【Homemade Gourmet】Starting with bacon! Challenging to make an authentic charcoal American bacon cheeseburger.

The culmination of the smoking and charcoal cooking we've done so far at MADURO, creating a bacon cheeseburger. Drawing inspiration from an American uncle Youtuber, we aim for an authentic taste. What became clear is the depth of a burger that seems simple at first glance.

The first challenge starts with making bacon to put in the burger

I want to make this hamburger using the smoked and charcoal cooking techniques that I have previously challenged in MADURO. So, we start with making bacon as a smoked dish.

Since this is a trial, I will describe the ingredients and quantities roughly and casually. First, the amount of salt is 5% of the pork belly, add an appropriate amount of pepper, cover with plastic wrap, and let it sit for three days.

Next, leave it in the refrigerator without wrapping it for half a day to dry, and the smoking preparation will be complete. There wasn’t any reliable information when creating this, and even a quick look showed variations like a one-week salt curing period and one day with wrapping during drying.

This time, I will visually assess the state of the ingredients to determine when the process is complete. By the way, the product after drying is pancetta, and it seems good to cut it here and make pasta.

I will use the kit I used for smoked salmon to smoke, but since it's a large piece of meat, I folded the smoking wood to about 3 cm wide, the largest I've done so far, and lit it. Even so, it felt like the cooking was weak, so I added pieces that were an additional 1 cm wide and continued to smoke for about an hour and a half.

I was judging the completion based only on appearance, so visually it looks decent. A part I struggled with this time was whether it was more important to cook it through or to flavor it, and which one I should prioritize. I have never eaten authentic bacon, so I found it difficult to imagine the final result.

After cutting the freshly made meat and trying it after frying it in a pan, I would say it doesn't taste bad, but it has a smoky odor. It seems that over-drying when smoking can result in the smoke smell becoming too strong and unpleasant, and maybe that's the state it is in now. Many people covering it with wrap and drying it for a long time might have done so to adjust moisture and avoid excessive smokiness.

In my opinion, the best method would be to leave the meat at room temperature before smoking to raise the temperature and smoke it for a short time while maintaining the current method. Also, since bacon cannot be eaten raw, be sure to cook it thoroughly when tasting.

Now, let's get to the final stage of making authentic charcoal American bacon cheeseburgers

It's finally time to make the main dish, the hamburgers. The reference for how to make it comes from a YouTuber named BBQ Pit Boys, who are American guys. The key parts of the ingredients are 100% beef mince and buns from a grocery store.

This time, I will be using leftover cheese from home, but ideally, I think cheddar cheese should be used.

Since I am using leftover charcoal from before, I'll be using a mixture of cut charcoal and binchotan as the fire base. Instead of focusing on enjoying the flavor of the ingredients, I preferred to enjoy the combination, so I emphasized thoroughly igniting the charcoal without worrying too much about the types.

The aforementioned YouTuber mostly just grilled the meat without kneading it, so I simply shaped it into a round ball and placed it on the grill. I didn't season it at all. Even so, it's freshly ground domestic beef from the butcher, so it looks good and delicious.

At the same time, while cooking the bacon, I took care of things, and within about 5 minutes, it was looking pretty good. Perhaps because it's shoulder meat for stew, it didn't drop much fat and there was no flare-up.

I warmed the buns and added cheese to finish, covering them to steam. At this point, I want to eat it quickly.

I placed the patty and bacon on the buns, added ketchup and mustard, and it was complete. It took a bit more effort than I expected.

Finally done! When I tasted it...

This is what the cross-section looks like. When tasting it, perhaps because it wasn't kneaded, the meat is flaking and the granular texture is emphasized. Due to the large amount of patty, it feels slightly lacking in saltiness, and the flavors of the seasoning and bacon are weak, leaving it somewhat unsatisfying. Also, unlike when using the toaster, the buns are a bit dry, which is concerning.

The taste is simple and not bad. However, I feel there are many areas for improvement. It made me realize the importance of balance, and I sense the unexpected depth of hamburgers. What I particularly dislike is the texture of the un-kneaded patty.

I was curious about the texture of the patty, so I tried re-cooking it in a kneaded state. It’s flatter than before, but it should be possible to test it.

As I’m used to dishes made with kneaded ground meat, I overwhelmingly prefer the texture of this kneaded version. Moreover, I’m amazed by the deliciousness of the ground meat from the butcher shop. I'm once again impressed by the taste of domestically produced beef that hasn't been frozen.

Actually, I also made homemade pickles and reproduced a Big Mac. The aftertaste is quite close, but due to differences in ingredients and poor balance, it cannot compare to the original. I realized that consistently creating that flavor requires considerable research.

Through this focused experimentation, I understood the simple yet profound elements involved in making burgers, which sparked a great interest in me. I would like to continue researching hamburgers while developing camp recipes in the future.

Interview & Text / Kazuma Tanaka

Search Bacon making on Amazon