0:00

Hey. Is Francis Lamb host of the Splenda

0:02

Table or show was all about the

0:04

intersection of food and life and we're

0:06

heading to Southern California. Ellie is this

0:08

hosting a special live taping of our

0:10

show in Orange County or will have

0:12

a chance to talk to some of

0:14

the stars of the Oh sees vibrant

0:16

food scene and after the show will

0:18

get a bite something delicious The The

0:20

join us February fourth a South Coast

0:22

rap the your tickets now at least.com/events.

0:34

I. Practice lamb and received a splendid table

0:36

for. The yeah. You

0:46

know if. You could possibly stand it.

0:48

I would happily sit somewhere with you

0:51

and talk for like an unlimited number

0:53

of hours about the many sub regional

0:55

cuisines of the South. We could be

0:57

here a week before we even get

0:59

to barbecue, or we could reflect the

1:02

mix of cuisines the make up the

1:04

food of the South West, Or we

1:06

can go on and on about the

1:08

chefs of the Why a regional cuisine

1:10

movement of the nineties and so on

1:13

and so forth. But. I have

1:15

to say when we get the midwest.

1:18

I'd probably sit there. For

1:20

a minute and then go. We'll

1:23

put it is the western food.

1:26

And I can't really even tell you. Why

1:28

that question seems so hard to

1:31

answer? Maybe it's because mid Westerners

1:33

are famously not that interested in

1:35

patting themselves on the back. and

1:37

maybe it's because some people ignorantly

1:39

dismiss the region as via of

1:42

the country. But the region that

1:44

gave us the deep dish pizza,

1:46

the do we butter cake, and

1:48

popularized the hotdog and the hamburger

1:50

deserves to get it's flowers for

1:53

making a mark on American cuisine.

1:56

So today that's what we're going to

1:58

do. Later on. We're prepared

2:00

will be too. But Hamburger scholar

2:02

George notes at his the Restaurant

2:05

to Talk about the Midwestern from

2:07

past and present. Start with Paul

2:09

Airlock, chef of the Great Chicago

2:11

Restaurants Big Zones and author of

2:13

the new book Midwestern Food. All

2:17

three to see if a process. Thanks for

2:19

having me a bit of beauty. And

2:22

I'm excited you to i at my heart you know part

2:24

of my heart def we the loss of the midwest. And

2:27

you know I'm sure like everywhere it's

2:29

hard to. Put. A definition around,

2:32

but mid western food is so

2:34

I certainly appreciate the use. Sure,

2:36

give it a shot. And.

2:39

Like every cuisine right, the food is

2:41

influenced by the lamb. The climate. And.

2:44

Of course people came to that

2:46

place but you have just really

2:48

fascinating like particular point you make

2:50

which is that the midwest developed.

2:52

Agriculturally and industrially at the same time

2:55

and not really helps to tell the

2:57

story of the western food. What you

2:59

mean by that was an interesting dichotomy

3:01

in one of the hardest things that

3:03

was. It was a one hundred

3:05

him for me to lace. To. Gather throughout. Third

3:08

narrative of the book. In that area,

3:10

families like my dad side of the

3:12

family for instance, which you know came

3:14

straight from Germany to a small rural

3:16

area in southern Indiana just farm for

3:18

five generations before my dad left and

3:20

became a school teacher and then had

3:22

awesome. He grew up off the farm

3:25

arms but you know they were go

3:27

home cooking, home gardening. That was what

3:29

they ate. They never ate anything that

3:31

they didn't raise themselves or share or

3:33

hunt in the woods, you know that

3:35

sort of thing. And then

3:37

you have my my side of the

3:40

family which you know they were Appalachian

3:42

slight to Detroit Michigan back in the

3:44

fifties and were ah part of the

3:46

urban experience. But the urban experience in

3:48

the mud in the Midwest goes all

3:50

the way back to the nineteenth century

3:53

Him So he had the city's filling

3:55

up with immigrants from Europe who were.

3:58

Driving to shop in Urban Meyer gets

4:00

and eat what they could find in

4:03

the city and the food system was

4:05

industrializing. Things like hamburger which was formerly

4:07

a luxury became ah up above food

4:09

of the masses because industrialization made a

4:12

cheap and that with concurrently because there

4:14

was all of his cattle ranching going

4:16

on. Ah, I'm all over

4:18

the Midwest as people ah developed

4:21

farms, so there were farms developing

4:23

and there was industry developing. This

4:25

sort of worked together to create

4:27

the modern American food system. Yeah

4:30

that's so interesting to and and yeah, want to

4:33

get down this rabbit hole? but. You.

4:35

Know as agree say to the midwest to to

4:37

people like most generally they would imagine oh

4:39

like farm land they would imagine the sort of

4:42

like now on the bread basket of the

4:44

country and all that stuff. But. You

4:46

have a little side point which is

4:48

a the Midwest is actually serve the

4:51

start of fast food nation. Yeah and

4:53

but Mcdonalds famously started in California. Sure

4:55

that which was the original road food

4:58

state. I guess I'm with American car

5:00

culture but it was purchased by Ray

5:02

Crock in the nineteen fifties who then

5:05

open his pilot. That. You

5:07

know his proof of concept store

5:09

in the planes Illinois and and

5:11

grew at from here and so

5:13

bomb And not just Mcdonalds, buds

5:15

or White Castle, Pizza Hut, Wendy's

5:17

You could go on and on

5:19

and on the list of chains

5:21

that started here in the Midwest,

5:23

which isn't necessarily a point that

5:25

we should be proud of on

5:27

a but at the same time

5:29

it has been very influential on

5:31

the way America feed itself. Then

5:33

speaks to this idea to have you know

5:36

it is that when he's home and the

5:38

western food yet think about the sort of

5:40

the urban and suburban experience as much as

5:42

you think of the rural graham. And

5:45

so. You. Know this book has so

5:47

much of this history. The. Authors

5:49

suddenly, recipes and. You

5:53

had a rules who when you were sort of

5:55

forgive what recipes belongs for because of course like

5:57

the midwest like anywhere in America is full of.

6:00

growing increasingly diverse immigrant

6:02

communities. So like what counts as Midwestern

6:04

food? And you you had a

6:06

three generation rule like a dish had to sort

6:08

of be around for three generations for inclusion in

6:10

this book anyway Why that

6:13

time period what did that mean to you? Well that

6:15

meant to me that it had been you

6:18

know a food comes with

6:21

immigrants and Then

6:23

you know you have the immigrant generation of

6:25

the first generation or I think

6:27

they're called that's that's that's the immigrant generation

6:30

Settles and and they're trying to

6:32

continue their culture as much

6:35

as they can and continuing to eat the same foods

6:37

And then they have kids the first generation They're

6:39

cooking those foods that they

6:41

grew up with still and trying to maintain that

6:44

culture in through the first generation

6:46

and showing their kids It's

6:49

really just what they know how to do

6:51

from their household economy, you know cooking the

6:53

same dishes They've cooked for generations assuming

6:56

they can find ingredients or

6:58

you know Acceptable ingredients to

7:01

do it. But from there, you know after the

7:03

first generation You know

7:05

and say the the generation that

7:07

immigrated starts to die off is the

7:09

is the second generation, you know Their

7:12

grandkids are they still

7:14

eating and cooking these dishes that it took

7:16

me indicates that it's now Thoroughly

7:18

embedded in the Midwestern

7:21

culture Beyond

7:24

the immigrant generation And

7:26

then all alternatively you have things like pizza which

7:29

Evolved here in very unique ways. So those could

7:31

be included too I mean pizza

7:34

has only been around since in most of the

7:36

Midwest since the 50s or the late 40s at

7:38

the earliest But pizza as

7:40

you find it in the Midwest whether it's

7:42

Detroit or Chicago or st Louis doesn't exist

7:45

in any of that form at all in

7:47

Italy So that's considered Midwestern as well because

7:49

it was a novel evolution here Right.

7:53

Okay. So let's go. I mean I can't say

7:55

when I was going through the book, you know, I I live

7:57

for a You know a

7:59

number of years in Michigan, I

8:02

felt like, yeah, I've got a pretty good handle of what

8:05

the food was like when I was living there, but it

8:07

was funny because I was going through this book and page

8:10

after page I was like, oh yeah, that's

8:12

an iconic American dish. That's an iconic American

8:14

dish. That's an iconic American dish. And to

8:16

think of them as being specifically Midwestern, it

8:21

was just amazing to see, oh, there are so

8:23

many iconic American dishes that do originally in the

8:25

Midwest or have a particular place there. So

8:27

I want to start with Cincinnati chili

8:30

because it's

8:32

unlike any other chili, maybe in

8:34

the world, it's specific to Cincinnati.

8:36

It's served on spaghetti. Like what's the

8:38

deal here? Well,

8:41

Cincinnati Chili's maybe my favorite metaphor

8:43

for Midwestern cuisine because it's it's

8:46

often derided, it's maligned, it's

8:49

misunderstood. And

8:51

it's really really is it really a pasta

8:54

sauce? You know, I don't

8:56

think it matters. It's so funny

8:58

the way people will take a name like chili or

9:00

take a label and and apply

9:03

it and then just say, well, this is bad. But

9:05

Cincinnati Chili is one of the oldest examples

9:07

we have of fusion cooking. So

9:10

you have this this immigrant

9:13

from the Balkan Peninsula, Tom

9:16

Khrajif, who comes over and he

9:18

stops by Coney Island and does it, spends a little

9:20

bit of time in New York and then goes and

9:22

settles in Cincinnati. I think he spent a little bit

9:25

of time in Detroit also, but

9:27

he decides that he wants to open a

9:29

chili parlor because that was chili

9:31

during the 1920s. And

9:33

we're around 19, 19, 19, 19, 20 now when he arrives in Cincinnati. Chili

9:38

is kind of it's sort

9:40

of the Nashville hot chicken of the day.

9:43

It's a really popular, trendy dish. And

9:45

interesting. OK, so he wants to open a

9:47

chili parlor. But he doesn't really

9:50

have a reference point for it. He does

9:52

have this meat stew that he grew up with

9:54

that they make with lamb in Serbia. So

9:57

and it's got this spice profile that's

9:59

like all. small spice, cinnamon, yeah,

10:01

there's a little bit of red pepper in

10:04

there like Calabrian chili, those

10:06

types of things and they would

10:08

serve this with Orzo, they would serve it

10:10

with pasta back in the homeland. Well you

10:12

can't can't find Orzo in Cincinnati in 1920

10:15

and you also lamb was

10:17

not particularly easy to come

10:19

by either but you have this newly

10:22

available very inexpensive

10:24

ground beef and so he takes

10:27

this recipe that his family's had for you

10:29

know maybe a thousand years that his family's

10:31

been cooking this dish for longer and

10:34

he prepares it and puts a little

10:36

cumin in there to put a

10:38

little bit of the chili flavor on it and he calls it

10:40

chili because you know maybe as

10:42

a marketing gambit and he

10:44

curves it on the spaghetti because that's what he could

10:46

find and you know if you

10:49

let go of any and all preconceptions about what

10:51

chili should be you know be if you want

10:53

to be a hardcore Texan you know

10:55

and just let go of that idea of

10:58

chili being you know only chilies and meat

11:01

maybe some onions and and

11:03

sort of think about it as a fusion

11:05

dish and open up your mind to it

11:07

and have it and go to Cincinnati and

11:09

eat around town the chili is fantastic and

11:12

it's a real bargain I mean I don't think

11:14

I paid more than in 2022 the last time

11:16

I did a chili tour of the city I

11:20

don't think I paid more than 12 bucks including tip

11:22

for a sit-down lunch at any of

11:25

these chili parlors around town yeah so

11:27

it's a great bargain it's it's pretty

11:29

nutritious and they have this

11:31

chili culture there there's 350 or

11:33

so chili parlors around town and

11:36

if you're in downtown Cincinnati you can't find that you potlays

11:38

or a Jimmy John's you got to have chili because that's

11:40

what's that's what's there so they

11:42

have this really vibrant local food economy that's kind

11:44

of at least for the working class

11:46

for the working man it's it's it's centered on chili

11:48

and you know the national chains have

11:51

to kind of stand by I love that

11:53

it's really cool that's

11:56

Paul Fairbock author of Midwestern

11:58

food products

14:00

would almost always be mixed meats.

14:02

Oh, interesting. Okay, great. Yeah,

14:04

so to me, it's all pork because that's what I grew up with,

14:06

but it might be a mixture of pork and beef. It's

14:09

pretty coarsely chopped. It's not

14:11

an emulsified sausage, but you will find people

14:13

in the Midwest who call emulsified

14:16

sausage as bratwurst also, but

14:18

bratwurst in old German basically means

14:21

sausage you make with roasting meat.

14:24

So by roasting meat, they're implying

14:26

a higher quality of meat. Like

14:28

loin or something like that. Yeah, so

14:30

it's not what

14:33

we know today as hot dogs or baloney where you

14:35

kind of throw all the odd bits in there. You

14:38

make it from pork shoulder, you make it

14:40

from the loin. Old

14:43

Germany typically was common to use the

14:45

loin in combination with the belly in

14:47

certain ratios. So you

14:49

have your lean and your fat, and

14:52

it's got to have a natural casing because it's got to

14:54

have that snap. And the casing

14:56

has got to be intact to make this particular preparation

14:59

of bratwurst because it holds the

15:01

juice inside while he does his

15:03

preparation. So you take eight bratwurst

15:06

or a couple of pounds and put them in a

15:09

big iron skillet. And I want to say ours was about 10 inches.

15:12

And that's the size we tested them with in

15:14

this book, but you can use 12 inches, 8

15:16

inches, whatever, and just

15:18

cover them with beer. And it's got to be

15:20

a pretty pale lager. You don't want a lot

15:22

of hop flavor. You

15:25

just want to be able to focus

15:27

on the malt flavor because that's what's

15:29

going to caramelize. And you just start

15:31

cooking this beer down, turning it up

15:33

to high heat to start. But then

15:35

as it starts cooking down, you gradually

15:37

reduce the temperature eventually to about medium,

15:39

medium low. And so

15:41

as this beer evaporates, you're just constantly turning

15:43

the sausages so they cook evenly. That's

15:45

really important so they don't burst. So

15:48

every 30 to 45 seconds, turning

15:50

the sausages, letting it continue to cook down.

15:52

And eventually that beer will cook down into

15:54

a syrup, like the malt in the beer will cook

15:56

down into a syrup And start

15:58

to caramelize. Possibly turning

16:00

the sausage in this. Caramelize,

16:03

In beer mixture at almost candies on the

16:05

outside and eventually tars and you should be

16:07

careful never leave on your pam you're doing

16:10

this or you are. You burn your house

16:12

down but just stay with access to can

16:14

I was with the call you once you

16:16

know to hurt turn off the heat and

16:18

you got the sausages that are crusty. Caramelize,

16:21

You can charge them if you raise in this

16:23

beer. yeah I know, squirt juice across the room

16:26

if you're right out of the skillet. so you

16:28

have to kind and let him rest for you

16:30

know, maybe ten minutes before you eat him and

16:32

they're just the it's just the best way that

16:34

I've ever had sausage popped in my life. That's.

16:37

So cool. I love that. am I

16:39

wanted something about barbecue. Because.

16:41

Obviously. You. Know the

16:44

South is considered especially by submerse. the

16:46

home of barbecue right? And you know

16:48

all the conversation about regional southern sky.

16:50

A barbecue you know in North Carolina.

16:53

Pulled pork is a Texas brisket. Me

16:55

other than as I. Tell.

16:57

Us What makes for a mid western

16:59

style barbecue? Sure, I mean, I've first

17:02

why wouldn't dispute that barbecue came from the south.

17:04

I don't think that that's up a question, sir

17:06

on, but there's a couple of, or you know,

17:08

the white barbecue tradition in the Midwest more or

17:10

less died off in the early twentieth century. Ah,

17:13

But you didn't have a successive waves. as a

17:15

great migration you had a lot of black southerners

17:17

com and they brought you know they're. Low.

17:19

And slow cooking methods for meet

17:21

with them that started in the

17:24

southeast mostly with holy animals but

17:26

by the time you get to

17:28

you know the development of Memphis

17:30

style in Kansas City style barbecue.

17:32

the once again that Midwestern meat

17:34

processing industry is really growing by

17:36

leaps and bounds and her packers

17:38

in Chicago in Kansas City and

17:41

St. Louis that are breaking up

17:43

animals and selling animal parts in

17:45

big boxes the you know the

17:47

the hundred and of spots to.

17:49

Meet as Born and ah so you

17:51

start to have specialized cuts of meat

17:53

and barbecue. Around the turn of the

17:56

twentieth century, Metics place in both Memphis

17:58

and and Kansas City. Once

18:00

you what these the blacks come

18:02

to you know cities like Chicago.

18:06

They continue barbecue in whatever

18:08

they can get their hands

18:10

on. Cooking them over

18:12

calls and you don't? The nineteen

18:14

thirties and forties. St.

18:16

Louis butchers start. Cutting

18:19

the tip: the gelatinous tips off of

18:21

racks of spare ribs in order to

18:23

square it so it looked almost like

18:25

of a rack of baby back ribs

18:27

who have this rectangular rak and that

18:29

became known as the St. Louis cut.

18:31

That's where it's from. Minutes now the

18:34

national standard for what asparagus are. So

18:36

you have to think so you have

18:38

the spare ribs. One are definitely Midwestern

18:40

thing, but number two, you have. These.

18:42

Tips that are left over and originally the

18:45

packers would just put them in barrels and

18:47

set the mountains for the for the trash

18:49

the you know for the garbage feel the

18:51

take away and I around nineteen fifty with

18:53

limbs barbecue on the south side of Chicago.

18:56

they just started going out grabbing these ribbed

18:58

tips and figured out how to cook. I'm.

19:01

And you know they develop their own

19:03

kind of soften. Chicago Style Barbecue sauce

19:05

is very intimately related to Memphis I,

19:07

Sixty Nine and the Illinois Central Railroad

19:09

have. ah, there's a big connection between

19:11

Chicago in the Delta region culturally. so

19:14

that sauce.that you finance how the South

19:16

Side a similar to Memphis style thought,

19:18

maybe a little spicy or. But

19:21

they're barbecue in these ribbed tips and

19:23

are hotlines coarsely chopped sausages, the combination

19:25

that is typical with that. Now armed

19:27

with a little bit higher temperatures so

19:29

there's some real far on the barbecue.

19:31

They usually barbecue I'm at about two fifty

19:33

to two seventy five war. As you know

19:36

if you're doing ribs or something like that

19:38

you're usually searching for a lower temperature is

19:40

com and their of and their barbecued in

19:42

an aquarium smoker which is a big plexiglass

19:45

of structure where you can actually if you're

19:47

sitting at the front counter and you look

19:49

over the counter you can see them actually

19:52

barbecue in the meeting this big plexiglass smoker

19:54

own area. so and that's that's Chicago style

19:56

barbecue Ribs, hips, hot links. ah people don't

19:58

on the north side. A lot of

20:00

times don't even know about it because they don't

20:03

go to the south side of the west side

20:05

and something we're working the change for people to

20:07

be aware of our own food culture here that

20:09

there's really no have to go to Memphis to

20:12

get free barbecue. it's great how to go to

20:14

the good barbecue but you can go to the

20:16

south side and get really good barbecue to and

20:18

so incident in St Louis they they barbecue picks

20:20

needs to the the flap from the from the

20:23

pigs knows which is a fascinating things they do.

20:25

If you do it right it's almost like a

20:27

teacher own. It becomes really crunchy and crispy from

20:29

our a low. And slow cook. I'm

20:32

have another commonly eaten a sandwiches on white bread

20:34

or you can get a Rip Temp and snoop

20:36

combo. There is would be the St. Louis thing

20:38

to do. And

20:41

you're right that really to speak to this

20:43

idea that like dude box to meet buttery.

20:46

Where. You know, animals

20:48

were really cold cuts. Industrially.

20:52

Ah and a wide scale and like

20:54

a make sense that you have these

20:56

particular cats that are near the not

20:58

really box and I can be shipped

21:00

around in some a local form of

21:03

barbecue grows around those offcuts. Yeah that's

21:05

another chapter in this story about you

21:07

know the soul food can and or

21:09

black black food culture Taking those. Cuts.

21:12

Of meat that the you know that the

21:14

richer classes didn't want to like the rib

21:16

tips like the chitlins like the snooze but

21:18

also like in own off tales are like

21:20

twelve bucks a pound. Now these to say

21:22

practically free you know. Ah feals in short

21:25

ribs in those types of things that you

21:27

would find of the soul food can and

21:29

enough I suppose we may be in danger

21:31

of rib tips eventually getting. The.

21:33

Short Rib treatment Becoming generally scientists This

21:35

now I'm only going to another recipe

21:37

in the both. It is really important

21:39

your family. I mean. Pies.

21:42

Certainly are. I mean. That. In

21:44

the northeast we love pies and south dumber pies

21:46

and snow effort of pies. but. In

21:48

particular, for your family, the strawberry custard

21:50

pie is important. Talk about that to

21:53

me as very much a strawberry season

21:55

does. I'm two reasons I like it.

21:57

One is that the story is that.

22:00

That was how. Grandma. Francis

22:02

Hauser wooed Albert fair a box. With

22:04

her baking prowess she would make him

22:07

strawberry custard pie and that was how

22:09

she would get him to to come

22:11

see are. An integral

22:13

to become a suitor and eventually got

22:15

married to. very romantic story. Button was

22:17

is also like you know they had

22:20

of of an old line up farm.

22:22

That. A dairy cow with brown. Or

22:25

which give very rich cream. Grandpa.

22:27

Was it's made a farmer and

22:29

or fifty acres of tomatoes back

22:31

then could raise a family with

22:33

eleven kids and then that you

22:35

know they have the big garden.

22:37

See got you pick strawberries And

22:39

people think about dairy as being

22:41

seasonal because in American food everything

22:44

has been processed to ruthless consistency

22:46

for the supermarket shelf for but

22:48

when you're feeding it animals on.

22:51

Pasture. Their milk changes

22:53

throughout the year based on you know

22:55

how much it's raining, on how how

22:57

warm it is, how poll that his.

23:00

Arm. How much grass there is?

23:02

How much sunshine there isn't So it's

23:04

in June when the strawberries are in

23:06

season. You have these really, really rich.

23:09

Cream. Because the animals are grub

23:11

gorging on this fresh rush of

23:13

green growth with the spring rains

23:16

and the days getting longer. and

23:18

when you poor this cream it's

23:20

yellow from all of the beta

23:22

carotene and. Vitamin. A

23:24

in it and so it's really really

23:26

rich and a make fantastic whipped cream

23:28

or makes fantastic custard but it also

23:30

has the flavor of like grass to

23:32

it and he because that's what they're

23:34

eating and strawberries you know they're called

23:36

strawberries I think because they're typically grown

23:38

on that the straw to protect them

23:40

but they also have a little bit

23:42

of that green uncle tastes to them

23:44

and it's of. The. A distance

23:47

like really made for the season like

23:49

mid made a mid June and.most Americans

23:51

we just don't cook that way anymore.

23:53

I mean we might get strawberries that

23:55

we don't think of. You know we

23:57

cook strawberries with cream because or strawberry

23:59

the good with cream because. You.

24:02

Know their seasonal together in away whereas

24:04

so interesting nowadays is he gonna get

24:07

the cream in June? you know a

24:09

major label of cream. it's the same

24:11

in June as it is in November

24:13

current whereas if you had if you

24:15

know local farmer who does cream moink

24:18

cream and you get it in July

24:20

and you have that was you know

24:22

fresh locally grown a garden strawberries. it's

24:24

really a transformative flavor combination of of

24:26

change how you think about something as

24:29

simple as strawberries and cream. So

24:31

I know. I think the Grandma knew exactly

24:33

what she was doing. In, in, in, in

24:35

going after Grandpa. Start with that pie. Or

24:40

I thought would this has been super eye

24:42

opening anti semite thank you France that of

24:44

attuned to to the of. Paul.

24:48

Fairbanks author of Midwest and Food

24:50

Assistance to the surprise and history

24:52

of a Greek American cuisine. With

24:54

more than one hundred think and

24:56

recipes you can find his recipe

24:58

for Cincinnati sound silly the Queen

25:00

City silly on the was a

25:02

splendid table today work. For

25:08

next conversation, we go to the corner

25:10

of the Google and Houses in the

25:12

West Village in New York. Around the

25:14

block from earth is one of the

25:16

city hottest restaurants right now. A Catarina

25:18

point threatened from Rome and we recorded

25:20

another. Imported

25:23

from heart rude of America

25:25

Hundred or America is burger

25:27

scholar towards Martha's are rude

25:30

to ground beef up on

25:32

he suggested traveling the country

25:34

and documenting Hundred Need hyper

25:36

regional styles. Of Burgers of collecting

25:39

the recipes and techniques and these shows

25:41

them off one of the time as

25:43

specials on the menu here but the

25:45

to stand by always on burgers or

25:48

the classic Midwest Mass Murder and the

25:50

Oklahoma. Alan.

25:55

Hey George, Agree to say thank you so much

25:57

for having us at your brand new restaurant Him.

26:00

Or America is and as a beautiful

26:02

corner in Soho in Manhattan and that

26:04

looks like a nineteen fifty five place

26:06

I would have seen in Grand Rapids,

26:08

Michigan strength. I mean I would

26:10

hope that it it has a feeling of

26:12

timelessness not so much a year. sir sir

26:14

should have to say that there are places

26:16

out there that try to be. Retro.

26:19

And the Stelzer Empathy only represents one tiny

26:21

slice in time and I think this should

26:23

represent. I hope something is timeless that to

26:25

be open today it could have you know

26:28

you could have read. Walk into this and

26:30

Nineteen Thirty and it feels are timeless. Schools.

26:33

It will listen to the ideal timelessness.

26:35

Because you are a hamburger, store him

26:37

up. With. Her. You were

26:39

prior to that you were an award

26:41

winning cinematographer. Before you decide to devote

26:43

your life to the hamburger. So what

26:45

happened? Was that of view of what

26:47

has happened here? Was you open a restaurant?

26:49

Or it was. I was completely bassinets. Actually,

26:52

I made a documentary about hamburgers called Hamburger

26:54

America. Yeah, twenty plus years ago the I

26:56

just did it for fun. I was ratified.

26:58

So the anything to do while I was

27:00

sitting in a basic kitty litter commercials. Award

27:03

winning, Award winning know I was just I

27:05

was working very hard as a commercial director,

27:07

photography or and traveling a loss and I would

27:09

travel and I would go to a location where

27:12

the crew to film something at a hospital

27:14

or something and then I would end up

27:16

say. Hey guys I'm gonna go and athletic

27:18

I found agree have a spot the next

27:20

town over America. Check it out! I became

27:22

obsessed with trying to document the Americans hamburger

27:25

and is so Buckle Hamburger America. Spends.

27:28

A Okay, so that's it. That's the

27:30

point of interest. but obviously I was.

27:32

Twenty. Years ago. Yeah, you use and a good

27:35

chunk you realize now. What?

27:37

Is it about the hamburger? Certainly.

27:39

When you tell someone pay what is the most

27:41

stereotypical American food like nine times out and they

27:43

can see the hamburger and I gathered him as

27:46

a audits. What

27:48

is it about the hamburger? Why is

27:50

it that iconic? Why has it assume

27:52

that sort of place in our imaginations?

27:54

I think everybody understands that hamburgers an

27:56

American thing. It's a it's was the

27:58

most important pieces of canary. History in

28:00

America. I think it really does have a

28:02

place that is unique I think lovable. Think

28:05

of the hotdog as being something that came

28:07

from somewhere else with the pizza came from

28:09

somewhere else but this even of the hamburger

28:11

itself start out as an ethnic food in

28:14

the United States. People still own it at

28:16

the very proud of that history which is

28:18

great the should be processed history. We also

28:20

popularized the hamburger. Faster. Than anybody

28:23

else or in the world. Over

28:25

one hundred years ago I think there really a lot

28:27

of pride sector that are to to thing. In.

28:30

Some way that is very American sorry right?

28:32

Like obviously death new. No one sitting in

28:34

the same as far as I know is

28:36

indigenous yourself. Ah so the idea is it

28:38

always had to come from somewhere else. Even

28:40

in the name as hamburger right a red

28:42

I don't know it's actually true For the

28:44

mythology is a came from Hamburg, Germany or

28:46

this is actually not. Mythology is true of

28:48

a grain of truth did come from the

28:50

all was popularized to the Port of Hamburg.

28:52

We. Believe similar and eighteen sixties eighties seventies that

28:55

it was were was food that was consumed

28:57

near the near the docks. As you had

28:59

it's you're looking for passage to the U

29:01

S A or somewhere else in the world.

29:03

You had leave out of the Port of

29:05

Hamburg in had eat cheaply to shed wait

29:07

for passage sometimes take a week two weeks

29:09

to months and had eat inexpensively see weights

29:11

stake in the style of Hamburg or as

29:13

she was called Africa Dell and to go

29:15

deep into this is a the German name

29:17

of it. it was spaces just it was

29:19

shop beef cooked somehow and served on plate

29:21

Mccain to the Us. It was still serves

29:24

on a plate but at some point it made

29:26

a jump we believe at state fairs and made

29:28

the jump to am bread which made it a

29:30

portable food. And. then tell us how

29:32

when from there too expensive ubiquitous popularity obviously

29:34

the fast food and that the that whole

29:36

story but it was seen as oh food

29:38

that was for blue collar workers wage earners

29:40

they was does not seem to some things

29:42

clean coal dirty food and it was also

29:44

ethnic food him you think about any other

29:46

ethnic foods it exists today if it hasn't

29:48

really hard time getting started in the offseason

29:50

i think of lights example of the papoose

29:52

a stand only knows it proposes now but

29:54

i guarantee that you know who knows ten

29:56

twenty years now everyone will know what of

29:59

abuses its services or tacos, a perfect example,

30:01

tacos, something that people think tacos are one

30:03

of the greatest foods that have been given

30:05

to us in the US because it's clearly

30:07

an ethnic food. The hamburger was the same

30:09

thing and it took off because of its

30:11

portability. Portability was really

30:13

the cause of the hamburger, I think,

30:15

to become something very popular. But

30:18

it was also inexpensive and it also tasted

30:20

fantastic. I think it helps off

30:22

with the very first condiment on a hamburger was likely

30:24

onion. Onion and hamburger

30:26

fast is an incredible flavor.

30:29

Yeah. You refer to yourself

30:31

as a, you know, sometimes

30:34

you refer to as a hamburger historian. When

30:37

you and I were talking the other day, you sort

30:39

of demurred a little bit and you said I'm more like

30:41

a vessel for the story of the American hamburger. Right.

30:45

Why is the preservation of

30:47

that story so important to you and

30:49

like what does it tell us about

30:51

ourselves? Well, first of all, the

30:53

hamburger has been translated so

30:55

many different ways in the US and especially

30:57

recently with the rise of social media and,

31:00

you know, Instagram and photos, everyone's trying to

31:02

do something crazy and different. But

31:04

the reality is that, you know, there's no

31:07

one really out there. I think other than myself right now who's

31:09

really trying to keep it simple and

31:11

trying to make sure that they're appreciating where

31:13

we came from. With the hamburger,

31:15

I believe I'm truly a steward to history.

31:17

My job is to be a vessel for

31:20

all that hamburger information and make sure people are getting it

31:22

right. You know, there's this and there's the

31:24

nuance of the right fun. Is it the right beef? How

31:27

is the beef ground? What surface are you

31:29

cooking on? How are you eating it? Where are

31:31

you eating it? All the condiments. These are all very

31:33

important things to make sure you're getting it right. Okay.

31:36

But here's the sort of the philosophical question. Something

31:38

as ubiquitous as the hamburger and like it's important

31:40

because it's ubiquitous and something as

31:42

endlessly riffable as the hamburger. And

31:44

to your point, something that had already evolved because originally

31:46

it was served on a plate and it became served

31:48

on a bun. What how

31:51

do you define right? What does right mean

31:53

in that in the context? That's a good

31:55

question. You know, I think

31:58

there's well-documented burgers in. burgers

34:01

now for 123 years, continuously,

34:03

if they ever closed. That's incredible. And

34:06

they make a burger a very specific way. If you

34:08

try to recreate their burger and you don't make it

34:10

that way, you got it wrong. And it's so simple.

34:12

It's just it's actually very lean beef that is cooked

34:15

in an upright broiler with flames hitting

34:17

it left and right. Huh. And

34:19

it serves on toast because their burger exists

34:21

before the bun was invented. So

34:23

in the context of history, it's a perfect example that

34:26

if that burger was served on a burger, then it

34:28

wouldn't be correct. We'll

34:31

be back with more from George Moats at

34:33

his restaurant, Hamburger America. And

34:35

we're going to taste those burgers. You

34:38

know, for science. I'm Francis Lamb,

34:40

and this is The Splendid Table from

34:42

APM. In

34:46

2010, the largest oil spill

34:48

in American history captivated the public's

34:50

attention. Authorities told the story of

34:53

a response effort that prevented a

34:55

worst case scenario. But if

34:57

you ask some people who lived through

34:59

the spill, they'll tell you a more

35:01

complicated story. They weren't

35:03

attending to the workers. I was

35:06

bleeding from everywhere. We were all

35:08

lied to. From Western Sound and

35:10

APM Studios comes a new investigative

35:12

podcast, Ripple, available

35:15

now. I'm

35:19

Francis Lamb, and this is the show for curious cooks

35:21

and eaters. We're talking about hamburgers

35:23

with the greatest burger lover I've ever known.

35:26

Burger scholar and now restaurateur, George

35:28

Moats. Come back here a little bit. So

35:34

I love that you have this encyclopedic

35:36

knowledge of all these different unique hamburger

35:38

places around America. You have

35:40

now a restaurant that is dedicated to them,

35:43

and you have exactly two hamburgers on the

35:45

menu. Exactly. And one

35:47

has your name on it. It's the

35:49

George Moats Fried Onion Burger. That

35:52

and you have a classic smash burger. Why

35:56

are these the two iconic burgers you serve on the menu? I felt that

35:58

they were the best burger ever. These

36:00

are the two burgers that people need

36:02

to try to

36:04

get at least a basis

36:07

for their own personal hamburger

36:09

knowledge. Yeah. These

36:12

are the simple ones that we're going to drive

36:14

the point home. I didn't want to do anything

36:16

wild. And there are wild burgers out

36:18

there that have been around for a hundred years. I

36:20

just wanted to keep it very simple and make sure

36:23

people appreciate just the basics first. Just

36:25

get down the basics and then we'll go beyond, which

36:27

we are, that's a different story. We are starting a,

36:29

I call my hamburger heroes program for adding a third

36:31

burger to the menu once a month, where I bring

36:34

in one of my hamburger heroes from you see the

36:36

pictures all over the restaurant. They'll

36:38

be here to introduce me, introduce

36:41

the New York city to their

36:43

burger they've been making for decades. And

36:45

then I will keep it on the menu for the month. So

36:48

tell us about some of these hamburger heroes.

36:50

For example, we're going to bring in Autumn

36:52

Weston from Weston's Kewpie in Lansing, Michigan. And

36:54

she's bringing with her one

36:56

of the most iconic regional burgers in

36:58

America, the Olive Burger. And

37:00

if you're in Detroit, no one knows what an Olive Burger is. I

37:03

literally went to the University of Michigan, which is an hour

37:06

and change away in Ann Arbor. And I have never heard

37:09

of the Olive Burger. Oh, so you wouldn't know it in

37:11

Ann Arbor, but if you went over to Jackson, a few

37:13

towns over, there's a place that sells an Olive Burger there.

37:15

It's pretty much central and

37:18

Western Michigan, where

37:20

the Olive Burger exists, but it is one of the

37:22

most beloved burgers in the States. And

37:24

what makes the Olive Burger the Olive Burger? It's simply

37:27

a burger patty, not a

37:29

toasted bun with an olive sauce on it. And the olive

37:31

sauce is made of chopped green olives, mayonnaise, a little bit

37:33

of olive brine, and that's it. Oh, some sugar too, depending

37:36

on where, if you're Kewpie's, I think it's a little bit

37:38

of, little touch of sugar and a little sweetness. Oh,

37:40

that sounds good. Yeah. Who's another hamburger

37:42

hero coming? There's so many. I mean,

37:45

we're also going to have, we're going to bring in John

37:47

and Bonnie Ecker from the Santa Fe Bite in Santa Fe.

37:49

And they have, they've been making the

37:51

green chili cheeseburger forever. And that'll be, that'll

37:53

stick around for a while, possibly beyond a

37:55

month. Everyone loves

37:57

a green chili cheeseburger. green

38:00

chili cheeseburger. Green chili cheeseburger is very

38:02

simple. It's nothing more than stewed New

38:04

Mexican green chilies. It has to be

38:06

local New Mexican chopped

38:08

up and put on a burger. It actually hides

38:10

underneath the cheese and there's nothing else to it.

38:13

It's just, it's kind of you've ever had of, you know, people

38:15

had a green chili. They understand the power of it. They're

38:18

not too spicy, but they have a sort of a

38:20

deep heat to them. They're not like, they're not a,

38:22

I would say like a jalapeno, like a slap in

38:24

the face. And green chili is kind of

38:26

like a punch in the gut. It's

38:29

like a low burn, you know? Ooh, and it's,

38:31

you know, it does tickle the endorphins and gets you

38:33

going. But on a burger, it makes it, it

38:36

makes it very special. Yeah. Okay.

38:38

So should we taste a couple of burgers? Let's

38:40

do it. So

38:43

then we got up for a moment as George went over

38:45

to make these burgers. And then we got

38:47

back to the table to give him a taste. All

38:52

right, Mr. Moats, what have we got here? So the

38:54

two burgers in the menu, the classic

38:56

smash and the Oklahoma or the George

38:58

Moats fried onion burger. I say Oklahoma

39:00

because again, these are not things that

39:02

I made up. These are

39:04

based on hamburger history. These

39:07

are, these are historical documents. Exactly. You

39:09

can buy these burgers in

39:12

many places in the U.S. for sure. And

39:15

people somehow have a hard time dialing in everything

39:17

back and considering this to be a burger. It's

39:19

also not really, I wouldn't call it a pretty

39:22

burger. People are so used to now this, you

39:24

know, these stacks of patties and gooey melting cheese.

39:26

This is kind of a kind of an odd looking flat

39:29

thing. Yeah. And it takes

39:31

a special eye to appreciate. And

39:34

you really have to appreciate it, you know, with

39:36

your mouth, not your eye. It is a beautiful

39:38

and homely thing. Exactly. Exactly. Okay. So where should

39:40

we start? Which should I try the burger

39:43

first? No, you really should start with the classic smash,

39:45

which predates the onion burger. You

39:47

have some of this? That's up for you. Oh,

39:49

God. I've had many of them. Yeah. Many,

39:52

many, many. Talk me through this.

39:54

This burger has on it mustard pickle onion,

39:57

which is pretty classic in the Midwest. And

40:00

it's basic, right? Mustard pickle

40:02

onion. Pretty much the first three condiments

40:04

that were out there for hamburgers. And you can go

40:06

to many places in the Midwest, some

40:09

places outside the Midwest, and get a classic

40:11

smash burger. There's also the

40:13

grease. I consider grease to be a condiment,

40:15

so grease is a condiment. Plus

40:18

the mustard, the pickle, the onion. And those three

40:20

elements do certain things to the burger to make

40:22

it come alive in a way. You can have

40:24

a classic burger with just nothing out of a

40:26

cheese, which is fine, or even not even cheese.

40:28

And you have the elements you need to

40:30

make a burger. You also have the definition of a burger, by the way.

40:33

It's important. He can't stop eating, by the way. You see

40:35

this? I'm going to keep talking. Keep talking. Keep

40:38

going. What

40:40

was the definition of a burger? The definition of a burger

40:43

is only one thing. It is chopped

40:46

beef cooked somehow and served on

40:48

bread. And then wherever

40:50

you go from there is up to

40:52

the inventive ones, or the ones who

40:55

are trying to recreate regional burgers. I

40:57

then have to figure out how

40:59

do you add to that definition. But

41:02

the definition is simply chopped beef cooked somehow. Oh, hang

41:04

on. This

41:07

is Ladder 5. No, no, it wasn't.

41:10

It was 24. We have two houses over here. They

41:12

like my burgers. I'm

41:15

sure they like to see you. And

41:19

they also get a discount, by the way. You walk in with

41:21

a uniform, you get an immediate discount. Yeah. Anyway,

41:24

sorry. Okay, so the condiments I totally get.

41:26

That little bit of raw onion gives it

41:28

crispness, a little crunchy. You

41:31

have the mustard, which obviously has mustard flavor,

41:33

the cheese, the pickles. The

41:36

smash burger, though. The point of

41:38

the smash burger is literally to call it smash burger,

41:40

because I saw you put a ball of beef on

41:42

the grill, and you carefully smash it down so you

41:44

basically spread as far as wide as it could go.

41:48

So it's mostly crust. You

41:50

have that beautiful brown, dark crust.

41:53

I love a thin burger, because I

41:55

feel like, oh, a thin burger is a sandwich. It's like, oh, it's a combination of

41:57

different things versus like, oh, if you want to make a sandwich, you

42:00

want to eat a thick hamburger like you can kinda want

42:02

to be the beef and now within

42:04

burgers more of a competition both

42:07

of the birds on your menu are these like

42:09

things smash style burgers yet why like

42:11

what why that not a thick burger uh...

42:14

again simply because i'm a steward history and

42:16

this is a historically significant uh... methods for

42:18

cooking burgers that goes back to not for

42:20

flavor or for you know that the while

42:22

people with while the two may smash the

42:25

bird just for speed and back

42:27

in the beginning of the hamburger at the smash balls

42:29

of beef uh... for speed the

42:31

hamburger started out as a ball that

42:34

was portioned and a hamburger chef or

42:36

cook hamburger cook at that national hamburger

42:38

cook would have to somehow figure out

42:40

a way to make consistently sized and

42:43

it would start with balls of beef uh...

42:46

to that would be the way to consistently make the the

42:48

burger the right side then they would

42:50

take these balls and throw them into a

42:53

into probably uh... lota tank or like a

42:55

like oversized skillet and they would smash or

42:57

they press balls of beef

42:59

into flat patties to cook faster

43:02

over get also the smash burger technique

43:04

predates preformed patty mmm

43:06

by by fifty sixty years

43:08

but i mean it would be with a

43:10

rental preformed patties are frozen patties until the

43:13

nineteen thirties uh... we're going

43:15

back to the you about the to the eighteen eighties

43:17

when they were smashing little balls of beef in still

43:19

it's estate fairs or whatever and

43:21

it was just a crispy they realize that

43:23

the burger takes ten minutes to cut in

43:26

a smash burger takes two why am i

43:28

spending that extra eight minutes yeah i could

43:30

be feeding people and it's not really actually

43:32

started down uh... i

43:34

believe it started when people were trying to

43:36

find ways to feed workers outside of factories

43:40

become out of factories and eat and they had to

43:42

be had a very very specific amount of time that

43:44

they had to eat so they decided to office

43:46

match patty so they can make them faster and faster

43:48

and faster based on the stock history seeming

43:52

to work in the fifty years ago well hey

43:54

in a hundred fifty years and i think i'm

43:56

the radio talking about how the smash burgers really

43:58

a great composition of different elements They all come

44:00

together. They weren't

44:03

talking about my art reaction outside these factories.

44:05

That's for sure that much we know The

44:07

beautiful brown in you get from smashing it.

44:09

Okay, so that's a smash burger. That's the story I

44:12

have left Two

44:14

microns of this burger and I didn't mean to eat

44:16

the entire thing while you talk Okay, people like that

44:18

burger a lot to class it out. I'm fortunately for

44:20

you This is gonna be better than that one. I

44:23

think I mean just slightly so because

44:25

this is a very classic simple burger

44:27

this burger And the reason

44:29

I have it on the menu is because the

44:31

George moats fried onion burger aka in Oklahoma onion

44:33

burger There you go. Thanks for clarifying that that's

44:35

very important because it is based on the method

44:38

that was invented a hundred and 101

44:40

years ago in El Reno, Oklahoma Where

44:43

at some point it's not known as a depression era burger

44:45

people like to call it the depression era burger It's not

44:47

has nothing to do with the depression at all 1922

44:51

predated depression This

44:53

burger was invented by I know oh my god They're

44:57

the same thing but totally not the same thing.

44:59

It's not the same thing. Yeah talk talk talk

45:01

talk because he wants So

45:05

in 1922 there was a very very

45:08

famous railroad strike called the

45:10

work Shopman strike and it

45:12

affected the town of El Reno immensely because Just

45:16

about every single resident of the town of El Reno, Oklahoma Worked

45:19

for the railroad so everybody was out of work the entire

45:21

town was out of work except the guys who are making

45:23

hamburgers So they found that people couldn't

45:25

afford burgers and they couldn't afford

45:28

to buy burger meat themselves So to extend extend

45:30

the the amount of beef they had for the day

45:32

They would put in literally 50% of

45:35

the beef would be thin sliced onion And

45:37

they ended up with this this incredible

45:39

science experiment Which people don't

45:41

do today because it just it takes too long or

45:43

don't understand the method I

45:45

think I think I may have helped

45:47

to popularize repopularize this around the world

45:50

I'm seeing this burger pop up and they credit me in Argentina

45:53

in Japan in Sweden. It's

45:56

kind of amazing How do

45:58

you find these burgers? I mean they're They're

46:00

sort of ubiquitous, but you also have to really look

46:02

for them because really what's ubiquitous is, you

46:04

know, whatever you pulled off on the side of

46:06

the highway for and it's probably some big chain.

46:08

You know, in the beginning it was very difficult

46:11

because I started doing research before the internet. It's

46:14

hard to imagine before cell phones,

46:16

even before GPS. My own personal history

46:18

is ancient. I was

46:20

dealing with maps, like Ram McNally maps in the

46:22

car and getting very lost, and I had no

46:24

idea what I was doing. But now it's very

46:27

easy because I have a legion of sort of

46:29

hamburger fanatics that I call my

46:31

EBTs, my expert burger tasters, and I have

46:33

them in every city and region in America,

46:35

and they are the ones that go in

46:37

first. I call my first responders to great

46:40

hamburger discoveries, and you know who you are,

46:42

and I love you all, and they

46:44

do understand what I'm doing. They understand my mission, and

46:46

they can go in and say, George, you'd love this

46:48

burger. I just found this place that's been around for

46:50

75 years. They've been cooking burgers and blah, blah, blah,

46:53

blah, blah. And those are the ones I

46:55

go check out. That's how I find them now. It's

46:58

kind of fascinating. And usually 90% of

47:00

the time they're dead right. And

47:03

okay, so when you're cooking a burger,

47:05

obviously we just talked about how, oh, the whole point

47:07

of the project is to find all these different methods

47:10

that people use, some little quirk that they have along

47:12

the way. If I'm just cooking

47:14

a burger at home, what is your, like, number

47:16

one piece of advice to, like, make it a great burger? Keep

47:19

it simple. That's number one. I tell people that,

47:21

you know, the hardest thing to do is to think

47:23

of a burger, cooking a burger inside on a

47:25

stovetop. It's actually the best way. That's the original American

47:27

method was cooked in a skillet. Yeah, not

47:29

in a backyard grill. Not in a backyard grill. Backyard, that's

47:31

actually the hardest way to make a burger is to go

47:34

into the backyard and start up a fire. A

47:36

flame could be 400 degrees or 1,000

47:38

degrees, and you don't know, it's really hard to manage.

47:40

It's hard to manage a flame. Even in a propane

47:42

grill, it's hard to manage a flame. Sometimes you can't

47:44

get a flame hot enough. Hey,

47:46

guys. Here we go again. Wow.

47:49

Back at it again. That's fine. There

47:51

you go. There you go. Cooking

47:55

at home, simple is the best way to

47:57

go. too

48:00

many economists. Toaster bun,

48:02

probably pretty important, unless you're making a friend on your burger. But

48:06

to keep it simple, don't add too many ingredients

48:08

and just have a good time with it. Also,

48:10

think of history. Think of historically what would have

48:12

fit in your mouth. You know, these big burgers

48:14

you see on Instagram, a lot of them don't

48:16

fit in your mouth. And they probably don't

48:18

taste good either. You have to think about what would

48:20

really taste good and what would fit in your mouth. Okay,

48:23

so when you made this, the

48:26

two burgers started out the same. It

48:28

was two balls of beef on the griddle. With

48:30

this one, the onion burger, you then took

48:32

a whole handful of super thin sliced white onion,

48:36

put it on top of the beef patty, and

48:38

just kind of let it hang out there for a minute. And

48:40

then when you smash it down, you basically smash

48:43

them down together. And they

48:45

both kind of hung out on the griddle

48:47

together. Pure science. I

48:51

mean, it is no other way to describe it. So the onion

48:53

cooked in the burger fat, when the onion is

48:56

steaming also the burger at the same time, like the

48:58

moisture in the onion. I

49:00

also saw you do something special with the bun. You

49:02

didn't really toast the bun. You put the bun on top of

49:04

the burger. That's what I call

49:07

letting it ride. It lets the bun ride on

49:09

top of the flipped patty. Once you have a

49:11

flipped patty, put the bun on top. But this

49:13

method goes back way before me, obviously. Again, it's

49:15

part of hamburger history. You can find this at

49:17

White Castle. White Castle today

49:20

still puts their buns on top of

49:22

their patties to steam those buns. And

49:24

this bun is so squishy

49:27

and soft. And it's

49:30

kind of amazing. It's part of

49:32

the science project. It

49:34

has to be. If you try to

49:36

add a bun after you've already cooked this patty, it

49:38

doesn't taste the same. If

49:40

you don't smash it down, it doesn't taste the same.

49:42

If you don't cook your onions into the patty to

49:46

co-mingle with the salt that's on the patty

49:48

and the beef tallow, it's not going to

49:51

ever taste the same. You have to adhere

49:53

to those few, very few

49:56

Techniques and methods to make that magic

49:58

happen. And I Truly.. The with magic

50:00

I'm as is a true story as I've not

50:02

had any a small when i go on the

50:05

griddle and i make burgers and looked out the

50:07

griddle i think of myself and in the id

50:09

want to get I. Went

50:13

window I get the have my next what

50:15

I wish I could eat them for. I

50:17

release honestly truly believe that I could eat

50:19

every burger ago. so this this isn't really

50:21

worth saving. Thank you

50:23

so much to it was. George

50:27

Most is an author are the Great

50:29

American. Vertebra and now he further

50:32

for for his restaurant near city

50:34

Hamburger America and has his or

50:36

show for the with you for

50:39

listening of. Hit

50:43

him studio. The. Run by kind of colliding

50:45

during Christmas and I recovered from and

50:47

Nord record producer and for the zebra

50:49

was created a valley for and been

50:51

with that after. Meet each

50:53

week by correct new gentility producer

50:55

Erica Romero digital producer Being a

50:58

baffling and managing Freezer Southwest be

51:00

sure to subscribe to our Potter

51:03

Modify Apple record demos and take

51:05

a moment. We this review loved

51:07

a huge difference I Francis Lamb

51:10

and this isn't Pm Future.