30 Lucys 30 Days

Pairings

2009-08-13T18:56:00.000-07:00

OK, so I didn't ACTUALLY say EVERY DAY for 30 days (even if that's what I meant).

Work and family got in the way of grilling tonight, so let's talk about the best beverages with which to pair your Jucy Lucy.

Obviously, it's going to differ from Lucy to Lucy, but here are five choices that never fail to pair well with any Jucy Lucy:

1. Beer.

2. Beer.

3. Beer.

4. Beer

5. Beer

That's it. Don't hand my your "But a Pinot Noir, would pair so well with the subtle essence of the beef" bullshit. Or, "You can really taste the tannins in this Cabernet" crap.

It's beer or water. Take your pick.

If I had to pick three beers to pair with a Jucy Lucy it would be these:

1. Summit Extra Pale Ale - A legendary Twin Cities beer to pair with a legendary Twin Cities burger. Always perfect.

2. New Glarus Spotted Cow - For no other reason than it's the best beer on the face of the planet. Period. You could pair this with oyster balls and write a tome on it.

3. PBR - Yes. PBR. The burger comes from working class neighborhoods, so why not pair it with the best of working class beers?

So there you have it. You can pick your friends, you can pick your nose, but you can't pick the best beer to have with your Jucy Lucy wisely enough.

Also, Keystone Light.

The Elusive Cheddar Bacon Lucy

2009-08-12T14:34:00.000-07:00

I wasn't sure about tackling this baby on my second post, but I'd like to try to perfect it.

I haven't been very successful with the Cheddar Bacon Lucy this summer, and for one reason:

CHEDDAR CHEESE

American cheese is the perfect cheese for the Lucy because it melts evenly and doesn't try to stray from the confines of the burger.

Cheddar, on the other hand, is a royal pain in the ass. It's melts and acts like rain water, trying to find any way to escape the beef. And it sucks.

Tonight, I'm going to try to cut the cheddar into very, very thin slices. I've tried thicker cut and medium cut cheddar, but I've never cut the cheese ultra thin (insert fart joke here).

Here are the basic pre-cooking steps:

1. Take the burger and some bacon pieces (either in a package or cook your own and crumble it) and mix them together in a bowl.

2. Make your 1/8 pound patties.

3. THINLY sliced up cheddar from a block. As an aside, I've tried it with shredded cheddar and it doesn't work at all.

4. Stack the cheese on one of the burgers. It should look like this:

5. Again, over INDIRECT HEAT, cook about 15 minutes per side.

6. Oh, dammit, here we go again:

This is the problem with cheddar. Where American will just pool up inside the burger, cheddar will try to blow a monster fart out wherever it can.

Disappointing, but not disastrous.

Here's how it looked off the grill and dissected:

Not too bad (also a little pink for my tastes), but the fact that the crimping didn't hold and the cheddar spewed out the side leads me to give this Jucy Lucy a C+.

Tomorrow, the Pizza Jucy Lucy!

The Classic

2009-08-11T15:52:00.000-07:00

Behold the beginning of the classic Jucy Lucy: Burger and American Cheese.

This one is pretty easy to make.

(Note: Moving forward, I will not be posting every. single. step. of. the. process. Unless it's an integral part of the Jucy Lucy standard.)

You make two 1/8 lb (or so) patties and lay them side by side like this:

Next, take one slice of American Cheese and fold it in half, and then fold it in half again to make four quarters. Place the cheese (overlapping it) in the middle of one of the burgers like this:

Season the burger with salt and pepper or Lawry's or whatever you want.

Now, here's the hardest part; and the part that gets screwed up the most in making a Jucy Lucy. Take the other patty, place it on top of the patty with the cheese, and start crimping the edges of the patties together. JUST THE EDGES.

Listen, you have to crimp the living shit out the edges to create a tight seal. If you don't, you'll be seeing an assload of melted cheese at the bottom of your grill in about a half an hour.

Heed my warning.

The finished product should look like this:

Two patties, crimped to all hell, with the cheese sitting comfortably in the middle.

Next step is to put the Lucy over INDIRECT heat like this (sorry, I don't use a gas grill, make your best estimation):

Cover this badboy up and let it cook for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, flip it and take a toothpick and poke a SMALL hole in the middle of the burger. SMALL HOLE. Just to let the air out.

Let it cook for 15 more minutes and then pull it off the grill. It should look like this:

See that? No cheese anywhere except the top of the burger where you poked the hole.

Now let's take a look at what happens when you cut it open and look at the guts:

Oh God, I'm so sorry I cut you, honey. I only do it because I love you so much. It'll never happen again. That said, you look so awesome right now I could make sweet, sweet love to you all night.

Take this piece of heaven, slap it on a bun with your favorite topping and make mouth love to it.

Note: Generally, you do NOT cut a Jucy Lucy in 1/2. I've done this for the sake of demonstration. You normally bite into it until your mouth is burning with liquid hot magma and loving every bit of it.

OK, Day 1 is done. It's The Classic (and yes, it was delicious).

It's going to get weirder and more experimental as time goes on, folks.

Verdict: A

Holla.

An Experiment

2009-08-11T15:19:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my great (and fattening) experiment.

I am going to make and eat a different type of Jucy Lucy burger everyday for 30 days.

Starting today.

What's a Jucy Lucy?

"A Jucy Lucy is a cheeseburger having the cheese inside the meat patty rather than on top. A piece of cheese is surrounded by raw meat and cooked until it melts, resulting in a molten core of cheese within the patty. This scalding hot cheese tends to gush out at the first bite, so servers frequently warn patrons to let the sandwich cool for a few minutes before consumption." --Wikipedia

It's going to be a messed up ride, follow along at your own risk.