Friday July 7th, 2017
Who’s tried to make a burger at home? Sure it’s good but it just doesn’t match up to your favourite Melbourne burger joint.
Fear not Chef James Wilkinson from Meat Market South Wharf loves a good burger & he’s willing to share a few inside secrets on how to take your homemade burger to level boss mode. Along with the burger masterclass, participants will get to eat their delicious burger while sipping on an alcoholic beverage. You will also get to take home four burger patties that you made and special recipe cards with chef notes on how to make everything demonstrated in the class, plus a few extra goodies.
The Meat
As much as this was a burger masterclass, we were at Meat Market South Wharf & it would only be appropriate to learn a thing or two about good meat. Chuck steak, this hard working muscle is full of flavour & we all know it’s potential when slow cooked till tender but it’s also the perfect cut for our beef burger. Chef James showed us techniques to trim the meat & prepare it for mincing, most of us came out of it with ten fingers.
The Fat
These burgers were going to be flame grilled, we needed them to; A. Stay together and B. Stay juicy. Like many of life’s problems pork is the solution, to be specific we needed pork fat. We sliced up our pork fat into cubes, then prepped, seasons and minced our perfect meat/fat ratio combo.
The Manicure
Get your hands messy and skip the gloves. We had to warm up that pork fat & get everything binding together, nothing like a bit of pork fat to soften those calloused hands. This was messy but fun & also really important. We then shaped up five burgers, four to take home & one for the Meat Market flame grill.
The Pickle
Pickling is all the rage right now and no burger is complete without a good pickle. We learned two quick pickle recipes that can be done at home with everything you already have in your own kitchen. We pickled up some delicious red onion with sumac & lemon juice & a cucumber with toasted mustard seeds white wine vinegar & dill. These were all for ourselves to take home as the professionals at Meat Market had some house made pickles waiting for our burgers.
The Sauce
Chef James quickly shifted pace to “Sauce boss mode.” This quick but informative aspect of the masterclass demonstrates the fundamentals of making the perfect BBQ Sauce. This sauce is just another trick of the trade that’s sure to impress all your friends next time you host a barbie at your place.
The Alcohol
A trip to Meat Market wouldn’t be complete without a glass of red & that was just what was on offer (or beer/wine/sparkles if you roll that way). While our burgers were being flame grilled the ever friendly staff at Meat Market where all too eager to jump behind their fully stocked bar & serve us a beverage.
The Burger
Back to the business end of things. A table loaded up with every ingredient you could ever want on a burger, sliced, pickled & ready for your milk bun. Now for a moment of pure joy, stacking the burger, this is totally up to you, what you like & how you like it. Bun, mustard, tomato sauce, meat, cheese, bacon, more bacon, tomato, lettuce, house made pickled onion, mayo & finally bun. My perfect burger was born, sadly it’s life was going to be short.
The Eating
Burger masterclass, done! Time to relax in Meat Market’s fully enclosed veranda, we were extremely lucky to have the warm sun beaming down on us, cutting through an otherwise freezing three degree Melbourne winter’s morning. With my epic burger & glass of red in hand, I was feeling pretty satisfied, there was only one thing left to do, EAT!
Check out class dates here
