Inspiration is a funny thing, as you never know when it is going to strike. Not long after reading about National Hamburger Month at A Hamburger Today I was preparing to put the last of my home cured corned beef in the slow cooker when I wondered if anyone had ever made a burger out of a cured brisket.

As I often do, I immediately did a search to see what would come up for “corned beef burgers”. Much to my surprise there wasn’t much other than a few recipes that contemplated grinding or otherwise fashioning a burger out of previously cooked brisket or putting thin slices of cooked brisket on top of a standard patty. While I’m sure those are tasty options, that wasn’t what I was looking for. Rather, I was interested in replacing elements of my custom built burger mix with home cured beef, grind it all up and see if I could make a real corned beef burger.

Ever since I’ve started grinding my own meat for burgers I’ve been following a modified version of Iron Chef Michael Symon’s Lola Burger recipe in that my grind consists of 40% sirloin, 40% short rib and 20% brisket. However, as my research on the subject matter has continued, I’ve been gradually moving towards a 40/30/30 blend mostly based on an article I read on Burger Blending over at the Serious Eats Burger Lab.

To fashion my corned beef burger what I decided to do was home cure the brisket and the short rib together before grinding it with my usual tri tip so that sixty percent of the meat being used in the mix had been “corned”. I knew going in that the biggest risk in using home cured meat was that I’d be sacrificing some of the texture I would normally have with a burger made of freshly ground beef.

The Burger Lab has a great article examining what happens when you salt meat in advance of grinding it and, while there was some loss of texture, it wasn’t nearly as bad as what you’ll find in their experiment. I can’t be certain without further testing, but I’m going hypothesize that it was because I brined the meat to cure rather than employing only salt an hour or so before grinding.

After I ground the meat I quickly formed a test patty and cooked it in a pan. As I had hoped, what resulted was a juicy, fragrant, bright red burger that made me feel like I was sitting down to a traditional St. Patrick’s Day dinner.

My one mistake, that I will surely not repeat, was I double ground the meat using the same sized plate. It was a total rookie mistake on my part. However, after the first grind the meat mixture just didn’t seem blended well enough. I should have known better and left it alone (or lightly tossed it by hand), yet I couldn’t help myself. In my opinion the burgers were still quite good, however, because of the second grind it resulted in a more densely packed patty.

While still in the planning stage I began to consider what exactly I would put on these corned beef burgers. The most obvious things one usually thinks of when they think of corned beef is cabbage and potatoes. The biggest question was how do I bring those flavors together with a burger.

The first thing I decided on was a mustard slaw using Napa cabbage, carrot, shallots and a mustard sauce as a dressing to provide some crunch. Then, after successful experiments with an Arugala and Walnut pesto at my son’s birthday party and Mint and Feta pesto for my Easter dinner on the grill, I chose to attempt the trifecta and see if I could make a pesto out of red cabbage. I started by finding a great recipe, made a few modifications and the results were excellent.

Finally, I wanted something different to serve them on beyond a standard burger roll. In considering my options I ruled out brioche, as it is overdone on all the chefified burgers these days. Then I remembered how much I enjoyed having leftover corned beef sandwiches on kimmelweck rolls.

Knowing I wouldn’t find anything like that in any of the places near me, I found a great recipe to make Crusty Caraway Seed Rolls at home. They ended up being a little dense, but I attribute that to me being a novice baker and I most likely misjudged whether or not the dough had fully risen.

When I assembled the burger with all the elements there was a nice balance of saltiness from the meat, sweetness from the mustard slaw and a nice earthiness from the purple pesto. I served them with a side of roasted duck fat potatoes after finding these really nice mini creamers while out shopping the other day.

Aside from the regrettable double grind snafu, these corned beef burgers are something I will gladly make again.

Corned Beef Burgers

Software

3 pounds flat cut beef brisket
3 pounds boneless short rib (approximately 4 pounds if you can only find bone in)
4 pounds tri tip or sirloin

Assemblage

• Home cure the brisket and short ribs for 5 days
• When curing is complete cut all the meat into 1 inch cubes, toss to combine and refrigerate for 30 minutes
• Grind the meat using a 1/4″ plate, then refrigerate until ready to form patties
• Accounting for a small amount of loss from grinding the ten pounds of meat should form at least 24 6 ounce patties

Purple Pesto

recipe adapted from The Yellow House

Software

Top 1/3 of a head red cabbage
Olive oil, to consistency desired (1/2 to 3/4 cup)
3 cloves garlic confit
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup shredded gruyere
2 tablespoon diced pancetta
1 tablespoon rendered pancetta fat
Salt and pepper, to taste

Assemblage

• Add all ingredients except for the oil in a food processor and pulse until combined
• Slowly drizzle the oil into the mixture with the food processor running until you reach your desired consistency (making sure to stop a few times to scrape down the sides of the bowl)
• Taste and adjust seasoning, if necessary

Mustard Slaw

Software

1 egg
⅛ cup of sugar
1 tablespoon flour
1 teaspoon mustard powder
1 cup cooking liquor (or braising liquid)
¼ cup white wine vinegar
white pepper to taste
Napa cabbage, shredded
Carrot, shredded
Shallot, minced
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 tablespoon caraway seeds, ground fine

Assemblage

• Whisk the egg and sugar together, then add the flour and mustard powder
• Slowly add the cooking liquor until the egg is tempered, then whisk the rest in and add the white wine vinegar
• Cook, stirring regularly, over medium to low heat until the sauce thickens; ideally it should coat the back of a spoon
• Set the mustard sauce aside to cool
• Shred the cabbage and carrots and mince the shallots; toss to combine
• Coat the cabbage mixture with the cooled off mustard sauce until it reaches desired consistency
• Mix in ground caraway seeds, salt and pepper
• Taste and adjust seasoning, if necessary

•