Duck Eggs vs. Chicken Eggs...

found this posting from Saveur.com interesting.... i have been a huge fan of the filipino delicacy, itlog na maalat "salted duck eggs" or "red eggs" for some time, but never thought about using them as regular substitutes for chicken eggs. interesting.

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Ingredient: The Battle of the Eggs

Photo: The Kitchn

Is there a discernable flavor difference between duck and chicken eggs? Harry Ludlow, the owner of Fairview Farm at Mecox in Long Island, raises both, and says no. According to Nutritiondata.com, duck eggs are generally larger and fattier than chicken eggs, which is why bakers favor them for brownies and custards. Yolks aside, when raised on the same farm, pecking at the same grubs, duck and chicken eggs taste the same. But don't take Harry's word for it; visit DuckEggs.com for a package of your own, and here are some tips on how to prepare them. —By Allison Fishman, the owner of the Wooden Spoon Cooking School and host of Cook Yourself Thin

http://www.saveur.com/article/kitchen/Ingredient-The-Battle-of-the-Eggs

Homemade Hamburger Buns

from The Martha Stewart Living Cookbook: The Original Classics.

maybe worth a shot one day. can't be harder than olive bread, right?

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Homemade Hamburger Buns

- makes 12 -

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups warm water (110°F)
2/3 cup instant nonfat dry milk
1/3 cup unsalted melted butter, cooled
3 tablespoons sugar
2 1/4-ounce packages active dry yeast (1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon)
1 large egg
2 large egg yolks
5 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
Canola oil, for bowl
2 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon seeds, such as sesame, poppy, fennel, or cumin, optional

Procedure

1. Place the warm water, dry milk, butter, and sugar in a large mixing bowl, and stir to combine. Sprinkle the yeast over the mixture, whisk, and let stand until yeast is foamy, about 10 minutes.

2. Add egg, 1 egg yolk, 2 cups flour, and salt; whisk until smooth. Add 2 1/2 cups flour; stir with a wooden. spoon. When mixture becomes too thick to stir, use your hands. Add up to another 1/2 cup flour until dough is tacky when pinched but not sticky. Turn out onto a lightly floured work surface; knead for 1 minute. Let stand 10 minutes.

3. Knead dough again until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Place in a lightly oiled bowl; cover with plastic wrap. Leave in a warm place until doubled in size, about 45 minutes. Punch down dough and divide in half. Cut each half into sixths; form flattened balls. Arrange buns 3 inches apart on parchment-lined baking sheets. Cover; let stand until doubled in size, 45 minutes.

4. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Whisk remaining egg yolk and milk; brush egg wash lightly over buns. Top buns with the seeds, if using. Bake until golden and hollow sounding when tapped, 13 to 15 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. Buns can be frozen in resealable plastic bags up to 2 months.

Stuffed Gyro Burger

sorry folks, but i'm on a cheese-stuffed burger roll... haven't tried this one yet but plan to... i might cheat a little and go to my friendly armenian butcher (i live near Glendale, CA that has one of the largest ex-pat Armenian and Greek populations in the USA), and get some already seasoned and prepped ground "luleh" (seasoned ground beef). I also might experiment with different cheese combinations (feta maybe instead of goat cheese?). i would also likely try this with ground lamb rather than ground beef if i were to season the meat patties from scratch. I also might adjust the "surface area" on my version as i'm not a huge fan of burters that stand too tall for you to be able to get a good bite out of it (can an average mouth really open that wide?).

Find this blog entry at the "I Ate That!" site, here.

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A Twist on the Classic American Cheese Burger & Fries

By BEN FRANK | Published: AUGUST 29, 2009

I’ve heard many peo ple say pizza is like sex — even when its bad, you’re still hav­ing pizza. That’s how I feel about burg ers. And a good burger instantly sends me into culi nary eupho ria. One of my favorite burger recipes I’ve devel oped over the years is a twist on gyros, the slow-cooked spiced Greek meat typ i cally served withtzatziki sauce. This burger has been lauded by many friends, includ ing one who swears it caused her to go into labor (on Labor day of all days!). But tonight I decided to take this burger to the next level, and what bet ter way than to stuff it with cheese? In addi tion to twist ing the clas sic burger, tonight we also made french fries out of but ter nut squash. They were crispy and dusted with Parmesan cheese and totally tasty! Keep read ing for more pic tures and the full recipe.

Minted Chèvre Stuffed Gyro Burger

Burger:
1lb ground beef
1 tsp. onion pow der
1 tsp. gar lic pow der
1 tsp. dried mar jo ram
1 tsp. ground rose mary
1 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

Stuffing:
1/4 tsp. fresh mint, finely chopped
3oz. chèvre (goat cheese)

Mix all burger ingre di ents in a small bowl until herbs and spices are well dis trib­uted through out the beef. Divide into six equal por tions, and form into pat ties roughly 4″ in diameter.

With a fork, mash the mint into the cheese until it is well dis trib uted. Divide into three equal por tions and form into balls.

Flatten one ball of cheese mix ture onto a beef patty until flat.

Top with another patty and make sure the edges are sealed. Make a small inden­tion in the cen ter of the burger with your thumb (this will keep the burger from puff ing up and form ing a giant grilled meat ball). Repeat with remain ing beef and cheese. Allow burg ers to rest at room tem per a ture for 10 minutes.

Grill burg ers over medium-high heat for 6 – 8 min utes flip ping once.

Serve on grilled bun with spinach, tomato, sprouts and tzatziki sauce (recipe).

The fries were really easy. Peel and seed a but ter nut squash and cut into french fry shapes. Toss in olive oil, salt, pep per and Parmesan cheese and cook in a 425º F oven for 40 min utes (or until they brown), flip ping once. We also had some grilled corn on the cob which was fantastic.

Warning, this next photo is not for the faint of heart and really can be con sid ered food porn.

Just look at that melted cheesy good ness ooz ing out of that burger! Delicious!

The "Jucy Lucy" at home

i have tried this at home but i like to choose a mixt of mild cheddar and american inside and a slice of american on top. for me they have turned out well (this blogger seems a little disapointed in the results). Find this blog entry here.

i have also "steamed" my burger as a variation sometimes instead of grilling. when i steam i use a total of between 6 and 8oz of ground beef (seasoned to taste). make 2 patties, put the cheese in the middle, form a single cheese-filled patty from that, and steam in a stovetop steamer for about 6 minutes, then i add the cheese on top and steam for an additional minute. works out pretty good for me...

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Cooked: The Juicy Loosey

Posted by Adam Kuban, May 2, 2007 at 12:41 PM

Follow along, step-by-step, in mind-numbing detail. If that's your bag. After the jump.

The takeaway: Since I've not had a true Jucy Lucy from Matt's Bar, I can't say for sure, but making this burger at home is almost more trouble than it's worth. I mean, does it matter if the cheese is on the inside as opposed to above and below the patty? (I think a slice on the top and bottom is awesome.) Furthermore, I always end up overcooking this thing in the interest of getting a good molten core. This is the second time I've made a round of Juicy Looseys, and I always end up cooking them beyond medium-rare. The Flickr pix of the Matt's Bar Jucy Lucys look much better than mine, so perhaps this is a burger best left to the pros.

Also: I've found that my initial adaptation of John T. Edge's recipe worked better for me. In his book, the recipe uses an intact slice of American cheese. In my version, which is based on George "Hamburger America" Motz's observations during a visit to Matt's Bar, I fold the cheese in half twice to make a compact little stack that's easier to sandwich between the dual patties.

OK. As promised, the results.

For last night's experiment, I tried two methods of cooking the Juicy Loosey. Here, I left the cheese whole and made the patties larger to accommodate it, as per John T. Edge's recipe in his book Hamburgers & Fries.

Cover that patty and cheese with a second thin patty, and crimp tightly. This makes a very thin and wide burger. You'd never guess there was a slice of cheese hiding inside.

Burger maven George Motz has visited Matt's Bar (home of the original Jucy Lucy) and, contrary to John T. Edge's recipe, said that Matt's folds its cheese as above. I made this one so I could test out both methods.

Because the quartered cheese stack has a smaller surface area, I was able to make the patties here smaller and thinner than the intact-cheese version. I thought this might help avoid the dreaded "blowout," as there'd be a thicker layer of meat to keep the gooiness in.

Mise en place: I had my diced onion and pickles ready. (The buns, open face, are out of the frame.) I didn't use condiments for this experiment.

Here, I throw the the first (intact-cheese) burger into the preheated (medium heat) cast-iron skillet and cross my fingers: "No blowouts, no blowouts!"

After about 3 minutes on the first side, the patty begins to plump up a little.

Flipped after about 3.5 minutes. Looks a little overdone, but "3 to 4 minutes for medium" was what Mr. Edge's recipe called for. Next time I'll go more like 2.5 minutes per side.

Uh oh. After about a minute on the second side, I think I'm starting to see the signs of a blowout. Is that cheese starting to leak out or just rendered fat?

Dammit! It IS a blowout. Lucky for me, it didn't progress much beyond this. Burger maven George Motz had told me that at Matt's Bar, a blowout is a big deal, and they rush to remove such a burger from the grill ASAP -- they don't want the cheese to burn and muck up the griddle.

Here's the second patty (quartered, stacked cheese slice), fresh into the skillet. You can see how the taller stack of cheese makes this look like a UFO made of meat.

Time lapsed: about 2 minutes. The stacked-cheese patty puffed up a bit more than the flat-cheese patty. The UFO has kinda morphed into Ayers Rock.

I flipped the stacked-cheese patty, toothpick ready to go in my non-spatula hand. Motz had told me that Matt's pricks its patties immediately after flipping to allow built-up steam to escape. Mine didn't seem to need the poke, so I left it alone.

Here's the results of the two methods side by side. Can you guess which is which? Should be pretty obvs. The one on the left is stacked-cheese patty. The one on the right, which is thinner and has more surface area, is the flat-cheese specimen, complete with telltale blowout.

Flat-cheese burger, cross-sectioned.

Flat-cheese burger, cross-sectioned and on closer inspection. Cooked to about medium-well, unfortunately.

The stacked-cheese burger, cross-sectioned. I think the stacked-cheese one was more successful than the flat-cheese burger.

Still, it's pretty much six of one, half dozen the other. I think this style of burger is better left to the pros. Doesn't seem to matter too much if the cheese is inside or outside the meat, and you end up overcooking this style of burger in the interest of making sure the cheese melts.

Cross-sectioned stacked-cheese burger.