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(laughing)
- What the hell? What happened?
- They made a stop at every drive-thru chain in the galaxies
so they could make one giant burger
with a patty from each place.
- I guess I meant before that?
- Brains got a little mixed up.
- But we're gonna swap back. Don't worry.
Just didn't want to build a neural interface
on an empty stomach, right?
- [Andy] Hey, what's up guys?
And welcome back to "Binging with Babish."
The Screen Actors and Writers Guild strikes are over
so we can get back to doing what we do best.
Mashing together one of every kind of burger.
But first, per Babishian bylaws,
we had to recreate the search itself,
scouring every drive-thru burger place in Brooklyn.
The SAG Strike is over, which means we can do binging again.
I'm gonna say all this in the studio. So this is redundant.
We're out here in Brooklyn
and we are about to comb the borough
for all the fast food chain burgers
that we can get our greasy little paws on,
and make the Every Fast Food Burger from "Rick and Morty."
First stop, Shake Shack.
Heh, okay.
One down, nine to go.
- [Brad] You don't think this is gonna be a drive-through?
- Brad, I will bequeath to you my entire fortune
if this is a drive-thru.
It's official, it's on tape. It's legally enforceable.
- [Brad] Oh wait. There it is. There's a Sonic.
And you're right. Damn, you get to keep your fortune.
- It's not a drive-thru.
I get to keep all that money. - [Brad] I was prepared.
- Oh, there's a McDonald's with a drive-thru though.
- [Brad] Oh yeah. - Let's do that first.
This is (beep) goofy. Where do you go?
Thank you so much. Have a good day.
- It's so cool.
They're just like chicken fries,
but they're made from potato.
This is how you Sonic.
Grease bag number three.
These pickle fries are a triumph.
Thank you very much. Have a good day.
This is safe.
We're in a tight spot.
(car sensor beeping)
God, it's like I'm in a submarine or something.
- Thank you so much.
Excuse me.
- [Employee] I forgot to give you the frosty.
Oh, I'm sorry. Here, I'm just gonna-
One thing at a time, it's the essence of zen.
One thing at a time, baby.
Trying to get that bag, you know?
What's up Babish fam? You know I'm all about that one thing.
Get that bag, you know? I'm just trying to get that bag.
Yo, what's up Bab-(beep)?
- [Brad] I like that.
- What's up Bab-(beep) fam?
Just trying to get that,
we're just outta here trying to get that bag.
Of burgers.
- So there you have it,
a burger from every chain restaurant we could find.
You'll notice that they're all doubles,
so that once I harvested a patty,
we'd still have a functional burger to eat
or bring home to our loved ones.
So here we go. McDonald's, Shake Shack, Wendy's,
Burger King, Sonic, Smashburger, Checkers, White Castle,
Jollibee, and Five Guys
united at last in one single burger.
But this didn't seem like quite enough,
so we ordered 10 more burgers
from non-chain local restaurants
just to see how high we can get
in every sense of the phrase.
So there you have it,
20 burgers proudly piled on one single bun.
It was difficult enough just to get it stand up straight,
but we wanted a cross section.
So Brad and I did our best Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore,
and using the fittingly named Babish Super Slicer,
we managed to cut down the length of this meat mountain.
Let's see what a 20 burger cross section looks like.
Exactly how I imagined it.
Just a big old beef cylinder no one could possibly eat
or even keep upright for very long as we found out.
Now, we didn't want to just waste 20 burgers for a gag,
so we ate as much as we physically could
and reserved the rest for experimental recipes.
I used mine to make a stroganoff.
And later that night,
I wanted to see what it would be like
to eat burgers like they were chips.
Then came the question of the Babish version.
My first attempt was a homemade potato bun,
a ground meat mixture of chuck, brisket, and ribeye,
prepared three different ways and stacked.
A Juicy Lucy, a double smash burger,
and a sous vide ribeye burger.
And this made a fine burger to be sure,
but did it capture the spirit of the Every Burger Burger?
Let's take a look at that cross section.
Nice Juicy Lucy stretch,
Sous vide patty may be a little overcooked.
And it was delicious,
but I don't think it was what Rick and Jerry
set out to accomplish.
I wanted a burger that really mashed together
a whole bunch of different styles.
So let's start with a hybrid brioche potato bun.
Combining 460 grams of all purpose
with 50 grams of potato flour,
60 grams of sugar, 14 grams of yeast,
and 15 grams of kosher salt in the bowl of a stand mixer.
Whisk to combine.
Then in a separate bowl,
we're cracking four large room temperature eggs,
lightly beating and adding to the dry stuff,
along with a quarter cup of water.
And I've got another quarter cup on standby
in case things turn out too dry.
Affix dough hooks and mix until a thick,
relatively wet dough forms.
If it's fully clearing the size of the bowl,
go ahead and add that extra quarter cup
of room temperature water.
Once a dough forms, we're gonna begin the buttering process.
Adding 225 grams or two sticks of unsalted,
room temperature butter one little piece at a time,
waiting for it to be fully incorporated
before adding the next.
A process that should take five to eight minutes.
Plenty of time for robust gluten formation.
Make sure it passes the window pane test,
turn it out onto a surface, roll it into a taut, tight ball.
Hit your bowl with a little bit of butter.
Plop the dough inside cover with a moist kitchen towel,
and let rest for one to two hours,
until roughly doubled in size.
So now we're gonna turn it out and knock out all the air.
And at this point you can divide, shape, proof, and bake.
Or for better flavor and texture,
place it into a well-lubricated airtight container
and refrigerate for 48 hours
during which time it will have poofed
and, because of its extremely high butter content,
will have become hard as a rock.
So let it come fully back to room temperature,
about two hours, before dividing and shaping,
which we're gonna do by by virtue of a scale
for uniformity's sake.
Busting up into eight pieces of equal weight,
which we're rolling, stretching and pressing flat
into little buns,
which we're gonna allow to proof undercover
of greasy plastic wrap for anywhere from 45 minutes
to an hour and a half until puffed,
but not quite doubled in size.
To see if they're done proofing,
give them a forceful poke, which should spring back slowly
and leave a slight divot.
If it springs back too spiritedly, they need more time.
Next, they are getting a thorough brushing down
with a beaten egg and a generous sprinkling of white
and black sesame seeds.
Then these guys are headed
into a preheated 350 degree Fahrenheit oven
for 15 to 20 minutes or until deeply golden brown.
Allow to cool completely before slicing and serving,
at least two hours.
Next up, we need to prep some of our burger accoutrement.
With a Cuban Frita-style burger,
I need some matchstick potatoes,
so I'm running a peeled russett
through the 1/8-inch julienne plate of a mandoline
and rinsing the resulting sticks until the water runs clear.
Then over on the stove top, I've got a pot of water
heated to 175 degrees Fahrenheit
into which I'm going to deposit my potatoes.
Crank up the heat, get it back up to 170,
kill the heat, cover, and let rest for 15 minutes.
In this method, inspired by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt,
fish out the sticks and drain them on paper towels.
Make sure to get as much water off them as possible,
and then padding them dry.
Because once they've cooled,
they are headed for the deep fryer.
First at 325 degrees Fahrenheit for about 90 seconds,
or until they're just starting to get a little bit of color,
fish them out, back onto some paper towels to drain,
spread them out evenly
and refrigerate at least an hour
until completely utterly cooled.
Then they're headed back into the oil.
This time heated to 400 degrees Fahrenheit
for a scant 30 seconds or until golden brown,
draining, once again, on paper towels.
Sprinkle with salt while they're still hot.
And there you have it, potato sticks.
Next up, the Cuban Frita sauce.
Combining 1/3 of a cup of ketchup,
two tablespoons of tomato paste,
a few dashes of hot sauce, one tablespoon of sugar,
and 1/2 teaspoon each of garlic powder and onion powder,
one tablespoon apple cider vinegar,
and a cup of water in a bowl.
Tiny whisk to combine and pour into a squeeze bottle.
This stuff gets squirted directly onto the burgers
while they're on the griddle.
Next up, for a Hawaiian burger element,
we need to caramelize some pineapple rings.
Thinly slicing and stamping out some fresh pineapple
and sauteing in butter
until both the pineapple and the butter are lightly browned.
Draining on what else but paper towels.
Next up, I want one of the patties to be Animal Style,
so for that, we need some chopped caramelized onions.
So we're cooking a whole diced onion
in a couple tablespoons of oil over medium heat
until we start to see a little bit of color.
At which point, we're gonna deglaze the pan
with about a tablespoon of water,
using that to get the lovely fond off the bottom of the pot.
Rinsing and repeating this process
for what feels like forever
until the onions are rich, golden brown texture like sun.
Last thing we gotta contend with is the meat.
I'm going with the same parts as before,
but this time I'm mixing them all together.
Equal parts brisket, a beautiful dry aged ribeye,
and good old fashioned, righteous and reliable, chuck
cut into one inch cubes and placed in the freezer
for about 20 minutes
or until beginning to turn firm around the edges.
Passing them through are meat grinder,
which itself has spent an hour in the fridge.
When grinding meat, the colder everything is the better.
Yielding a beautiful, pebbly, flavorful meat mixture.
Now to make the meat gussied up and ready to grill,
we're measuring out four ounce balls for our smash burgers.
For the Cuban Frita-style burger, to eight ounces of meat,
we're adding about two tablespoons of finely grated onion,
one clove of grated garlic,
and about a half teaspoon each ground cumin
and sweet paprika,
mashed thoroughly to make sure that it's evenly mixed.
Normally, I would never recommend additives
to a burger mixture, but in a Cuban Frita, it somehow works.
Last up the Juicy Lucy,
for which I'm gonna measure out
two four ounce balls of our beef,
placing them between two sheets of plastic wrap
and pressing out using a plate,
preferably one with an underside rim
the same size as your intended burger.
Then between these two patties,
I'm gonna place a thick wheel of Gouda ensconced in beef
and thoroughly pinch shut around the edges,
pinching and smearing the beef together twice
to make sure that there are no leaks.
That's just about all of our prep out of the way.
So now it's time to finally hit the griddle.
I got a nice hot hunk of cast iron here.
Lubing it up with vegetable oil
and using that toast our top, bottom, and middle bun.
And then first, I'm gonna cook the Juicy Lucy.
Pressing it down onto the griddle,
hitting it with a little bit of kosher salt,
cooking until a significant crust has formed
and gray is starting to creep up the sides of the burger,
flipping, and then immediately punching a hole in the top
using a skewer or toothpick.
This is going to vent melting cheese gases
and prevent things from blowing out the sides.
Seasoning one more time.
This time with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Topping with Munster cheese
and our caramelized pineapple ring,
squirting some water onto the griddle around it
and covering to let the cheese melt.
And there you have it,
both the Juicy Lucy and the Hawaiian elements
of our Every Burger Burger.
Next up, our smashers.
One plain beef, the other Cuban Frita mix.
These are getting lightly salted
and unceremoniously flattened,
almost as though you're spreading mortar on a brick.
To make the first smasher Animal Style,
it needs to be squirted with mustard before flipping,
then topped with the slice of American cheese
and our caramelized onions.
The Cuban Frita, however,
receives a very different treatment after being flipped.
It gets a generous dowsing
with that spiced tomato water mixture,
which should mostly boil off by the time it's done cooking.
So now we got all of our pieces, time to put them together.
First on the bottom bun,
I'm spreading a mixture of half teriyaki, half mayonnaise,
which will serve as the bed for our Hawaiian Juicy Lucy.
Next up, a very common burger topping,
I think it's gonna go well with the pineapple, bacon.
Followed by our toasted middle bun,
which is going to hold up our smashers.
First up. the Cuban Frita's placed
on a little squirt of ketchup
and topped with our homemade potato sticks.
Then on top of that,
we're placing our Animal Style smashburger,
hitting the top bun with special sauce.
And because why not?
How about a sunny side up fried egg,
lightly seasoned, of course, with kosher salt
and freshly ground black pepper
cut to conform to the burger form factor,
and placed on top of the Animal Style.
And because this is getting a little unhealthy,
we should probably get some roughage in there.
Single leaf of butter lettuce and pickles,
which were formerly vegetables.
Top it up and there you have it, the Every Burger Burger.
Let's see what we've got in terms of a cross section.
Hopefully a bit more visually diverse.
And I definitely let the Juicy Lucy hang out too long,
so it's not as melty as I would like it to be.
But I've gone through like 10 pounds of beef at this point,
so let's give it a try.
And it's good, you know, it's good,
but pretty much every element is overshadowing the other.
So I took the thing apart
and ate it in pieces as was their original design.
And so there's no question in my mind
that the Every Burger Burger is a Jerry-dominant idea.
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(upbeat music)