Pineapple Upside-Down Burger

Jason's name for it, and it came from a happy accident: he built the first one the wrong way round and the mushrooms ended up UNDER the patty. Beef and pork patties on the grill, grilled pineapple, pepper jack, creminis and relish. Makes roughly a dozen bun-size patties.

Ingredients

The patties:

• 2.5 lbs ground beef
• 1.5 lbs ground pork

• 2 cups panko crumbs
• 2 eggs
• 1 onion, chopped and fried
• Salt, to taste — and heavily. Plain salt, not just the garlic salt.
• Garlic salt, to taste
• Oregano, to taste
• Black pepper, to taste
• Cayenne pepper, to taste
• Cumin, to taste
• Worcestershire sauce, to taste — put it in from the START, not as a rescue

To build:

• Pepper Jack, 2 slices per patty
• Pineapple, cut into rounds and grilled. Half an inch worked but Jason wants them a little THINNER next time.
• Cremini mushrooms, sliced thick and pan-cooked
• Green relish
• Mayo
• Soft buns, toasted

Steps

1. Combine 2.5 lbs ground beef and 1.5 lbs ground pork.
2. Add 2 cups panko and 2 eggs. One cup of panko was not enough — with 2 eggs into 4 lbs the mix came out wet and sticky, so a second cup went in. Two cups is the number.

If you have the chance, wet the panko with the egg first and let it sit before it meets the meat. Dry crumbs drink from the beef.

1. Chop the onion, fry it, and add it to the mixture.
2. Season with salt, garlic salt, oregano, black pepper, cayenne, cumin and Worcestershire. Season HARD — see the note below.

Fold it with a light hand. Overworked mince goes springy. Rest the bowl about ten minutes.

1. Fry a small piece in a pan, taste it, and correct the whole bowl. Jason always cooks before tasting.
2. Shape bun-size patties, thumb a dimple into the centre of each so they do not dome. Wet hands stop the mix clinging.
3. Grill the patties. Do not press them. Lay the cheese on near the end and close the lid for a minute to melt it properly.

1. Grill the pineapple on a hot, dry, CLEAN part of the grate — before the burgers, or well away from them, never where raw meat juice has run. Lay it down, char it hard, leave it alone. It comes off with dark bar marks and still juicy. Brush the grate first or old crust transfers onto the fruit.
2. Slice the creminis before cooking, about a quarter inch thick. Cook them hard in a pan with room around them, and no salt until they have browned or they steam and go grey.
3. Toast the buns until properly golden. Jason used the toaster oven.
4. Build it upside down: bottom bun, relish, creminis, patty with the melted pepper jack, grilled pineapple, mayo, top bun. The pineapple riding ON TOP is the better build — under the patty its juice goes straight into the bottom bun.

Notes

SEASON TWICE AS HARD AS INSTINCT SAYS. This is the real lesson of the night. Two cups of panko in four pounds of meat is a lot of filler and it swallows seasoning. The first pass tasted bland; it took two more heavy rounds — more salt, more garlic salt, more pepper, more Worcestershire, more of everything — before it came right. Jason's verdict at that point: "Yum." Suspect the crumb before you blame the meat.

Jason seasons to taste and does not measure spices. That is the recipe, not a gap in it.

For next time: 2:1 beef to pork, thinner pineapple, Worcestershire in from the start, more of every topping, and wet the panko before it goes in.