Burgers with Pub Sauce

What is the antidote to a week of eating nothing but food from the sea (not that I was complaining)?  A burger with the most amazing pub sauce ever!!

I just returned from a week with the family down in gorgeous Cornwall.  The scenery is stunning – cliffs, beaches, crashing waves, ancient castles.  The food is pretty spectacular too, particularly the super-fresh seafood.  Had off-the-boat lobsters delivered to our rental house one night, then all sorts of other seafood the other nights – whole-roasted plaice (so good I had it twice), chili crab, fish cakes, fish ‘n chips, oysters, mussels, smoked mackerel…..

After all that amazing seafood, I returned home seriously craving red meat.  And a proper burger fit the bill.  My absolute favorite burger recipe is from Cooks Illustrated and involves chilling beef tips or short ribs, grinding chilled meat in a food processor and finally adding melted butter.  It is the best at-home burger I’ve ever had, hands-down.  Just takes a bit more work than I was ready to handle just coming off of vacation.

So instead I opted for store-ground meat and dressed it up with this burger-transforming “pub sauce”.  It’s also from Cooks Illustrated – it accompanies the aforementioned home-ground burger.  The sauce is not particularly pretty to look at, but will transform your garden variety beef burger into something pub-worthy.   It’ll be a double-napkiner.

And don’t just limit it to the burgers…dip your fries, vegetables, anything, in it as well.

Burgers with Pub Sauce (makes 4 servings)

Note:  Use any remaining pub sauce as a dip for fries or potato wedges.

Pub sauce:

1/3 cup (75 grams) mayonnaise

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1/2 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1/2 tablespoon dark brown sugar

1/2 tablespoon minced chives

1/2 teaspoon minced garlic

1/4 teaspoon pepper

Burgers:

4 hamburger patties

4 slices cheese (optional)

4 buns

Other toppings: lettuce, tomato, sautéed onion

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To make the pub sauce:  Combine all of the ingredients in a medium bowl and whisk together until combined.

To make the burgers:  Season hamburger patties with salt and pepper.  Cook hamburger patties on a hot grill or in a large saute pan on the stove over medium-high heat, to desired doneness (about 4 minutes per side for medium-rare, 5 minutes per side for medium).  If making cheeseburgers, place cheese atop the burgers for the last 2 minutes of cooking.  After burgers are cooked, toast buns on the grill or in the saute pan (if using saute pan, wipe away hamburger grease with paper towel / kitchen roll before placing buns in the pan).  Place burgers in the toasted buns, add desired toppings and a dollop or two of pub sauce.

Adapted from Cooks Illustrated