Today, I'm gonna show you guys a burger that's got bacon. The burgers themselves are half-pound burgers, but the star of this burger is a fabulous condiment that keeps for weeks in the fridge and tastes great on sandwiches, too. It's a drunken red onion jam. If you grow up working in restaurants, the only place you make bacon is the oven. It doesn't spatter. The the fat drips away. See the bacon is sitting up on a rack so all the fat drips below? And it doesn't splatter, and you don't have to flip it. 375, about 18 minutes. Alright, so for the onion jam, again, might want to make a double batch of this. It's delicious on everything, including just a cheese platter, nice cheese board. Lovely with that. So you start with a little bit of olive oil. You dump everything in the pot, and this cooks itself in about one hour. Couple of large red onions, or three medium. To that, I called it drunken jam, right? We're gonna add half a bottle of red wine. To that we're gonna add rosemary and thyme, couple fat tablespoons of each. Salt and pepper. Now this is an optional ingredient, but I always have it, and I use it a ton in the winter for soups and stews and braised beets. A couple of juniper berries. Then we're gonna add about a quarter cup of apple cider or apple juice. Just eyeball it. And about a quarter cup of balsamic vinegar. One. Two. Three. Four. Then we're gonna add a couple of bay leaves, and to sweeten our jam, light brown sugar. If you like it less sweet, about a half a cup. If you like it nice and sweet to balance the savory, about three-quarters of a cup. I just kinda shove in three big ol' spoonfuls from the box, and that's good to go. And two fat cloves of garlic, 'cause I put garlic in everything except ice cream. Although, I bet I'd eat it, if somebody gave me garlic ice-cream. I'd probably give it a try. (thumps) There. Cast iron skillet should be pre-heated to medium-high. You should bring your meat or your protein that you're cooking to room temperature. My mom always put a little Worcestershire sauce in our burgers, so I'm gonna put in two fat splashes or about two tablespoons. So four burgers, thinner at the center, cast iron skillet. When we come back, I'll talk toppings with you right after this.
(audience clapping) (audience clapping) They're running me out a little back-up bacon 'cause I have a little nasty habit, and when we go to commercial break, I eat bacon. So (laughs), we'll talk about the bacon again in a second. These burgers are ready to flip. The reason I love cast iron skillets is because this is what you get. This great crust. This beautiful reddish-brown, even development of the sugars in the burger or the steak or any protein you put into the cast iron skillet. So this is our onion jam when it first comes up to a boil, and you reduce the heat down so it keeps bubbling away. This is what it looks like an hour later. See how think and beautiful that is? And if you put that in a little mason jar, or even in Tupperware, it'll keep in the fridge for a couple of weeks. When you flip your patties, and the burgers are delicious on their own with the onion jam, if you want cheese, my husband likes provolone, so I'm gonna put provolone on a couple of them, and I like Fontina, which is similar to Swiss. Nice Italian Fontina. Or you can go completely nuts, and use provolone and Fontina! (audience cheers) Oh, my God! I also put these on nice, buttery brioche rolls. This is a really lux burger. The other toppings for this are the bacon, which I have to chop up and replenish. You could do sweet pepperdoos or chopped up jat and yetta, our jam. Mustard is delicious with this to balance the sweetness and the tang of your onion jam. And some beautiful leaf lettuce. I'mma take a quick break. When we come back, we will stack our patties. Right after this.
(audience cheering) Alrighty. I am going to put a little lettuce down. Put our patty with Fontina and provolone right on top. (audience member laughs)
I know! And then, lots of bacon. Bacon in every bite, all across. So you got the bacon in the cheese. Ahuh-huh. (audience laughs) And then, I like a little mustard on mine to go with the sweet drunken onion jam, so I'mma put a little layer of Dijon up there up top, and then I'mma take that beautiful thick, oh, onion jam with all of the wine and the herbs. Look at that delicious, sexy beast. Ooh, ho, ho, ho. (audience applause) (gentle twinkles) (gentle twinkles)