Professional chef Eric Huang and home cook Gina are swapping ingredients and hitting the kitchen to make hamburgers. We set Gina up with a whopping $304 worth of ingredients for her attempt at Eric's luxury recipe. Meanwhile, a modest $21 worth of ingredients was sent back the other way to be elevated into something gourmet by our esteemed pro. Will Gina be able to execute the restaurant-quality burger Eric intended to make? Can Eric transform Gina's simple ingredients into something spectacular?
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hi, Chuck.
00:01Is Chuck okay?
00:02Are you okay, Chuck?
00:03You are just full of surprises, Chuck.
00:07Hi, I'm Eric.
00:08I'm a professional chef,
00:09and these are my $304 burger ingredients.
00:14Hi, my name is Gina.
00:15I'm a home cook, and these are my $21 burger ingredients.
00:20Ugh, it's hurting my feelings.
00:23Oh, no, no.
00:25Why?
00:27Okay, classic cheeseburger situation.
00:30Definitely can do something with this.
00:32Whoa, this is a lot.
00:40So, I was planning on making a Stilton Steakhouse Burger
00:43with a bacon marmalade and a rich demi-glace.
00:46There's a giant pile of meat in front of me,
00:48and it's not ground, so.
00:50I was going to do a burger blend
00:52of beef chuck, brisket, and boneless short rib.
00:54I have never ground my own meat before.
00:57There was going to be a Stilton cheese sauce
00:59using a beautiful Stilton, creme fraiche,
01:02and a really nice white balsamico.
01:04I didn't know balsamic could come in white.
01:06There was going to be a bacon marmalade
01:08made from slab bacon, shallots, and Tony Port.
01:11Bacon on my hamburger, perfect.
01:13And finally, a rich demi-glace
01:15made from beef stock and Merlot,
01:17all served on a toasted pretzel bun.
01:19It was going to be a burger that may have changed
01:22the course of human civilization.
01:23This is a lot fancier than what I would have done.
01:26With Gina's recipe, we definitely have
01:27some simpler ingredients, stuff you definitely
01:29have in your pantry or find at your local grocery store.
01:32They're very approachable, but with a little technique,
01:34we can, sorry, I don't want to point.
01:36I don't want to do finger guns.
01:37But of course, I am here to over-chef them,
01:40so I am going to do some fancy things to it.
01:42So if I had to guess, I think everything together here, $21?
01:47Oh wow, really, right on the button, huh?
01:49If I had to guess, this would cost $253?
01:55$304.
01:56I'm surprised there's no gold leaf here.
01:59We will turn you into the finest shreddest.
02:01I don't know what we're doing with any of this.
02:05So this is Chef Eric's recipe book,
02:06and it looks like I've got some basic steps here
02:08to get me through.
02:09Boop, boop, boop, boop.
02:11Gina's going to be making a steakhouse burger,
02:13a thick, hefty piece of meat.
02:16Beef first, front and foremost,
02:18and everything else is backup vocals.
02:20There's a whole lot going on here.
02:22It looks like I have to get started
02:24with grinding up this meat.
02:26So Gina, you're going to be working with three cuts of beef.
02:29Short rib, brisket, and chuck.
02:32My friend, Chuck.
02:33Chuck is a really popular cut to use for burgers.
02:35Adding the short rib, adding the brisket
02:37is going to give us an extra boost of fat and flavor.
02:41These are all parts of the cow that do a lot of work,
02:43so they would be kind of tough if you ate it as a steak.
02:45I have some brisket here.
02:47I need to cut off these filmy bits.
02:49It's the chewy part that's hard to, you know, chomp on.
02:52Take the time here to use a really sharp knife,
02:54get under the silver skin,
02:55and clean as much as off as you can.
02:57Where are your secrets, Chuck?
03:00There's like a knobby bit in here,
03:01and I don't want to bite into that.
03:03So we'll chop.
03:05Short rib looks pretty good,
03:06so I'm going to keep it as is.
03:08I've got my meat trimmed and cleaned up.
03:10It's time to dice them up.
03:12I'm going to start with my friend, Chuck.
03:14The chuck, we're going to salt lightly
03:16because the way we form this burger later
03:18is a little bit unusual.
03:19The salt is going to help keep it together.
03:20Otherwise, it's never going to stay together.
03:22So the blend I'd like to use here is 50% chuck,
03:2525% boneless short rib, 25% brisket.
03:29That's six.
03:30I like brisket.
03:31I want to put six in.
03:32Don't tell Chef Eric I put six.
03:35Meat is diced and ready to be chilled in the fridge.
03:39If your meat gets too warm, it's going to smear.
03:43It's going to break the fat and the emulsion that you want.
03:46It's time to grind some meat.
03:48Plan is take the brisket and the short ribs.
03:51This meat is going to land on you.
03:53Run them through the grinder.
03:55Oh, that's really gross.
03:56Oh my God, look at it come out.
03:58Toss them into the chuck
04:00and then run it through the grinder again.
04:02We're going to grind the chuck a little larger
04:04so we have that nice big crumb of a steakhouse burger.
04:07But then the fine grind on the short rib and the brisket
04:09is really going to help tie the room together, if you will.
04:12Look at you.
04:13Um, you're so disgusting.
04:18This is a highly obsessive compulsive way
04:20to make a hamburger.
04:21Typically the conventional idea is that
04:23you make this burger, you mix all the meat together,
04:25but then all the meat strands start to bind to one another.
04:28And sometimes that can lead to a kind of chewy burger.
04:31So what we need to do here is arrange the ground meat
04:34in a very intentional way.
04:36You're going to bring the plastic wrap
04:38over your coils of meat
04:40and you're going to gently tighten it
04:43and roll it into a cylinder.
04:43We almost want to not mix it at all.
04:45I've made my own meatloaf.
04:47Ball, I don't know, it looks like a ball.
04:49This is going to be your burger patties later.
04:51You're going to cut patties out of this.
04:53And that way you have the meat fibers arranged
04:55facing upwards, not all mixed together randomly.
04:57That way when you bite into it,
04:59there's going to be this cross section
05:00that kind of falls apart immediately,
05:02but it's still very flavorful
05:03and has the right content of fat.
05:05So your four to five inch cylinder needs to set
05:08in the refrigerator for about an hour.
05:09And then later on, you're going to cut it
05:11right before you cook it.
05:12I hope I did this right.
05:14It looks okay.
05:15Gina was probably going to make
05:16a pretty classic American cheeseburger.
05:18I think where I'm going to go with this
05:20is I'm going to make some juicy Lucy's
05:22with some slow roasted tomatoes and smoked onion relish.
05:25It's kind of an inverted cheeseburger.
05:27The cheese is inside the patty.
05:29The pride of Minnesota, other than Prince.
05:31So I'm going to start with the patties.
05:33Store-bought ground beef, classic American cheese,
05:35which is going to be perfect because it never breaks.
05:38I'm going to use the all important tortilla press.
05:41This is going to get my patty thin enough.
05:43We're going to do a double juicy Lucy.
05:46It's going to be a substantial thing to eat.
05:47It's going to be pretty messy.
05:49Ground beef you buy from the grocery store
05:51is very finely ground.
05:52The more you handle it,
05:53the tighter the texture is going to be.
05:54Minimally handling it is going to make a difference.
05:57I'm going to press them in the tortilla press
05:59to make them nice and thin.
06:00We're going to put cheese in the middle
06:02and then the other patty.
06:04I've pinched up my edges just to seal it in.
06:07I do have a slight mound here.
06:08This is a good thing.
06:09It's going to mean we have a super oozy, cheesy center.
06:12I'm not going to salt or season it now.
06:15Unlike the burger Gina's making
06:17where we need a little bit of salt,
06:18this one we want to keep as tender as possible.
06:20So no salt until we cook it.
06:22I'm going to make a Stilton cheese sauce.
06:25This is Stilton.
06:27Hello, Stilton.
06:28Stilton smells like a blue cheese.
06:30Stilton might be a blue cheese.
06:32I'm going to cut the rind off of Stilton here.
06:35Crumble him up.
06:36The mayonnaise is the base.
06:38We're going to use the creme fraiche
06:39for a little bit of acidity and body
06:40because it has such a high fat content.
06:42And then we're going to season it with a white balsamico.
06:45Terry Bormanni Al Dente.
06:50I'm guessing this is all Italian.
06:52Bianco, Bianco means white.
06:54Okay.
06:56It does have acidity,
06:57but it also brings most importantly, some sweetness.
06:59Funky blue cheeses can really use a little bit of sugar
07:01to bring out their best qualities.
07:03It's so chunky.
07:04A little bit of pepper.
07:05It tastes a lot better than it looks.
07:08I'm so sorry, Stilton.
07:09You're actually quite yummy.
07:11Gina gave me some plum tomatoes.
07:14I'm going to make slow roasted tomatoes.
07:16But to do that first, we have to do a tomato concasse.
07:19Basically, you're removing the skin and the seeds
07:22and the pulp, leaving just the flesh.
07:24This is day two culinary school.
07:27It is very old school, classic French technique.
07:29I've made a little X in the bottom of each tomato.
07:32We are going to blanch it for exactly 10 seconds.
07:36The skin will separate.
07:38It will make it easier to peel.
07:39Alrighty, into our ice water
07:41to immediately stop the cooking.
07:44I'm going to peel this.
07:46Look at that.
07:47Not overcooked.
07:48Flesh is still nice and firm.
07:49Now we're going to remove the seeds and pulp.
07:53This is called a concasse, concasse.
07:56The tomato pulp and seeds here,
07:58I'm going to add it to a condiment I'm going to make later
08:01to give it a little tangy and savory boost.
08:04So, season this up with a little bit of olive oil,
08:06nice pinch of salt, mix that up,
08:08lay them on this tray, skin side out.
08:12I'm going to put them in a low oven,
08:14225 Fahrenheit on low fan,
08:15and I'm going to cook these for a couple hours.
08:18Their texture has tightened up a little bit.
08:20Flavor should be concentrated a bit more.
08:22My slow roasted tomatoes are just about ready
08:25for my juicy Lucy.
08:26I'm going to be making a bacon marmalade.
08:29Strangely enough, the first step to that
08:30is pickling some mustard seeds.
08:32It adds a really nice pop texturally,
08:35a nice visual look, and adds acidity to the whole thing.
08:38I've heard this process is very time consuming
08:42and repetitive.
08:43So the plan is I'm going to put some water
08:48and a bunch of mustard seeds into the pot.
08:51That's a nice sound, it's like rain.
08:54Let it boil, and then strain it.
08:57And then do that eight times.
09:02In you go.
09:03If you don't do it,
09:04they're going to be very bitter and unpleasant.
09:06Blanching it in fresh water each time
09:08will draw out some of the very bitter tannins
09:10and flavor compounds in the mustard seeds.
09:13There's a lot of them,
09:13so you have to get them out to make them palatable.
09:16But it will be worth it.
09:17Would being in a jacuzzi make me less bitter?
09:19Yes.
09:20Okay.
09:21Oh, you are hot.
09:23Finally, mustard seeds have been blanched.
09:26I'm going to work on the brine.
09:28Sugar and salt into the pot.
09:30I'm going to use the balsamic again.
09:32Glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug.
09:34And some water.
09:35Gonna stir it and heat it up until all of this dissolves.
09:39I mean, I think that looks pretty good.
09:40And then mustard seeds, plop, plop, plop, woo, go inside.
09:45And I'm going to use them for the bacon marmalade.
09:48I think the texture of a slice of bacon
09:51kind of detracts from the hamburger,
09:53so we're going to get around that by making a marmalade.
09:55You get all the salinity and the smoke
09:57and the fat from the bacon,
09:58but it's not competing texturally.
10:01I'm going to remove the skin.
10:04Pop it in the freezer for about 30 minutes.
10:05That'll make it easier to chop up.
10:0830 minutes later, bacon is frozen.
10:12Then you're going to finely dice it.
10:14You're going to render it in a pan.
10:16You're going to cook it down with shallots,
10:17caramelize those lightly,
10:19and then you're going to add your alcohols.
10:2110 years old tawny.
10:23Ports.
10:25It smells like wine.
10:27Smells like alcohol.
10:28I don't drink.
10:29Stilton and port is a classic combination for a cheese board.
10:32Scrape all those beautiful brown bits off the pan
10:34and reduce everything down,
10:35and then the bacon fat should emulsify
10:38really well with everything.
10:39Here are my mustard seeds.
10:40It's, hi, nice to see you again.
10:43Going to strain it and then scoop them out
10:45and put them inside the bacon.
10:47And then mustard.
10:49Ooh, it does have the color of jam.
10:53And finally, I'm going to season this with some pepper.
10:56Like you do with all marmalade, right?
10:58Bacon marmalade is done.
11:00Let's see what mustard seeds blanched eight times
11:03tastes like.
11:06Mm, it's like sweet and savory.
11:08Kind of smoky.
11:11Yummy.
11:11I'm going to make a smoked onion relish
11:14from the things that were given to me.
11:15I'm going to take this red onion
11:18and I'm going to slice it into rounds.
11:20We don't want them too thin.
11:22Little bit of oil, little bit of salt.
11:24Sauce, sauce, sauce.
11:26I'm going to char them in my cast iron pan.
11:28I really want to give them a pretty aggressive burn here.
11:31And then I'm going to smoke these.
11:34So next, we are going to use our smoking gun.
11:36So we've developed that sort of grilled
11:38summer backyard barbecue taste.
11:40Adding smoke is really going to seal it in.
11:42Hickory is very smoky.
11:44For this, the smokier the better.
11:47We're going to seal this up,
11:48double wrap it for about 30 minutes
11:50and should have a pretty strong smoke flavor after that.
11:53While my onions are smoking,
11:55I was not gifted ketchup.
11:57This is all the seeds and the pulp I removed
11:59from the slow roasted tomatoes.
12:01This is all good stuff.
12:02This is actually where most of the glutamates
12:03are in a tomato.
12:04So I'm going to cook this down into a bit of a jam
12:07to add a little bit of a tangy, savory boost.
12:09It's not going to take too long.
12:10And then bread and butter pickles.
12:12I'm going to dice this into cubes
12:14as opposed to chopping it finely.
12:15That way it's going to retain
12:16that beautiful crunchy texture in a lot of ways.
12:18Next, the onions.
12:21It's been about 30 minutes.
12:22These we're going to chop up.
12:24I'm going to use mayonnaise as the base.
12:27Bit of yellow mustard, a little salt,
12:31cracked black pepper, and a little bit of pickle juice.
12:34Has a nice acidity and a little bit of sweetness.
12:38There we go.
12:39A smoked onion relish, true to its name.
12:42Who needs the special sauce?
12:44It's time for demi-glace.
12:45What's a demi-glace?
12:47I don't know.
12:48So Gina's going to be making a demi-glace,
12:51a culinary school classic.
12:53Reduced beef stock until it's really nice
12:55and syrupy and intensely savory.
12:57This is going to go on the top of the burger.
12:59Chef Eric gifted me some beef stock
13:03and I'm going to cook it down.
13:04There's a lot of waiting in this recipe.
13:06This looks like about half.
13:08I'm going to bring this down to a simmer
13:10and reduce some wine.
13:11Reducing alcohol gives you a foundation
13:14of acidity and sweetness
13:16that is going to balance everything.
13:17So you reduce your red wine until it's pretty syrupy.
13:21I'm going to pour this into the stock.
13:22Now I'm going to add a whole bunch of other ingredients
13:24to make it shine.
13:25Glucose syrup.
13:26So thick.
13:27You're going to add your glucose syrup.
13:29That's going to add a lot of shine and body
13:30without adding too much sweetness.
13:32And I'm going to add bouillon
13:34because this is clearly not enough beef flavor.
13:36And then a pinch of MSG.
13:39We really want to take the savory notes
13:41in this demi-glace to the next level
13:43because you're just going to use a very little bit.
13:46That is so salty.
13:48It's yummy though.
13:50It's just going to make your burger
13:51ridiculously, nonsensically beefy.
13:54I made a demi-glace.
13:56It's so brown.
13:58Okay, I'm going to prep my bun.
14:00I'm going to cut my toppings.
14:01I'm going to get ready to make this Juicy Lucy.
14:03My Juicy Lucy is going to be a little bit special.
14:06I'm going to make it a two-tiered Juicy Lucy.
14:08Some might call it an abomination.
14:09And I'm going to use mayonnaise toasties
14:12so that this browns incredibly evenly.
14:15I have pretzel buns.
14:17I gave you a whole pretzel bun.
14:20It's not pre-sliced.
14:21You're going to get a really uniform golden brown surface
14:23that's going to have some texture to it.
14:25Ta-da!
14:26I don't have to do this eight times.
14:28Another topping Gina gave me, iceberg lettuce.
14:31Grossly underappreciated vegetable.
14:32Really beautiful, crunchy texture
14:34without veering into bitter.
14:35So we're going to finely shred this.
14:37Okay, finally, our slow roasted tomatoes.
14:40I'm going to cut these into strips
14:41that should allow us to take one even bite
14:45and get a little bit of everything.
14:46Topping's done.
14:48I'm going to put the onion rings into some cold water
14:51to take the bite out of the onions.
14:54Onions are ready and buns are ready for toasting.
14:57Time to cook some burgers.
14:58It's bun toasting time is what it is.
15:00I have my mayoed buns.
15:02These are going to toast so beautifully evenly
15:03because of the spread.
15:04The middle piece is obviously going to be toasted
15:07on both sides.
15:08Okay, bottom, middle, top, griddle.
15:12My hamburger meat has been taken out of the fridge,
15:14solidified.
15:15You're going to slice one and a half inch rounds.
15:17You want a nice thick burger here.
15:19I'm going to cut it into patties.
15:21This is a honka-chonka patty.
15:24Okay, it looks substantial.
15:26A little salt and pepper, pretzel roll,
15:30and I'm just going to butter it
15:31and then put it on the pan
15:33so they'll get nice and brown.
15:34Now I'm going to cook some juicy loosies.
15:37So we're cooking this burger quite differently
15:39than the one I gave Gina.
15:41I'm going to season these up with salt now,
15:44black pepper,
15:45and we're not going to flip this frequently
15:47given the delicate nature
15:49of what the juicy loosie contains within.
15:51I see a little bit of cheese leaking out.
15:53Don't judge me.
15:54It's okay to take chances and make mistakes, right?
15:57Right?
15:58Yes.
15:59They look beautiful and golden.
16:01Now I get to give all my attention to the meat
16:04because they have to be flipped every 30 seconds.
16:07All right, Gina,
16:08you're almost treating this pan
16:10as if it were a rotisserie.
16:11One Mississippi, two Mississippi.
16:15You're moving it constantly
16:17so that each side is not exposed too long to the heat
16:20where it will overcook.
16:21So this way you're going to get
16:22a really even gradient of doneness.
16:24120 something.
16:27This one's done.
16:30Join your friend.
16:33That was so much counting.
16:34If your juicy loosie looks like it's puffing up
16:36and it's looking like it's brown to explode,
16:38you poke it with a little skewer
16:40and vent some of the steam so it doesn't explode.
16:43Patties are done.
16:44Time to assemble the burgers.
16:47I feel tired.
16:49My mind, body, and soul is hungry.
16:51Let's make a burger.
16:52First, I'm gonna take the bottom bun,
16:54put it on the plate,
16:55slather some of this bacon marmalade,
16:58marmalade?
16:59Bacon marmalade?
17:00And then put the patty on top.
17:02Whoa, it's like a dinosaur burger.
17:05And then cheese sauce.
17:08Smoked onion relish on the bottom,
17:10on the middle.
17:12The shreddest patty.
17:14Tomato strips.
17:16Onion rings.
17:17And then drizzle it with the demi-glaze.
17:20Next bun.
17:22Shreddest.
17:23Next patty.
17:24Oh my god, this is a monstrosity.
17:27More slow roasted tomato.
17:29And then it needs a hat.
17:33It's so tall.
17:35Here we go.
17:36Heavy lies the crown.
17:37And this is my double-decker Juicy Lucy
17:41with smoked onion relish,
17:43shreddest,
17:43and slow roasted tomatoes.
17:45And this is my take on Chef Eric Stilton's Steakhouse Burger
17:48with bacon marmalade and demi-glaze.
17:51I'm gonna get judged so hard for it.
17:55Hello.
17:56Hi, Chef Eric.
17:57How's it going?
17:57Good, how are you?
17:58I'm good, thank you.
17:59How was your day?
18:00Very busy.
18:01Yeah, okay.
18:02Very busy.
18:02All right, sorry.
18:03I had to give you a lot of things to do, right?
18:04Yeah, yeah.
18:05Okay.
18:08Whoa.
18:08Nice.
18:09Substantial.
18:10It's so tall.
18:12Okay, I want you to...
18:14The skyscraper.
18:15How about yours?
18:16How did you feel about the recipe?
18:17What's that Greek god with all the tasks and all the...
18:20Was it Hercules?
18:21Hercules and his 12 labors.
18:23Yeah, the 12 labors is right.
18:24With, you know, lots of stuff in between too.
18:27So Chef, what am I looking at here?
18:28Do you know what a Juicy Lucy is?
18:31No.
18:31The cheese is on the inside.
18:33Okay.
18:34Whoa.
18:35Oh, it's so gooey.
18:38All right.
18:39Cheers.
18:45This is good.
18:46Oh, it's so cheesy.
18:47You got a very successful uniform bite.
18:49That was the goal here.
18:50I probably should have taken lactaid before I ate this bite, so.
18:52Feels more like a Messy Bessy.
18:54I want to say Messy Bessy.
18:55Messy Bessy.
18:55You got to try my burger.
18:57I'm very excited too.
18:58The idea here was like a steakhouse burger, right?
19:00And like the dry-aged funk.
19:01Funk is right, yes.
19:02That you get from beef.
19:03And I just really like blue cheese in general.
19:05Ah, okay.
19:05Like I'm very anti-ranch with my buffalo wings.
19:08Like, oh, that's a nice cross-section.
19:12Cheers.
19:18All right.
19:19That is yummy.
19:20Like legit, it works really well.
19:21I taste mostly the bacon marmalade, which is so good.
19:25Yeah, the texture of the burger is delightful.
19:27It's very loose and tender.
19:29How'd you feel about the constant flipping technique?
19:31Um, it was very hard to do.
19:35It worked out.
19:35It's worth the effort.
19:37Beautiful work.
19:38You did a fantastic job.
19:40These were both so messy, so we got to do a Messy Demi Gloss Sticky High Five.
19:45There we go.
19:46Yay.