burger motherload

Serious Eats is blogging a series of posts featuring the recipes on full deliciously glorious display in Modernist Cuisine - a sumptuous feast-for-the-eyes 5-volume cookbook that will set you back nearly $700. I would so totally buy this book if I had a proportionately expensive coffee table to set it on. The food photography alone is mind-boggling, I mean the word 'exquisite' doesn't even seem adequate.

Serious Eats' first look is a burger that blows the top off term 'creative juices' - my tongue got hit with a salivation tsunami when I saw it and I can't even smell the damn thing.

From the blog post - top to bottom, here's what's on it:

A top bun, made from scratch, toasted in rendered beef suet.

Burger glaze made from an emulsified mix of suet, stock, tomato, and smoked salt. Something like meatonnaise.

Maitake mushroom, sliced into a burger-sized round, sauteed in beef suet.

Romaine lettuce, sliced into a medallion and infused under pressure with condensed hickory smoke.

Heirloom tomato, compressed in a vacuum bag to concentrate its flavor and texture.

Cheese slice made by emulsifying Emmental and Comté cheese into a base of wheat ale, then pouring onto silicone, and slicing. This is an idea cribbed from Heston Blumenthal's playbook.

The burger, made from short rib ground and formed into a log so that the grain aligns vertically (another Blumenburger technique). The patty gets cooked sous-vide in suet, dropped in a liquid nitrogen bath, then immediately deep fried to crisp the exterior without overcooking the center.

Crimini mushroom ketchup flavored with honey, horseradish, fish sauce, ginger, and allspice.
The bottom bun.

Ho Lee faking burger HEAVEN!

Can't wait to see the next post.

Click to see it up close on Serious Eats' site.