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Meet the Jucy Lucy
I received my first introduction to Jucy Lucys via cable TV, when I saw the spiky-haired Guy Fieri of the Food Network biting into some melty burger goodness at Nook’s dive bar in St. Paul, Minnesota. After wondering for a few seconds how he did not experience a “cardiac event” afterwards, I knew I had to try one. Here in Seattle, we have a lot of friends who hail from the Twin Cities. So the other night we decide, WTF, we’ll have a bunch of them over and grill up some Jucy Lucys.
The concept is simple, yet brilliant. Take burger. Stuff American cheese in the middle. Grill.
Of course, even with the most minimal of culinary creations, there are subtle arts to it all. So Lisa and I did our research. A wonderful resource was the super-comprehensive Twin Cities food blog, Heavy Table, which detailed step-by-step how a true Minneapolitan (or a St. Paulite) constructs a Jucy Lucy. There’s even a six-minute video.
From other Web browsing, we noticed a lot of foodies like to put their own creative “spin” on their Jucy Lucys. There’s no denying American cheese is processed, and pretty gross. So people add fancier cheeses, and then wonder why the burger didn’t turn out as expected.
American cheese? *Chortle* I have this aged raw milk manchego that is produced only from a hand-picked group of La Mancha sheep who have passed my own rigorous selection tests based on intelligence, athletics and personality.
So yes, American cheese is “gross,” but in this case it works perfectly. This reminds me of an old lesson harped on by many a print editor in the past: “Don’t use a $10 word when a 10-cent one will suffice.” That being said, you can also use another SOFT cheese, something that melts easily into a fondue-like consistency — we used fontina on half of the burgers, to provide a non-plastic alternative to the bright yellow classic. But those who insist on using cheddar will be disappointed.
Another crucial element is to flatten the meat a lot when constructing the burger — too fat a burger, and the cheese won’t melt all the way. It’s also important to securely seal the two halves of the patty when constructing it, so the cheese won’t leak out during the grilling process. Then you end up with a messy grill and a hollow patty.
The most surprising part is that this burger ends up being more than a gimmick. The cheese on the inside actually helps keep it moist and “jucy”, and ensures that it melts properly. Think of all the times you’ve had a burger with gummy, half-melted cheese on top. In the Lucy, you have gooey cheese evenly distributed throughout each bite. We devoured them, and our Midwestern guests raved. One said it was one of the best burgers she’d ever had. Aw shucks.
Jucy Lucys
- 2 pounds ground beef (use a fatty mixture, 80-20)
- American cheese. Kraft works fine.
- Hamburger buns (here’s a hint…use something soft. We went with onion loaf)
- Montreal steak seasoning
- Mise-en-place your fixens: lettuce, tomatoes, onions, etc
Preheat your grill (medium heat, or 400°F for those using gas). Divide the beef into six portions. Take one portion and roll into a ball, and then chop in half. Now, roll one of the halfs into a ball and then mash into a thin patty on the cutting board. Remember, go thin because otherwise the cheese won’t cook well in the Jucy Lucy. Secondly, make the patty slightly bigger than the bun, as it will reduce in size during cooking.
Here comes the cheese! Take one slice American cheese and fold it into quarters. Place the pieces of cheese in the middle of the burger, leaving space on each side for hamburger to be exposed. Then roll the other half of meat into a ball and flatten into a thin patty. Place on top of the first patty and seal the edges real tight, working the hamburger with your fingertips to make sure there are no holes/openings in the meat. Otherwise, the cheese will volcano spew outwards during grilling. No good.
Burgers are now ready for the grill. Season Jucy Lucys with the Montreal steak goodness and place burgers on and grill for 8-9 minutes. Flip and then poke each burger with a knife to let out some steam. Grill for another 7-8 minutes.
There might be a trip to the Twin Cities forthcoming for the Hipster in my Latte duo, and so a pilgrimage must be made to see the true Jucy Lucy professionals at work. We’ll probably start at Matt’s Bar, which is the self-proclaimed inventor, and then stop when our hearts tap out and say “no mas.”
P.S: This has absolutely nothing to do with cheese-stuffed hamburgers, but the new season of Top Chef looks beyond awesome. Even if there’s only 10 minutes of actual substance between all the product placements, celebrity chef/hotel plugs and forced Padma segues. As usual, plenty of snarky recaps from the writers over at Grub Street.
Seriously, what is better than the late-night taco truck or the mobile halal vendor when you’re stumbling home at 3 a.m. after a night out? After a few beers, the shredded chicken torta with queso blanco is oh-so-delicious.
Well, my love affair with the mobile foodistas has grown exponentially since we’ve moved out to Seattle. In the eight months we’ve lived here, there have been several addition to the fleet of food trucks, each seemingly outdoing each other in terms of quality and flavor.
Not just content with gyros and tacos, we’ve seen a sea change in mobile food competition. The entrepreneurs are innovative and creative.
I thought about this today as I pulled up to Beacon Hill with Lisa and we stood in line at Marination Mobile, a Korean-style taco truck that offers such delicacies as Aloha Sliders and Kimchi Quesadillas. The veggies in Seattle have tofu options as well. For around $7 a person, the quality of the food was well above what’s out there in terms of fast food (outside of In-And-Out Burger, but that’s for another post).
Serving up some fabulous Korean tacos in Seattle
The trend in Seattle began with Skillet, which began slinging gourmet truck food a few years ago out of an old silver Airstream. Skillet upped the ante, offering burgers with local, farm-raised beef, bacon jam, arugula on gourmet bread. Poutine (the Quebecois treat of fries topped with piping-hot gravy and cheese curds) was another option. Lines started queueing up and business boomed. Aside from a few health code violations, Skillet has been a success in Seattle.
Competitors sprouted up not soon after. We’ve enjoyed veggie BBQ (yes, really), from the Maximus/Minimus truck, a which happens to be shaped like a pig. If you want an octopus taco, get thee to Eastlake and visit the Tako Truk late nights on the weekends. Added bonus: you can follow them on Twitter (like you can most of the food trucks) to stay in the know about locations and 86s.
The Piggy Truck
And as much as Seattle has advanced in terms of street food, Portland has us whipped, unfortunately. A lot has to do with regulations that Seattle has now finally laxed on, but a recent trip to Portland presented us with enough evidence (over 400 or so vendors!) to come to that conclusion. Such options ranged from a vendor specializing in nothing but grilled cheese, one of my favorite comfort foods. One section of PDX had a confluence of trucks all happily competing with one another. This site keeps readers up to date on the food cart news in Portland.
Back in Seattle, I’m just glad to see our city has jumped on the street food bandwagon. This was cemented when I bit into an incredibly flavorful slider of shredded pork and Korean slaw. And as much as Seattle has grown in this regard, there are still some great old-school options. During the blizzard this past winter, Lisa and I trudged our way from Mt. Baker to Rainier Valley to the taco bus. Another fantastic option is Rancho Bravo in Wallingford. These are my rebuttals to those who believe Chipotle is an acceptable lunch option.
Shelf life of about 3 hours
One of the great things about living in the Pacific Northwest is that every summer, right around the beginning of August, the landscape erupts with blackberries. I mean, the little buggers are everywhere: in vacant lots, in alleys, climbing out of retaining walls, in traffic circles, along every road. I’ve read that they’re comparable to kudzu in the South; crawling over everything like weeds, resistant to extermination.
If something has to be so pervasive, hey, at least it produces fruit. There’s really no reason to buy blackberries in the store or even the market, when I can take a bowl, walk around the block, and pick a good half-pint. My father said he went to a 5-foot swath south of the city, shook the branches, and enough for a pie literally fell into his waiting bowl.
Today I took a little stroll around my neighborhood and down to Greenlake and returned with, as usual, more berries than I knew what to do with. There’s a fine line when picking blackberries — you go from “hmm, will I find enough?” to looking down and realizing “holy crap I just picked three pounds of blackberries” rather quickly. Once you find a fruitful patch, you go into a blackberry frenzy, picking every plump berry in sight until you suddenly snap to reality and accept that you have way more than you need.
I decided to make free-form blackberry tarts, which is another way of saying I didn’t want to worry if they looked pretty. A good thing, too; these were, shall we say, “rustic” in appearance, though they tasted just fine – maybe a little more sugar needed to counter the tartness of the berries. Or vanilla ice cream on top would work as well.
I really do feel fortunate to have so much good quality fruit at my fingertips. We don’t have enough room for a garden, yet I’m still able to walk out the door and within minutes have ample fresh produce in hand. Seattle in the summer, to me, always means blackberry picking.
Free-Form Blackberry Tarts
(adapted from How to Cook Everything)
Dough:
- 1 1/8 cups flour
- 2 Tb. sugar
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1 stick cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
- ice water
- 1 egg yolk
Filling:
- approx. 2 cups blackberries (or could use another berry of your choice)
- 1-2 tsp. sugar, depending how sweet the berries are
- 1 tsp. cinnamon or nutmeg
- 2 Tb. melted butter
To make the dough, put flour, sugar, and salt into a food processor and pulse a few times to blend. Add in the butter and pulse for about 10 seconds, until mixture resembles cornmeal.
Turn mixture into a bowl and sprinkle 3 Tb. ice water and egg yolk over it. Using a wooden spoon, gently mix until it starts to come together — you may need to add another half Tb. of ice water. When you can, use your hands to mold the dough into a ball. Wrap it in plastic wrap, flatten into a disk, and put in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
Mix the berries with sugar and spice, but gently so they hold their shape.
When the dough is chilled, take it out and cut it into four pieces. Roll each piece out into a rough circle, about 1/8 inch thick. Place all four circles onto a baking sheet.
Put berries in the center of each circle of dough, leaving about an inch of dough from the edge. Fold up the edges around the berries so they’re tucked in, but don’t try to cover the berries with the dough entirely.
Brush the dough and the fruit with melted butter. Bake for 20-30 minutes, until fruit bubbles and the crust is golden brown.
Serve with powdered sugar, or vanilla ice cream, or whipped cream. If they look misshapen, just tell people that’s the idea.
Fug-tastic tarts
Lisa
Jeremy
