Recipe: Bacon Cheddar Bison Burger

[ellyssian]

• 1 lb fresh ground bison
• 2 slices of bacon
• 1/4 cup extra sharp cheddar cheese, grated
• white peppercorns, freshly ground

For all intents and purposes, I could just have written this up as a variation to the parmesan bacon burger in the last post, but I want it to stand out a bit. I also did this at half the scale of the prior recipe. While the parmesan, garlic, and tomato add their own touch, the big feature here is that the cow isn't involved.

A quick word on bison: it's better for you. Simple as that.

This was the first time I cooked bison, but over the last few years I've selected it at restaurants when I noticed it was an option. I like the taste a bit better, but the health impacts are huge. Watching this cook up, far more tender than the beef at the end, yet with no massive oil slick coming off of it, was eye opening. This is good stuff.

Other than the ingredients, the process is the same as involved in the other burger, just sized differently:


Pan-fry the bacon to a crisp and set on paper towels to drain.

In a large metal bowl, mix the ground bison, bacon, and cheddar. Grind some white pepper on to it. Separate out into two big meatballs ~ keeping the round ball shape makes it easier to compare sizes and get roughly equivalent proportions. Once you've got it all divided, and both lumps of mix are the same size, set them, one by one, on pieces of wax paper. Press a bit to flatten, fixing up any fault-lines that may appear. Fold the wax paper over the burger and press down, using a large flat object (a saucepan works good). The burger should be no more than 1 inch thick.

Refrigerate until ready to cook.

While the best method may be to toss them on an open flame grill, it was a bit too cold and windy for that today.

The second-best method is a combination effort:

Set the burgers on a foil lined baking sheet, and broil.

At an internal temperature of around 90 degrees or so, flip them, and at 100 or so take them out of the broiler. To measure the temperature, the probe should be inserted from the side of the burger and extend in to the center, about 2 inches or so.

I used a grill pan to finish them off and put the final sear on them without sending them too far past the medium rare stage.

Ideally, this grill would be superheated, but that gets back to the rant about venting and the lack thereof ~ I had the heat set on medium, and used the thermometer to keep an eye on the temperature.

The grill pan can be skipped ~ just cook them in the broiler until done ~ but I like that little extra bit of sear.

Serve on crustini rolls with some lettuce.