Amburgers and WootBeer!

Well Root beer for my wife. I drank plenty of plain ol' beer, Miller Highlife, the champagne of beers! After yesterday's success with the chickens, Sarah and I decided we would try something else that wasn't as time intensive. We had some awesome smoked hamburgers at Jason's house last weekend and it didn't take nearly as much time so we settled on that. I requested Sarah's beer battered fries to go along with them since they are so darn good; the kids stand in line for them. Since corn is in season we decided to take advantage of the sales and added a couple of ears of white corn as well.

I started by mixing up the hamburger patties the way my Dad taught me:

• 1 lb. of ground hamburger (we used 90/10)
• ¼ cup Jack Daniels Spicy Original BBQ Sauce (your favorite sauce will do)
• 1 large egg
• ½ cup rolled oats (roughly, I didn’t really measure it just added them in until the hamburger was the right consistency)

Put the hamburger in a large bowl, add the egg, BBQ sauce (or ketchup), rolled oats and dig your hands in and mix it up. Break the hamburger up into the desired quantity (no more than 4 per pound or you'll end up with some tiny burgers). Shape each segment into a well-formed hamburger patty.




Next I addressed the corn on the cob:

• The desired number of ears
• The same number sheets of aluminum foil
For each ear:
• 1 tsp. butter
• Dash of freshly ground black pepper
• Dash of coarse salt
• A couple of ice cubes

Lie out a sheet of aluminum foil and place a freshly washed ear of corn onto it diagonally. Using a spoon smother it in the butter. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and place the ice cubes right up next to it. Roll up the aluminum foil wrapping the ear of corn nice and snug.



Getting the smoker going:

I went out and using the charcoal chimney, started my charcoal. This handy device is really easy to use and eliminates the need for lighter fluids. Crinkle up some newspaper; shove it in the bottom under the wires. Set it down on the ground and fill the top about halfway with charcoal. Light it with a long match or one of those handy candle lighters and your off and running. It should only be about 15 minutes and your coals will be ready for transfer to the firebox. Here's a link to the charcoal chimney I purchased (it's cheaper at Home Depot) Weber® Rapidfire® Chimney Starter Once the coals on top are showing gray transfer (use some gloves when picking it up, it's hot!) the charcoal to your firebox and put on a piece of whatever wood you are going to smoke with. I used oak for the burgers.



Once the smoker was up to temperature, I've found that 225 degrees Fahrenheit is just about perfect; I put the hamburgers and the ears of corn on and set a timer for 1 hour. In the meantime Sarah whipped up the fries, some crispy onion strings and black pepper bbq mayo.

Black Pepper BBQ Mayo:

3 tbsp. of mayonnaise (we used light)
1 tbsp. of your favorite BBQ sauce
Coarsely ground fresh black pepper to taste

Mix well and refrigerate until ready to use.

With 5 minutes left of cooking we put some thick sliced medium cheddar cheese slices onto the burgers and I added a small chunk of mesquite and closed up all my dampers so it would smoke heavily.

These burgers were fantastic, the best I've ever made. If you have the opportunity to do something creative with smoked hamburgers like this I would recommend it highly. I know we'll probably never eat a plain old grilled burger again!



Oh and in reference to the title of this post see the following link for some mindless idiotic humor: A&W Amburgers and Wootbeer!

And That's About It!!!!