Favorite Burger Toppings?

[helmut fig newton]

I think it's important to designate the place the toppings go also..
My current favorite:
(From top down)

Bun
Ketchup
Dill pickle
Cheddar cheese (melted)
-------Meat------
Grilled Jalapeno
Mayo
Bun

I'm putting together a photo gallery post on burger toppings and would appreciate ideas.

I'd like to do a post of photos of the results, similar to this piece: http://www.chow.com/food-news/110142/...

Thanks!
Chris photographer of Chow

[John Francis]

Bun, preferably toasted.

I'll eat a burger if it comes with lettuce, tomato, and/or sliced onion, but nothing else - no condiments, no pickles, not even cheese. If the meat is good, I want to taste it; if not, then I don't want to eat it.

[Dave MP]

In case you haven't seen, the ideas from this thread are now part of a new gallery! http://www.chow.com/galleries/321/cho...

[tiffeecanoe]

Delicious gallery - glad to see my favorites part of it. Looks like tomorrow has now become burger night!

Think we'll be trying that Jalapeno-Lemon burger! Whoa!

[4maxwelz]

Latest favorite~
bun, mayo, pepper jack, bacon, burger, super crunchy peanut butter, bun

[mamachef]

I went to a place where the hamburger topping was mayo mixed with crushed peanuts, and it was unexpected and FANTASTIC.

[John Francis]

Barbecue sauce, if anything. Usually nothing - a hamburger is about the meat.

[EWSflash]

I change favorites often. My current favorites are
At home
blue cheese, mostly melted
burger patty

At a burger restaurant that has a lot of choices (read- Zinburger, in Tucson)- burger with a fried egg and blue cheese. Add salt and a ton of pepper.

[tim irvine]

If the meat is good and not overcooked, butter. OMG.

[biondanonima]

I really do love butter on all types of steaks and burgers. Sometimes when I mold my burger patties, I stick a pat of butter inside (if I'm making a thick burger) so that it melts and flavors the meat from the inside out as the burger cooks. A compound herb butter works well.

[mamachef]

Great potato bun
Thin spread ketchup
Bread and butter pickles
Super thinly-sliced tomatoes
Pimiento cheese, melted atop:
Sirloin burger, at least 5-6 ozs.
And bun bottom. Really gilding requires bacon.

[HillJ]

Premade mac and cheese cut into slabs that fit on top of the burger. Once the burger is grilled on one side place the slab on top of the burger while grilling the second. It melts and creates a really interesting alternative to cheese.

[helmut fig newton]

HillJ--interesting, so just the mac and cheese melted on top--any other topping?

[HillJ]

Nope, I don't add anything. But my husband likes to add green peppers sometimes. I make the mac and cheese ahead of time. Chill it. Cut into slabs and as described above top them once one side of the burger is cooked. It's a gooey, rich choice but I enjoy it.

[tiffeecanoe]

Depends on the burger. If we're talking typical delicious beef burger then definitely aged cheddar and a fried egg. No mayo, no mustard, etc - the yolk is my condiment! OR Stilton cheese and roasted garlic cloves with a nice grainy mustard. If I'm at a fast food type restaurant I always go with the mushroom and swiss.

I like the occasional fun burger too - hoisin burgers w/ avocado and sriracha mayo or one with jack cheese, roasted jalapenos and guacamole.

[ckr]

tiffeecanoe, you're making me hungry.....

[tiffeecanoe]

ha! I made myself hungry too!

[grampart]

I usually keep it very simple with ketchup, carmelized onions, and (sometimes) cheese (Boar's Head White American), but recently I "discovered" something new that, for the present, I can't get enough of and that is a product by Wickles called Hoagie and Sub Relish. I'm sure it's great on other things too, but lately my burgers off the grill have been adorned with this stuff as the only condiment and I've never been much of a relish fan. I highly recommend it!.

[thymeoz]

Lemon mayo, fresh parsley, dill pickles, jalapeno, raw or caramelized onion, and whatever type of cheese I have around.

[helmut fig newton]

raw/fresh? jalapeno

[staughton]

This discussion's going to have 300 replies by sundown. Good one!

OK, from top down:

bun
mayo
onion
lettuce
tomato
mustard
ketchup
-----meat----
bun

Yeah, I know... I just don't generally like a lot of "other stuff" on my burger. That doesn't mean I won't eat your bacon blue cheese jalapeno pickle avocado cheddar bbq sauce mushroom grilled onion burgers at your house, though.

[helmut fig newton]

ha, yeah, sometimes burger toppings can be way over the top, but i will go for it every once in a while. went to Southern Pacific Brewery a while back and had their 'Southern Pacific Burger' (off menu).
if i remember correctly:
Bun
thousand island
fried egg
house made pastrami
cheese
meat
pickle
mustard
bun

[Clams047]

That's easy - a grilled pepper. Nothing else is needed (except the bun - hard roll preferred, but standard burger bun works fine) - when grilled properly.

[biondanonima]

The most important thing for me with a burger is that the bun not get in the way. 90% of the time I don't use a bun at all, but when I do I prefer either a Martin's potato bun or buttered and toasted rye bread (like a patty melt). Anything thicker than that and all I can taste is bun, which ruins the whole experience.

Anyway, as for toppings, I like any of the following in various combinations:

Gruyere (or swiss) cheese
Blue cheese
Caramelized or grilled onions
Bacon chipotle jam
Bacon
Green olive mayonnaise
Mustard/mayo (any type - I like dijon as well as French's)
Sriracha or other hot sauce
Roasted tomatoes (never raw ones)
Sauteed mushrooms
Roasted peppers
Avocado/guacamole
Onion straws/rings (if I'm at a restaurant - I wouldn't bother at home)
Pate
Fruit compote/chutney (nothing too sweet, but a fig or mango chutney is nice)

As you can see, I'm pretty openminded about burger variations. However, the one ingredient that will NEVER touch a burger of mine is KETCHUP. FOUL brew, that is.

[helmut fig newton]

biondanonima, where is the bacon chipotle jam from? sounds good!

[biondanonima]

I make it myself, based on a recipe from Homesick Texan (with quite a few changes, including more onion, cocoa instead of chocolate, different spicing and not quite so much chipotle): http://homesicktexan.blogspot.com/200...

I love it for burgers because I find actual bacon kind of unwieldy on a burger - it's hard to get bacon in every bite. With the bacon jam, the bacon flavor is evenly dispersed and it's not hard to bite into!

[helmut fig newton]

ok I'm making:

rye bread
pate
caramelized onions
swiss cheese
meat
sriracha
rye bread

[biondanonima]

Sounds good! I also really like a little fruit compote with pate - cuts the richness. A drizzle of balsamic or reduced port would also be nice.

[Antilope]

I came up with this recipe when I wanted dark rye bread and didn't have rye on hand....

Bread Machine Mock Dark Rye Bread

I wanted some dark rye bread and didin't have any rye flour so I decided to make it using whole wheat flour.

Here is the resulting recipe. It makes a dark loaf that looks like and tastes like dark rye. Most of the flavor comes from the caraway seeds. It is really good for sandwiches and has a crumb like honey wheat bread.

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups water
2 Tablespoons molasses or dark corn syrup
1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 Tablespoons yellow corn meal
3 Tablespoons packed brown sugar
1 Tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1 Tablespoon caraway seed (or to taste)
2 1/4 teaspoons (or 1 packet) bread machine yeast

Directions

Place ingredients in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer.

Select the BASIC or WHITE BREAD cycle, 1 1/2 pounds and press START.

Monitor the first few minutes of kneading. If necessary to form a smooth, non-stick dough ball, add more flour or water a tablespoon at a time, as needed.

Makes one 1 1/2 lb loaf.

[ipsedixit]

Salt.

[Antilope]

Homemade thousand island dressing.

[helmut fig newton]

Hi Antilope, got a recipe for that thousand island??
By the way you're chorizo recipe is now one of my fav recipes!

Chris of Chow

[Antilope]

Thanks. I use to buy the chorizo from the store and knew it wasn't healthy. Now I can have chorizo without guilt.

This is just a basic Thousand Island Dressing (I think it originally came from one of Todd Wilbur's Top Secret recipe books).

Thousand Island Dressing

1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 Tbsp ketchup
1 1/2 tsp distilled white vinegar
2 tsp Confectioners' sugar (for quicker mixing or granulated sugar)
1 tsp Sweet Pickle Relish
1 tsp finely minced white onion
dash of salt and black pepper to taste

Stir all ingrediants together. Mix well.
It's best to store in the fridge for a few hours to
develop flavors before using, but you can use right away.

Makes about 1/3 cup of Thousand Island Dressing.

I just remembered two other burgers I like. The Banzai burger (pineapple slices) and the California burger (guacamole) both from Red Robbin.

Hickory BBQ sauce is another one I like on a burger. I use homemade. Here's that recipe:

Homemade Hickory Barbecue Sauce

1 cup Heinz Ketchup
6 tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce
4 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons Distilled White Vinegar
1 tablespoon French's Yellow Mustard
3 tablespoons finely minced yellow onion
4 teaspoons Wrights or Colgin Hickory Flavor Liquid Smoke
1/4 teaspoon Tabasco or Crystal Red Pepper Hot Sauce
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
1 tablespoon Granulated White Sugar
1 teaspoon table salt

Makes 2 cups of sauce.

Combine all ingredients in a 2-qt sauce pan. Mix well.
Simmer over very low heat for 15-minutes, stirring occasionally until sauce thickens.

[helmut fig newton]

Thank you- it looks delicious -- ohh, I'll have to try that Hickory Barbecue Sauce also! I've had that guac burger from Red Robin many times (nice memories of having lunches there with parents and grandpa!).

[darrentran87]

your thousand island recipe is very similar to mine... i don't put sugar but i think worchershire adds a lot to the spread... have you tried it with worchestshire?

[Antilope]

Haven't tried it with Worcestershire sauce. Next time I make a batch I'll try it. Many traditional thousand island dressing recipes also call for hard boiled eggs. I like hard boiled eggs, but not in thousand island dressing. I don't add them.

[rcallner]

The rest of my family's vegetarian, so I never make burgers at home any more. But when I did - mayonnaise and ketchup, a little thinly sliced sweet onion, and a layer of crisp potato chips was very very pleasing. All the other toppings on this post sound nice, too. Ah, life atop the food chain....

[Bacardi1]

I'm pretty standard, if not really traditional. Ketchup; chunky blue-cheese dressing; thinly-sliced Vidalia, red, or other sweet onion; spicy-hot dill pickle chips; fresh lettuce or baby arugula. Can't remember the last time I variated from that.

[breadwinner]

I love the following, but not all on the same burger: sliced avocado (I'm a California girl), jack cheese, sauteed mushrooms, bacon, grilled onion. I always have tomato, lettuce, dill pickles, mayo, and ketchup.

My favorite type of bun, however, is a soft french roll that's slightly crisp from being on the griddle. Weird, but I love it!

[maabso]

I love cutting up cabbage nice and thin, then adding mayo, ketchup and sriracha. Mix it all up and you have a delicious burger topping :D