Food Porn...The Juicy Lucy Butter Burger from Maverick in San Francisco. MMMMM or Whatta effin mess?

[Amerigo Vespucci]

San Francisco: The Juicy Lucy Butter Burger at Maverick

Posted by David Kover, June 24, 2011 at 1:45 PM

http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/2011/06/maverick-jucy-juicy-lucy-butter-burger-review-san-francisco-ca.html#continued



Juicy Lucy Butter Burger. Just saying it is a mouthful. And then you look upon the creation offered up by the folks at Maverick in San Francisco, and you think, "Jesus, that is a mouthful!"

Here's the scoop on this thing: Chef Matt Brimer takes Meyer Ranch chuck and literally sends it through the meat grinder with chunks of butter. He forms this butter-meat into two thin patties that he uses to seal in a slice of smoked gouda cheese. The whole thing gets cooked with oil in a cast iron pan, creating a patty encased in a crust about a million miles thick—almost as if it had been deep-fried. Served on an Acme bun, the burger gets topped with a monumental dollop of Sauce Gribiche and a sous vide egg yolk. Some watercress sits beneath the burger, while thin slices of truffled cornichon come alongside. At least, I think they were truffled—honestly, I started to lose track at this point.





So, yeah, there's a lot going on here, and it likely goes without saying that burger purists need not apply. The meat makes its presence known, but it's not front and center in this funky-herby-crunchy-oozy concoction. In fact, I wouldn't say that this ate like a burger at all, but I did wolf it down in about thirty seconds.

Maverick has been serving some version of the butter burger for the past three months as an off-menu, Tuesday-only dinner special. For $20, it comes with a glass of 2009 Poppy Pinot Noir and some fluffy, if not-always-crisp-enough Kennebec potato fries. But the restaurant plans to discontinue the deal at the end of June, which means that this coming Tuesday is the last chance for those of you who want a piece of the butter-beefy action. And Maverick only serves seventeen of these on a given Tuesday night, so get there early.

[Kali]

1. hold the egg

and I would eat it - if you buy - $20 for a burger:wtf:

[some guy]

2. other: are you becoming egg-obsessed?

Should we worry? :D

:hi:


$20 and only 17 made per day - well, at least they've got a marketing gimmick to go with their burger.

I'm sure I'd skip this.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

3. I bought the stuff to make Loco Moco this morning

"Organics" large brown eggs

Boneless stew beef (chuck) that I'll grind in the Kitchen Aid meat grinder

A jar of Heinz Home Style Savory Beef Gravy (I wimped out here, because a can of beef broth was $1.50 and a bag of flour was $4, and I hardly ever use flour). The envelope of "just add water" gravy mix looked less appetizing than the jar of gravy, so I bought that.

Plus I have rice up the yin-yang already at home, so I didn't need to buy that.

So it's less of an egg obsession and more of a Loco Moco obsession...I know it's ridiculously unhealthy but it is like the call of the siren, leading the sailors into the rocks. i won't rest until I make it. It's on my list of 100 things to do before I die..."make Loco Moco."

:rofl:

[some guy]

4. Loco Moco has rice.

therefore, it is healthy food. :D

That picture looks more appealing than the burger did. I'm sure part of it is because of what the gravy is hiding - the egg with the runny yolk is less noticeable.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

5. I will probably post photographic "evidence" later...

...in theory, Loco Moco ain't that difficult...but I'm taking the scenic route, so it's going to take some time.

For my money, in terms of fat content / flavor, chuck is the way to go with ground beef. I know people who prefer a mix of sirloin and short ribs, or some other combo, but whenever I make burgers / meatloaf / meatballs, I always go with the "boneless stew beef" and grind it myself.

I grew up in Massachusetts. We had a TINY little grocery store with a REAL "butcher counter." My mom always used to ask them to "triple grind" the ground beef. The beauty of the Kitchen Aid mixer is that it "pulls out" any gristle, so not only do you get ground beef with exceptional texture, you don't get any surprises. I hate biting into ground beef and finding gristle or a bone fragment. With my fresh-ground beef, that's never a possibility.

One time I had a friend over for dinner and I made spaghetti and meatballs. She took one bite and said "WOW! This is almost like PATE!"

:-)

And the beauty of making Loco Moco at home is that I don't have to DROWN it in gravy. The jar says there are 6 1/4 cup servings @ 1 gram of fat (2% of daily allowance) and 370 mg of sodium (15% of daily allowance). I'll probably use a half cup but that means I'm still not doing that bad.

[cherokeeprogressive]

6. I'd change the name to "Notta-Burger"

It's not a burger. Some kind of fried meat sandwich maybe, but burger? Hardly.