Eyre Hotel: Winner of the Best Burger Challenge

FROM THE HEAD CHEF, PATRICK SPRIGGS

Winning AHA|SA best pub burger 2021 has been massive for not only the hotel, but the whole community has got behind us and supported us too! We averaged around 140 burgers per week - that has now risen to 300 burgers per week which is massive for a small country town. The kitchen team is super happy to be cooking the best burger in the state and it’s been a launchpad for all the changes we are introducing to the hotel, including a shift toward using local Eyre Peninsula suppliers and produce. We currently have local Spencer Gulf prawns from “The Prawn Store”, artisan rubs from “The Rub Whisperer”, locally baked brioche burger buns from “Casa De Pan”, EP honey from “Eyre Honey” bush teas from “Marcia’s Bushflower Teas” all our pork smallgoods come from “Boston Bay Smallgoods” and all of our flour currently used at the Eyre Hotel is now from “Cummins Milling”. The end goal is to truly use as many local suppliers and producers as possible and showcase the Eyre Peninsula for the great food producing region it is.

Eyre Hotel Head Chef, Patrick Spriggs.

EYRE SMASHED BURGER

The beauty of a simple burger to me is that you can make it to your own taste. If you like onion, add it, if you like grilled pineapple, add it also! We try to keep things simple with our burger line-up here at the Eyre Hotel, and let the quality of the local ingredients shine. The thing I like most about doing a smash burger, compared to a classic burger, is you are able to cook a smash burger to well done, and it’s still incredibly juicy. This is due to the burger relying on rendered fat rather than a medium or medium-rare doneness to achieve the same level of juiciness.

Eyre Smashed Burger Recipe:

Keys to perfection

1. Fresh mince. If you have a mincer at home, don’t be scared to use whatever meat you have to make burgers. We use a combination of tough cuts 60% and quality cuts 40%. 60% brisket and 40% trim of wagyu rump and sirloin steak. If you do not have a mincer available get your butcher to make some burger mince for you and tell them to keep it loosely packed. VERY IMPORTANT!

2. Buy a burger “smasher”. These things are great because it’s just so easy to do. Easily found online. If you don’t have a burger smasher you can use tongs and something to press the patty down like a flat spatula or bottom of a pan. However for $30 online a burger smasher makes your life so much easier, and makes you feel like a pro! Each burger press will differ in size, so you will have to give some trial and error to get the patty to the correct size of the bun you use. You want the meat to be the exact shape as your bun, so every bite of the burger is the same.

3. When rolling the burger balls ready for smashing, keep them as loose as possible. What you are looking for when you smash the burger on a searing hot grill is for there to be little gaps in the patty, this allows the steam to escape and you will get a really nice char on one side, the patty will cook very quickly leading to a really juicy burger.

I’ve left this recipe open to interpretation. I believe burgers should be made how YOU like them, there’s no right or wrong ingredient to put on a burger. Embrace it. Go your own way! Be your own burger master. The amounts and quantities are completely up to you!

The expert judging panel included Chris Stephan – Pen & Palate, Tim Ginever – FIVEaa and Shane Wood – Thomas Foods Australia.

Ingredients:

• 180g beef mince - bought or homemade

• 1 ripe tomato, sliced - these are hard to come by at the moment, but look for oxheart tomatoes or Coles generally has a decent range of tomatoes year round thanks to Sundrop Farms at Port Augusta

• 1 slice smokey bacon

• 1 brioche burger bun - we have our baker at Casa De Pane in Whyalla bake a brioche bun for us. ‘Dickbuns’ are also great quality.

• Pinch of salt and pepper and spice rub - we use the “down under” rub from The Rub Whisperer, a local Whyalla couple who make artisan spice rubs locally.

• A few leaves of cos lettuce or iceberg lettuce is best as it has a great refreshing crunch.

• Good quality BBQ sauce - recipe below.

• American cheese - a good quality American cheese is best for smash burgers; however good quality provolone also works well.

MC of the event

Method:

Cooking and assembling the burger at home:

The BBQ is the place to do this. Apron. Beer. Family. Dog. Toast your buns and arrange all ingredients around your BBQ. Once buns and ingredients are assembled start by adding bacon onto your grill, once bacon is cooked off, take to the side and smash burgers in the bacon fat, do small batches to ensure your grill stays as hot as possible. Let your friends and family come up while you are cooking burgers to assemble theirs as you are finished cooking them. A little trick is to put your cheese off centre to one side, this will allow the cheese to crisp up on the grill, adding an extra element to your burgers.

Add anything else you like to your spread of burgers, pineapple, eggs, haloumi, jalapenos, mushroom, beetroot, anything goes and people can just come up, assemble their perfect burger and go from there. I won’t judge!

BBQ Chipotle Sauce:

• 1 large brown onion, diced into large 5cm pieces. Cook these onions in a little vegetable stock or ideally smoked tallow or rendered beef tallow. You want to leave them on one side until they almost burn, then stir until caramelised. Charring the onions gives the sauce a wonderful BBQ taste, cooking the onions out slowly after charring releases their natural sugars.

• 15g smoked paprika

• 10g crushed garlic

• 5g garlic powder

• 1 large tomato, chopped roughly

• 300g tomato paste. Once the above onions are completely cooked, add the remaining and cook gently to release the tomato juices and also cook out the spices/garlic.

• 1/2 chipotle chilli & 1 spoon chipotle adobo. You can buy this in cans as “chipotle chili in adobo”.

• 25g fresh lemon juice

• 20g liquid smoke

• 500g worcestershire sauce

• 400g brown sugar

• 1 ltr tomato juice

• 100g refinery molasses

• big pinch of salt + pepper

Add all of the remaining ingredients and cook on a low simmer for at least 20 minutes. This makes quite a large batch, but it will last for a month in your fridge easily, or just reduce the quantities of everything to make smaller batches.

Eyre Hotel General Manager Hospitality, Lee Cook (right).

We are thrilled for Patrick and the Eyre Hotel in being crowned the Best Pub Burger. Our focus within the group has been to showcase the Homegrown Heroes of the regions we operate and Patrick and his kitchen team at the Eyre have embraced that whole-heartedly. We’ve worked really hard over the past year in particular to bring our chefs together, inspire each other and push forward to excite our customers and communities about what we can deliver. To incorporate interesting produce from our regions has only added to the result and this burger is a great example of taking something simple and making it amazing.

- Lee Cook, General Manager Hospitality