FOODlog #312: Cheeseburger R&D

Being in a R&D phase of creating a new menu from scratch at the cafe, I've been tasked with creating a beef cheeseburger. I used to run a few burger restaurant and a catering business so I guess that's why my head chef assigned me this burger task.

I made 3 different types of Burgers to test and taste:

1. Classic Cheeseburger

All the burgers are using an 80:20 ratio lean ground beef to fat ratio. I sear them over a flat top and topped with a slice of aged cheddar cheese.

The burger buns are Brioche burger buns with sesame seeds on top. It's laced with a spicy garlic aioli sauce and the patty is topped with some poached white onions.

2. Pastrami Cheeseburger

Similar to the classic one, I melted the cheese on half of the patty so that it gets a nice crispy half for difference of texture. For the sauce I used Dijon mustard and a spread of mushroom duxelle on both burger buns.

I then cook some beef pastrami and it's topped on the patty.

3. Sweet Relish & Cream Cheese Burger

This one turned out really unique but a little too unique for the menu at this point of time.

I used sweet chili Relish which is sweet and spicy and had the burger buns spread with cream cheese. For some reason the burger tasted like it had coconut from the combination of flavors which was weird and at the same time what a discovery.

Overall my favorite is still the classic cheeseburger. The head chef is also choosing that one with caramelised onions instead of the poached onions. Gonna be a good menu. Now it's all up to whether customers like them.