Picnic Episode III: Rendevous at Burger Mountain

Picnic Catering
(201) 321-3213

Last week recieved the following email from Christine Nunn, chef and owner of Picnic Caterers in Emerson, NJ:

“I just returned from Disney. No, it was not the best burger I have eaten, since Disney must cook well done, but the best burger conceptually, and one that I’m putting on the menu on Monday. Ready? Set…. Here goes… Rare fresh ground beef burger… Tomato confit… Mushroom Duxelles… Onion jam… Bernaise sauce…Toasted French roll.. OMG…I can’t wait to make it my own… My béarnaise, which, I must say, is better than bottled epcot béarnaise.”

Now, if its one thing I have learned, is to take Christine very, very seriously whenever she emails me about things like this. And I knew that if she was making a burger, well, I knew I had to have one. I invited myself over today to document the burger-making process and to make one go into my stomach.

First we start with 80 percent lean ground chuck, which has been seasoned with salt and pepper. I agree with Christine that this is probably the ideal meat/fat ratio for a burger, and Chuck is better than sirloin for burgers.

I advise you not to be ravenously hungry before looking at the rest of these photos. Click on the “Read the rest of this entry” link below for more.

From the very beginning, we start to see that this is no ordinary burger. Christine adds Herbes De Provence and a nice healthy shot of Worcestershire sauce.

The burger meat is mixed up good and allowed to rest.

Next, we have our mushrooms.

Which are then processed in the Robot Coupe along with some shallots.

The mushroom/shallot mixture is cooked in a pan with a healthy amount of butter.

Christine forms up some nice, healthy sized burger patties. I’d fix these at least 10 ounces pre-cooked weight.

Sweet Texas Onions are cooked until caramelized in yes, you know it, more butter.

Burgers are thrown on the grill to sear the meat.

The mushrooms cook down until they become a thicker consistency and loose their liquid.

A dry sherry is procured for flavoring the duxelles.

Sherry is added to duxelles.

Heavy cream is added, with salt to finish.

When burgers are seared, they are pulled off the grill and allowed to finish in the oven until medium-rare.

For the confit, vine-ripened tomatoes are cut up and run thru the Robot Coupe.

Then they are cooked down with… uh, more butter.

Keeping an eye on everything.

For the Sauce Bearnaise, we need tarragon vinegar.

And some fresh butter (more butter!!!!) and eggs.

Tarragon Vinegar is reduced for a minute or two on the stove on high heat and allowed to cool down. Then 3 egg yolks are added and whisked up into the vinegar.

The egg/vinegar mixture is returned to the stove, where all the butter is gradually added in. In culinary school they teach you to do this on a double boiler so you don’t scald the eggs, but a real pro like Christine can do without it.

To complete the sauce, fresh tarragon is chopped up and added back into the Bearnaise.

Each burger bun gets a pat of butter, and is then toasted on the grill.

The burgers come Off The Broiler.

Nice and toasty buns.

Final burger assembly begins.

That looks good enough to eat already. But its not done yet.

A layer of caramelized onions…

Tomato confit…

Bacon…

Duxelles…

A touch of bearnaise… the bun is topped… Finis!

Which angle do you prefer?