Table of Contents
Fallow World’s Best Burger
Ingredients
Makes 4 burgers; seasoning and sauce batches leave extra.
Buns — yudane and potato
2 tsp boiling water
2 tsp strong white flour
1 small Maris Piper potato; weigh 35 g cooked purée for the dough
Bun dough
15 g prepared yudane
110 g plain flour
50 g strong white flour
35 g potato purée
7 g dried potato flakes
70 g whole milk
12 g beaten whole egg
7 g egg yolk
7 g honey
7 g caster sugar
5 g fresh yeast
½ tsp salt
7 g olive oil
10 g cold unsalted butter, cubed
2 tbsp sesame seeds
Remaining beaten egg and yolk plus 1 tsp milk, for egg wash
Beef salt — batch
150 g flaky coarse sea salt or grey salt
35 g kibbled onions
25 g garlic powder
30 g coarse black pepper
6 g sweet smoked paprika
2 g celery seeds
20 g beef stock powder
12.5 g MSG, optional
Patties and cheese
640 g minced beef rump fat cap, divided into four 160 g patties
Prepared beef salt, for seasoning
A generous pinch each of fine salt and cracked black pepper
A splash of oil, for searing
4 slices American cheese
4 slices Red Leicester
Maple bacon
4 thick-cut, dry-cured smoked streaky bacon rashers
250 g unsalted butter
4 tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp coarse black pepper
Champagne onions
2 sweet onions, diced
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp unsalted butter
50 ml Champagne
A splash of Chardonnay vinegar
Pickle and chive relish
1 medium pickling cucumber, in ½ cm rounds
100 ml white wine vinegar
50 g sugar
Turmeric: source lists both ½ tsp and a pinch; confirm before making
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 bay leaf
A pinch of salt
5 g fresh dill, roughly chopped
1 tbsp finely chopped chives
½ tsp cracked black pepper
Smoky burger sauce
150 g spring onions
150 g leek tops
500 ml neutral oil, for infusing; use 100 g strained infused oil in the sauce
1 whole egg
1½ tsp miso
1½ tsp Dijon mustard
A pinch of fine salt, plus more to taste
15 ml vinegar
1 tbsp tomato ketchup
Tools
Potato ricer
Stand mixer, optional
Baking trays and baking parchment
Blender or spice grinder for the seasoning
Patty ring the width of the buns
Stainless-steel or carbon-steel frying pan
Food thermometer
Loaf tin and parchment cartouche
Fine sieve
Charcoal grill
Stick blender and narrow jug
Oven and hot grill/broiler
Preparation
Start at least a day ahead
Mix the boiling water into the yudane flour. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
For the pickles, place the cucumber rounds in a jar or bowl. Boil the vinegar, sugar, confirmed turmeric quantity, mustard seeds, salt and bay leaf until the sugar dissolves. Pour over the cucumber, add dill and refrigerate for at least 24 hours.
Char the spring onions and leek tops heavily over charcoal. Put them in a container while hot and cover with the neutral oil. The source calls for a 24-hour infusion but does not specify storage temperature; keep this fresh-vegetable infusion refrigerated as a home-food-safety precaution. Strain and weigh out 100 g for the sauce.
Buns
Roast the whole potato at 180°C until soft. Scoop out the flesh while warm, pass through a ricer and weigh 35 g for the dough.
Put the milk, weighed egg and yolk, honey and yudane into a mixer bowl, then add the flours, potato purée, potato flakes, sugar, yeast and salt. Mix for 3 minutes on speed 1, then 7 minutes on speed 2. Work in the butter gradually, then slowly pour in the olive oil. Continue until the dough is elastic and a finger indentation springs back. The source also permits hand mixing.
Cover the dough loosely with a damp towel and let it double at room temperature. Knock back, knead briefly and shape into four 85 g balls. Dip the tops in sesame seeds and place on a parchment-lined tray at least 5 cm apart. Prove until a gentle indentation near the base rebounds very slowly.
Seasoning and patties
Mix the salt, kibbled onions, garlic powder, black pepper, paprika and celery seeds. Spread thinly on a lined tray and dry at 120°C fan for 20 minutes, stirring halfway. Cool fully, then pulse to a coarse blend. Stir in beef stock powder and optional MSG; store airtight.
Season the minced beef generously with some beef salt and massage until it binds, stopping before it becomes pasty. Shape four 160 g patties in a bun-width ring.
Sauce and relish
Put the 100 g infused oil, egg, miso, mustard, vinegar and salt into a narrow jug. Blend from the bottom with a stick blender until an emulsion forms, then lift slowly while blending. Fold in ketchup and adjust salt. Home safety note: use pasteurized egg for this uncooked sauce and keep chilled.
Finely dice the cured cucumber and mix with the chives and black pepper.
Cooking
Buns
Heat the oven to 175°C with a tray of water inside. Lightly coat the proved buns with the egg wash and bake on their lined tray for 11–12 minutes. The source offers 175°C at 100% steam for an oven with that function.
Bacon
Brown the butter over medium heat until the milk solids are deep golden and smell nutty. Leave off the heat for 30 minutes, then strain.
Put the bacon in a loaf tin, cover with the brown butter and lay a parchment cartouche over it. Cook at 140°C for about 1 hour. Transfer to a baking tray, spoon 1 tbsp maple syrup over each rasher and add some brown butter. Grill/broil, basting, until golden; finish with the black pepper.
Onions
Cook the diced onions in olive oil and butter over medium heat until lightly caramelized. Increase the heat, add Champagne and reduce almost dry. Finish with Chardonnay vinegar.
Patties
Season the patties again with beef salt, fine salt and cracked black pepper. Heat a splash of oil in the pan over medium-high heat and sear until deeply browned, initially about 2 minutes per side.
Safety adaptation: the restaurant source specifies 55°C internally; this home version instead follows USDA guidance to cook ground beef to 160°F (71.1°C), measured with a food thermometer. The initial searing time alone will not establish this temperature.
Top each patty with American cheese and then Red Leicester; finish under a hot grill/broiler until melted.
Assemble
Split and lightly toast the buns in a dry pan over medium heat. Cover each bottom bun with Champagne onions, add the cheese-topped patty and its maple bacon, then spoon on pickle-chive relish. Spread 1 tbsp burger sauce on the top bun and close.
Before cooking: confirm the turmeric quantity and bun measurement typos with the source. This draft uses the dough list’s 35 g potato and reads “7g tsp” potato flakes as 7 g; the source’s earlier potato note says about 33 g.
