There are burgers and then there are burgers, my friends.
And while the burger competition is hella high – from GBK and Haché to fast food faves Five Guys and the humble Big Mac, there’s a particular brand of burger that’s slowly but surely making its mark on devout beef-in-bun fans in the UK.
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If you don’t know you better get to know because Shake Shack burgers are great. So great that they’ve released a cookbook, Shake Shack: Recipes & Stories, so that we humble hungry people can make satisfy our Shake Shack cravings from the comfort of our own homes. So obviously we gave it a go to see if it was as good as the real deal…
The Shake Shack Burger recipe
This is where we were most surprised, guys. We were half expecting to open up the book and find a list of rogue and unfindable ingredients, but you’ll be glad to know that beyond converting the measurements from American cups and pounds to the good old metric system, it was all pretty plain sailing.
**To make four burgers you need: **
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4 hamburger potato buns (no, I don’t get the potato bit either but we went for some trusty Tesco brioche buns)
4 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
4 tablespoons Not Quite Our Shack-Sauce (we’ll get to that in a minute)
4 pieces green leaf lettuce (definitely don’t need a whole one)
8 slices (each 1/4 –inch thick) ripe plum tomato
1 pound very cold ground beef, divided into 4 pucks (works out as roughly one of those 500g packs of mince)
½ teaspoon Shake Shack Salt & Pepper Mix (it’s not that deep, it’s just 64g of kosher salt and half a teaspoon of pepper)
4 slices American cheese (you know, burger cheese)
**To make the Shake Shack sauce you need to: **
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First, accept that your Shake Shack sauce will not taste like the Shake Shack sauce. While they’ve been generous enough to give us the burger recipe, the sauce is still as top secret as the KFC Colonel’s original blend of 11 herbs and spices. This is as close as we can get. It is pretty close, though. Kind of. Just mix together:
½ cup Hellman’s mayonnaise (8 tablespoons)
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
3/4 teaspoon Heinz ketchup
¼ teaspoon kosher dill pickling brine (I didn’t really know what this was either so I bought a jar of pickles and poured out some of the brine. Lol.)
Pinch of cayenne pepper
To make the burger you need to:
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Heat a cast-iron griddle over medium-low heat until warm. Meanwhile, open the hamburger buns and brush the insides with the melted butter. A soft brush is helpful here. Place the buns buttered side down on the griddle and toast until golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer buns to a plate. Spoon the sauce onto the top bun. Add a piece of the lettuce and two slices of tomato.
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Increase the heat to medium and heat the griddle until hot, 2 to 3 minutes.
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Evenly sprinkle a pinch of Our Salt & Pepper Mix on top of each puck of meat.
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Place the pucks on the griddle, seasoned side down. Using a large, sturdy metal spatula, firmly smash each puck into a 1/3-inch-thick round patty. Pressing down on the spatula with another stiff spatula helps flatten the burger quickly. Evenly sprinkle another big pinch of Our Salt & Pepper Mix.
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Cook the burgers, resisting the urge to move them, until the edges beneath are brown and crisp, and juices on the surface are bubbling hot, about 2½ minutes. Slide one of the spatulas beneath the burger to release it from the griddle and scrape up the caramelized browned crust. Use the other spatula to steady the burger and keep it from sliding. Flip the burgers. Put the cheese on top and cook the burgers 1 minute longer for medium. Cook more or less depending on your preference.
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Transfer the cheeseburgers to the prepared buns and enjoy.
How does the homemade Shake Shack burger compare to the real deal?
Excuse me while I brag for a while but I made a fucking good burger. Okay, it didn’t come as neatly presented as the ones in the restaurant, and my side of own brand oven chips don’t have a patch on the cheesy ones you’d normally order at the Shack of Shake. So, ultimately the overall dining experience was a little different.
I was aware that my version of the Shake Shack sauce was definitely not the actual Shake Shack sauce but, all things considered, it beat my usual attempt of combining ketchup and mayonnaise and hoping for the best.
In my opinion, the buttery buns maketh the meal. And despite my initial reluctance to get up and cook an entire burger from scratch, it was actually totally worth it. See my Instagram for evidence of how smug I felt…
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Follow Jazmin on Instagram @JazKopotsha
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.