how many hamburgers have you actually
eaten you think probably the last 15
years of like hardcore research probably
listed like 12,000 burgers oh my god
[Music]
for some people
burgers bring some mind the perfect
proportions of an emoji keyboard for the
familiarity of the golden arches but
fanboys like me the beauty of the burger
is in their differences no one
understands the nuances of burgers
across the country like burger Lord
George Motz whose badass book hamburger
America became the holy grail for burger
fans today I'm heading to his house in
Brooklyn
for a crash course in three regional
burger styles so going through my burger
journey I'm starting to figure out like
burgers are kind of like barbecue you
know like there's Carolina style
barbecue
there's texas or santa maria saal
barbecue and a lot of people don't know
that burgers are the same way there's
like a bunch of regional differences I
mean there must be you know around a
hundred different that I know of a
hundred different regional varieties and
hamburgers in America and each one is a
little piece of history that's attached
to the original American hamburger
what's the history of the original
burger in America you can actually go
back as far as 13th century Russia the
Tartars and the Mongols
apparently they would ride and they
would take bits of mutton and put it
under their saddles as they rode away it
would tenderize the meat and they would
take it out and eat it
somehow the raw mutton made its way
across the Baltic Sea into Germany and
then became raw chopped beef and it was
in Germany for the first thing they
actually started to cook the beef and
serve it on a plate and call it a
Hamburg steak because it was mostly
served in Hamburg as people emigrated
and left the port of Hamburg they would
end up in New York City at the base have
been happy but they would find yet again
Germans selling Hamburg steak brother
turn of the century the popularity of
the Hamburg steak had grown so much that
it was being served at state fairs
things were becoming portable so someone
said why don't we take Hamburg steak and
put it on bread and that was the
beginning of the hamburger
yeah in America the rest is all history
it's what I've learned is that it's
really not about toppings I mean anybody
could take top and put them on a burger
but in America it seems like in these
regional pockets
it's about method right it's about how
the burgers made I'm gonna make three
regional burgers today okay I'm gonna
make the deep fried burger from
Tennessee the Oklahoma
fried onion burger and the steamed
cheeseburger from Connecticut awesome
let's do it before the days of flat tops
or drains and you know catch up in the
cooked in skillets and the skillet would
eventually fill up with beef tallow they
realize that they don't have time to
dump it out it's too hot to just keep
going and they've realized after they're
after a while that people like the
flavor of the deep-fried meat there's
one place you go to in Tennessee called
dyers
they actually had the oil the same
grease in the pan for over a hundred
years Wow infinity Japanese people have
that with their yakitori sauces like
it's a continuous thing exactly it like
that's what love comes from so measured
scoop marble surface only because this
is what they use it dyers I don't know
what as well for 100 years of using
marble relatively inexpensive um you can
find this for like a couple bucks this
is this is a four dollar piece of marble
from pogi bone right it's a sample from
Home Depot you get smashed press it down
look at this gets nice and thin yeah so
we try to gently scrape it off of here
boom there you go and it gets here yes
you know they cooked very fast right so
but it's crying it's developing a crust
exactly it's pretty much done already
it's already done so fast this is what
they do a dire as a Tennessee they take
the cheese right and I gently stick it
back into the grease somehow yeah yeah
it's melted yeah we're done that's it
he's out of the but bad look at that
actually would be some onion right on
top of that pickles in here this
the devil 375 oil yep we're talking
about like a little bit over an eighth
of an inch thick cheese on there you do
that part yeah yeah sledding on it back
in we go this this part is blowing my
mind
yeah I'm not I'm not the best but that's
pretty good there it is did it yes that
is just a thing of beauty go for it man
this is so good
this doesn't have ketchup mustard no
mayo you can if you want but a Jew
doesn't need it I mean Greece's economy
the cheese yeah it's almost like if
cheese was like pouring into all the
crevices of the beef oh my gosh some
reason they keep their traditions alive
in Tennessee I feel like we just broke
DaVinci's code on like what's gonna be
the next level of burger trend in
America which is deep-fry everything all
right George you took me to Tennessee
where we going next we're gonna move
over to Oklahoma so what's going on when
we've got all this heavy machinery here
we got the Oklahoma fried onion burger
okay it sits in the center of what I
like to call the burger Belt of America
there are some of the best burgers in
America to be found from Texas South
Alwin North to Wisconsin Minnesota okay
and so of course that makes Oklahoma the
buckle right it makes perfect sense
because some of the best primary source
hamburgers can be found in Oklahoma
unaffected by time trend anything the
trick to the oklahoma fried onion burger
is thin sliced onion so here we high so
let me do this goggles have to go and i
can't do with that guy that's the pasta
safety first
guys try this at home don't try to be a
hero because then it ruins the next 10
minutes of cooking you can't can't see
anything I'm right I tell people if
you're making onion juice just go one
step further and then you get almost
ready can see
so you've made onion ribbons a bit onion
you get a scoop of meat right put it in
the pan a little bit of salt here's the
here's the cool part watch this ready
[Music]
all of the onion juice will actually
render out you need a heavy spatula
because this thing has to be smashed
this is alright we actually take this
and we're gonna push this then like the
moment of its life here that's it
the onions are marrying with the beef
like I had to see the cheese is marrying
with the beef right this came about
because there was a time when there was
people don't have enough money to pay
for just having a beef all beef burn
right we had it from this side for maybe
a minute and a half we always do cheese
on flip this is something that I give
myself all always is this all rides it's
all it's all becoming sort of a
hamburger country yeah yeah yeah a bunch
of burger magic happen exact there again
you're butting into history there it's a
very important part of American it's all
it's like ugly beautiful it's like the
Willem Dafoe burgers amount like any
stuff with onions my whole career I've
never really liked having onion that
tasted that way because it's usually
caramelized slow and slow or yeah fried
crispy what's wrong
yeah Rob this is like a hybrid between
both the beauty of this burger is it is
the the sum is greater than its parts
Oklahoma yeah knows what they're doing
this is the Connecticut steamed
cheeseburger right it exists only within
about a seven mile radius of this
geographic center of Connecticut what do
we do it it's a bit of an anomaly the
1930s in Middletown Connecticut place
called Jack's lunch so there's a
reservoir on the bottom which is boiling
water okay right and then on the inside
you have a shelves but the trays go in
here they slide in and they cook the
meat and the cheese separately and then
the it comes out and goes on the bun
that's serious that's serious business
yeah there's a place in Connecticut this
place been around 1959 called Ted's
right so I put two get five this from
tents if you talk to them you're nice
I'll tell you is the guy down the street
who this is a gift
she's like I'm Asian so steaming meat
you know it's natural right it makes the
dumplings it makes sense to me
and also we have a very large block of
Vermont cheddar it's a very specific
size has to fit into this thing so we're
gonna cut off blocks let go will it go
into the steaming pans of this tray will
get beef so we're gonna pack beef in
here straight for it is not just
straightforward Chuck it's a very hard
way to make a burger obviously you're
packing into a burger what do we do it's
burner mold right it's weird I think
we're not actually making a mold of the
burger we'll put in the mold itself into
the serum just yeah oh that hot steam
here the beef goes in it in the cheese
goes in we close it up
kaiser rolls are hard a little harder
needed something sturdy gonna handle it
like the hot you'll see what comes out
of it so yeah hot molten cheese and the
soft the soft in a roll would just go
just collapse will fall apart so a
little bit sturdier any good kaiser roll
leave this structure yeah to get a
traditional steamed cheeseburger its
Mayo ketchup and mustard together they
use green leaf lettuce you're adding a
lot all those together because it's
esteemed exactly Oh normally this would
take 15 minutes or so to come Christy
right this spatula is perfectly fit for
this bad boy
oh so I'm gonna do this it comes
out of here look at that it's not there
it's a little weird looking okay I'm
used to like my wanton opening up and
showing me great me yeah we're good here
we go this is the other it's the crazy
part right here yeah this is this is a
magic right here magic right yes
so you want to make sure oh yeah baby
yeah oh yeah that is a steamed
cheeseburger that is the craziest thing
ever see that's why we changed the bun
cuz you're gonna need that stability man
look at that yeah okay try oh my god oh
no cheese dough it's like a dumpling me
I get some it's really it's delicious
it's very beefy that's what I like about
actually a you really berry flavor of
the beef like there's like the pure beef
shine through so no amazing burger
people today I think who are making
burgers think you have to add a lot of
stuff to the burger all right have you
know avocados and foie gras fried
oysters you don't need that stuff you
know stuff you asked of these people
when you go to the classic places in
America why is it why don't you add more
stuff and they said because grandpa
never did what that's the way we've been
doing it for a hundred years why would
we change did you have a favorite oh man
you know I think as like a burger
aficionado Epirus I like the Oklahoma
onion burger that was awesome man yeah I
think that that's one of those burgers
that you know needs to sort of break out
of Oklahoma this is amazing
you've definitely taken me to three
places I've never knew existed my
pleasure thanks for coming House Hospice
[Music]
you can't tell me but that's very suit
don't tell me