, bologna, salami, and other sausages are also in that group.
|
Posted By: pitrow
Date Posted: 06 August 2019 at 13:51
|
good to know, I've never priced it lately. I know the little shaker bottle of accent was pretty expensive for what it is. There's a couple big Asian groceries near my work, maybe I'll swing by one of these days and see what they have for msg. Thanks.
------------- Mike http://lifeinpitrow.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow - Life in PitRow - My often neglected, somewhat eccentric, occasionally outstanding blog |
Posted By: gracoman
Date Posted: 10 January 2020 at 11:42
|
Nice! |
Posted By: Wannabebwana
Date Posted: 11 January 2020 at 09:38
MSG was the “gluten-free” of it’s time.
|
Posted By: HistoricFoodie
Date Posted: 11 January 2020 at 17:15
|
What I like most about this burger is that the flavorings are incorporated into the patty itself. One of my pet peeves is the modern approach of piling them on top of the burger until you create a tower you can't get your mouth around. Of course, that's the justification for charging $15-25 for a burger. ------------- But we hae meat and we can eat And sae the Lord be thanket |
Posted By: Percebes
Date Posted: 28 February 2020 at 19:58
|
MSG available in Asian Markets under the name Ajinomoto ------------- I am a wine enthusiast. The more wine I drink, the more enthusiastic I become. |
Posted By: TasunkaWitko
Date Posted: 25 January 2023 at 19:12
|
Yes indeed - this looks good, and I'd like to try it! This is first on my list when grilling season starts - thank you, gMan for posting this. Ron ------------- If you are a visitor and like what you see, please http://foodsoftheworld.activeboards.net/registration_rules.asp?FID=0" rel="nofollow - click here and join the discussions in our community! |