The Perfectly Elusive Perfect Burger

American cheese is the GOAT for burgers. That’s a hill I am willing to die on. 😁

Ever since I discovered the NY bodega chopped cheese (Google that!) I have leaned heavily in that direction over the iconic hamburger. Unfortunately proper bread, rolls, etc here are nearly impossible to source so my urge to indulge will have to wait. This is a great place though if you love salmon (f’ing) soup.

PS- Mark The Homer, that last photo is a delicious looking burger!! ❤️
 
A chopped cheese is a New York City bodega staple, a sandwich consisting of ground beef (often pre-formed patties), onions, and melted cheese, all chopped together on a grill and served on a hero roll with lettuce, tomatoes, and condiments. It's a popular comfort food, particularly in Harlem, where it's believed to have originated.

Key Features:
  • Ground Beef: Typically pre-formed patties are used, cooked and chopped on the grill.

  • Onions: Sautéed onions are a key ingredient, adding flavor and texture.

  • Cheese: Melted cheese, often American cheese, is incorporated into the chopped meat and onion mixture.

    • Chopping: The beef, onions, and cheese are all chopped together while cooking, creating a unique texture.
    • Hero Roll: The sandwich is served on a long, crusty hero roll.
    • Toppings: Common toppings include lettuce, tomatoes, and condiments like mayonnaise or hot sauce.
Cultural Significance:
    • Bodega Staple: Chopped cheese sandwiches are a beloved staple in New York City bodegas.
    • Comfort Food: It's often seen as a quick, satisfying, and affordable meal option.
    • Cultural Icon: The chopped cheese has become a cultural icon, representing the flavors and traditions of New York City's working-class communities.
Origin:
    • While the precise origin is debated, many believe it originated in Harlem bodegas in the early 1990s.
    • It became a popular choice for local residents, particularly the Black and Latino communities.
 
Yes. Kenji did a post on this - The New York chopped cheese. He grew up in that neighborhood in New York, he says.
 
I would be curious, beyond the obligatory cheese, tomato, and lettuce what are some of your all's favorite burger additions? Onions, pickles, mushrooms, fried egg, etc...

I'll tell you one that I only tried a few years ago when I saw a friend add it - fresh jalapeno pepper slices... It really adds a 'pop' to a burger that I like.
 
I'll tell you what might be fun, if we had enough interest and attendance at the BGO Tailgate game this year, would be a burger contest...
 
Boone said:
I would be curious, beyond the obligatory cheese, tomato, and lettuce what are some of your all's favorite burger additions? Onions, pickles, mushrooms, fried egg, etc...

I'll tell you one that I only tried a few years ago when I saw a friend add it - fresh jalapeno pepper slices... It really adds a 'pop' to a burger that I like.
Click to expand...

My favorite burger set up at Sunshine is lettuce, tomato, mayo, & hots. Sunshine writes up like this: LTM Hots. Hots is pickled cherry peppers. Sunshine puts the lettuce & tomato on the bottom bun, with the mayo and hots on the top bun. I would call ahead and say "Burger for Mark" and Sue knew exactly how to make it.

My wife likes LTM FO which is lettuce tomato, mayo, and fried onions. The onions are actually sauteed on the griddle. They're always going on the griddle there, sizzling.

Bacon is made in the morning at Sunshine and ready for bacon burgers. But I really don't like bacon on my burger - I feel it takes away from the flavor of the beef.

At home I mix it up sometimes. Nothing wrong with a nice pickle slice or five. Onions too.

Jalapeno pepper slices are excellent. At Burger King, in some places you can ask for it on your whopper. In Silver Spring, they will do it in an eye blink. I tried it once at Mt Airy and they just looked at me funny. I don't really eat at BK anymore these days.
 
I usually do a mayo mustard and s&p. When tomatoes are in season I’ll do tomato, mayo, raw onion and S&P
 
I like to do a big tupparware dish with all of the 'additions' so folks can put what they want on their own burger. I almost always have onion slices, raw jalapeno, tomato on mine, maybe lettuce (I like to use hearts of romaine). I do occasionally enjoy a bacon burger, but I'm kind of with you on it being a distraction Mark. I've been tempted to try some fried dill pickles on a burger (I love using them on pizza with fresh dill) butI have yet to be so bold.
 
Just got this in my email inbox.

SnS is sending out an Ultimate Burger recipe just in time for the 4th of July.

SnS got this "burger bits" technique from my post on the Smoking Meats forum which I posted in 2022. They put out a video illustrating the technique in 2024 and now they're sending it out as an "Ultimate Backyard Burger" recipe today via emails. I called him out on the bits technique in the YT comments section last year and he didn't deny it.

My original 2022 post: https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/most-unconventional-burger-recipe-youve-ever-loved.317523/

My post w/ photos: https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t...-recipe-youve-ever-loved.317523/#post-2369186

SnS YT 2024 vid:



SnS recipe page: https://snsgrills.com/blogs/recipes...ply1_fbNpD3lOm0T-6mdfDote8xNCTfBGztBto.SZVUz2

However, I think the technique I posted above a few weeks ago on this site is better. It borrows the idea of forming a patty with raw burger bits - but it's more efficient and doesn't require a ring. And it's just as tender, juicy, and delicious. It was inspired by Kenji's burger post a couple months ago, which seems to have been inspired by my 2022 post on Smoking Meats.

Here is Kenji's post. He says it is his all-time favorite burger out of dozens of burger recipes he's made during his professional career. He posted this is March of 2025.



Here is the BGO perfectly elusive perfect burger:

www.bgobsession.com

The Perfectly Elusive Perfect Burger

I remember my Mom eating raw hamburger when I was a kid. Hell....I remember bull and oyster roasts in the early 80's here in Maryland where they would have pans of raw hamburger. People would load up with some raw burger and onions. I'll eat almost any damn thing, but raw burger never...
www.bgobsession.com www.bgobsession.com

/thread
 
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Mark The Homer said:




/thread
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I watched the videos on the VWBB. Now I'm going to have to try that. I have the same half-moon GrillGrate on one of my kettles that was available for a short while on the SnS site. It's indispensable.
The only issue I see there, (and it's a small one).... Hellmann's?? Where's the Duke's?
 
Yes - that's where I got mine, on the SnS site. But I found that grillgrates has insane sales if you search "second quality" or "factory seconds." They claim there is some kind of imperfection in those items but I've bought some and cannot find anything wrong with them at all. I think they are just overstocked.

You searched for second quality | GrillGrate

www.grillgrate.com www.grillgrate.com

I like Duke's - I got an unopened jar right here! :D
 
Mark The Homer said:
Yes - that's where I got mine, on the SnS site. But I found that grillgrates has insane sales if you search "second quality" or "factory seconds." They claim there is some kind of imperfection in those items but I've bought some and cannot find anything wrong with them at all. I think they are just overstocked.

You searched for second quality | GrillGrate

www.grillgrate.com www.grillgrate.com

I like Duke's - I got an unopened jar right here! :D
Click to expand...
Yeah....my cheap-ass does the same. I snagged a complete set of GrillGrates for the 22" Weber for something like $30.00 off of the "Buy/Sell.." thread on the VWBB from a guy who didn't like them. It looks like he may have used them all of one time.
Good call on the Duke's. Non FB Fran is a Hellmann's girl, but she won't turn her nose up at Duke's. I actually use the Duke's Light...
 
About five years ago I was making burgers out of ground beef bits, adding a sauce with salt in it (a 50/50 mix of Dale's seasoning and Italian dressing, credit Dave at SnS) to cause the bits to adhere. This idea stemmed from Kenji's article regarding salt. But then I learned you didn't need salt - the burger bits would adhere when heated even without salt. It was a great burger, but tedious to make.

Then I started using a fork to sort of shred the burger. This saved time. And I used a burger ring (actually it's called a cake mold). Faster. But again - it was still tedious. The meat was always trying to stick to the metal ring. And it was time consuming. And when you're done, it's still just a pile of bits until you heat it up.

This cross hatch method is much easier, faster, and uncomplicated. The patty stays intact because the bench knife, which is not sharp, does not slice into the bottom of the patty. The outside surface remains smooth. So it's not just a pile of ground beef bits. It's a patty before it's cooked.

This method is quick - and no burger ring needed. Just the bench knife or griddle scraper.

Note that there is no "pressing" on this burger after making the cross hatch patterns. The top patty simply lays on the bottom patty. The two patties adhere and become one during the heating process. The cross hatch patterns create small air pockets within the patty which are filled with liquid burgery goodness during cooking. And that liquid burgery goodness is encapsulated within the burger with no clear way to escape until you bite into said burger.

It's a good idea to wear an apron or bib of some sort while eating. Or just take your shirt off. Even if you lean all the way in over your plate, the large volume of juices will splash onto your plate with such violence that it will splatter onto your good clean shirt or pants leg, regardless of how careful you are.

Crime scene analysts and forensics experts call this "burger juice spatter."

IMG_6191.jpg
 
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