60% grass fed beef, 40% apple wood smoked bacon, roughly 33% fat and 100% genius, Heywood Provision's Bac-O-Burger is one of the tastiest things I have eaten in quite a long time. I've always been a sucker for a good bacon cheeseburger. But in all my years, it never really crossed my mind to investigate grinding the bacon INTO the burger. At first glance, the Bac-O-burger seems a little gimmicky. But after cooking and eating a couple sliders, I'm convinced this is a superior way of approaching the the bacon cheeseburger. The Bac-O-Burger changes the equation from the moment you open the vacuum sealed bag. The first thing I noticed is that this concoction smells different. Instead of a beefy, iron-ish aroma, I was almost overwhelmed by an assertive apple wood smoke scent. It was all I could do to to restrain myself from grabbing a pinchful of the raw meat to take a taste (and I'm pretty sure I will next time).
I decided to forego the grill for this experiment and go with my cast iron griddle to take advantage of enhanced fat content. After getting the griddle hot and greasing it up with a little locally sourced lard, I threw down golf ball sized patties and smashed them with my spatula. Within just a few seconds, I was hit with a smokey aroma that I'm typically used to smelling when I cook up breakfast. Very shortly afterwards, I noticed a good bit more fat surrounding the patties than I am used to seeing with my standard big box grocery supplier beef.
The amount of fat that rendered out of the sliders was a little surprising, but it did a great job of helping build up a nice crust on the patties as I flipped them. After laying down a layer of cheese, setting the sliders to rest and toasting the buns, it was time for the taste test. The Bac-O-Burger tasted just like it smelled. Smoke. Fat. Beef. Pork. It was a bacon cheeseburger on steroids. I missed the sensation of biting through the bun and hitting the the crunch and salt of rendered bacon before consuming a hearty bite of beef. But the smoky pork flavor inside the patty was an entirely new sensation. After a few bites, I didn't really miss the bacon as much as I began to consider what could happen if I layered rendered bacon on top of the Bac-O-Burger patty. Beyond my simple slider experiment laid untold options. What would a Bac-O-Burger meatball taste like? Or Bac-O-Burger meatloaf? So many choices.... Do yourself a favor and stop by Heywood's to pick up a little bacon infused ground beef and then get creative. And by all means, let us know if you stumble across a little slice of genius.
Good stuff. Need to pick some up. Glad to see more content over here.
Posted by: twitter.com/EatItAtlanta | September 01, 2012 at 01:06 PM