my stomach is very full with two of the best! burgers i’ve ever made. however some credit must go to julia for her burger cooking technique.

1. put two english muffins (i prefer thomas’s), separated, into a 200 degree oven.
2. take a spoonful of minced shallots (the thing that has cloves like garlic but each clove is like an onion) and saute in a teaspoon slice of butter.
3. heat a large skillet to almost smoking and slap on four slices of bacon (i prefer oscar mayer center cut) making sure not to burn. when done, remove to a paper towel, drain fat, and bring pan back to medium heat.
4. while cooking the bacon, take 1/4 pound (per burger) of 80/20 ground chuck and sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. use a chefs knife to ‘chop’ the meat on a plastic cutting board, not all the way through, but enough to spread it out in all directions. spoon some of the sauteed shallots onto the meat and fold over, still forming with only the knife. the oh-so-important goal here is to make the burger as *thin* as possible.
5. put the burger on the now hot skillet, one minute or so per side. meanwhile repeat step 4 for the second burger. after you flip the burger, put slices of extra sharp cheddar cheese on top, along with two slices of the cooked bacon, each broken in half.
6. while they’re cooking, cut one or two slices of a purple or yellow onion very thinly (1mm), and cook undisturbed in the shallot pan over medium-high heat.
7. when the burgers are done, remove each to its bottom english muffin.
8. take several rings of the slightly crisped onion and place on top of the bacon.
9. cut 1 or 2 paper thin slices of tomato and put on top of the onion rings.
10. put some lettuce (i used fancy salad mix, but romaine would be fine—definitely *not* iceberg) on top of the tomato.
11. then this is the final key step: take your favorite barbeque sauce (i prefer any brand with a mesquite flavor) and put a dime sized dollop on the inside top muffin. spread out with knife so there’s nothing more than the hint of sauce (no glops!) and put on top of the lettuce.
12. finally: let the finished burger (or work of art, as you may liken it to) sit for at least 5 minutes.

take that time to wipe the counters, chew the fat (i mean that figuratively), sip on an unfiltered wheat ale (like blue moon’s belgian white) or a hefeweizen, and eat a pickle.

Then eat.