Perhaps not many people want to be remembered for gorging themselves on too much of this or that and getting a free meal out of the deal — especially when that meal quite possibly leads to unintended regurgitation shortly after the fact.  Nonetheless, such contests of digestive constitution have existed since time out of mind, and the truth is, lots of people love them!  Here is an episode of Man vs Food featuring our favorite food of all time — a Mega Burger!  Check it out.

The top burger chains are Five Guys, In-N-Out, Wendy’s, Burger King, and McDonald’s — in that order.  But are home made burgers any healthier for you than the ones you can get at these fast food drive thru chains?  Not necessarily.  If you look closely at the infographic you will see that a home made burger packs just as much of a wallop in fat and calories as the others do.  Read on for more.

In this excellent video from Serious Eats, we get the inside scoop on how Dyer’s makes its awesome burgers unique.  (Hint:  it involves “molecules from 1912.”)

What you’ll need:

• 3 lbs ground beef
• 2 cans diced tomatoes
• 1/2 medium onion, chopped
• 1 clove minced garlic
• small can diced green chilies, drained
• 1/2 c. ketchup
• 1/4 c. yellow mustard
• mayonnaise
• crispy cooked bacon, crumbled
• sliced Texas toast
• American cheese slices

Cook the ground beef  in a skilled until browned all over, then drain all the fat and transfer the cooked ground beef to a large stock pot.  Over medium heat, add the tomatoes, onions, garlic, and green chilies.  Bring temperature up to high to get it to a boil, then reduce to low and simmer.  Pop your Texas toast into the oven and bake at 350 until crisp and slightly dry, but not burned.  Cut into medium sized cubes.

When you’re ready to serve this great meal, just spoon the hot chili into individual serving bowls.  Top each bowl with a Tbs. ketchup, 1 tsp of mustard, and mayonnaise.  Swirl this together with your chili in the bowl, then top with one slice of American cheese and cubes of Texas toast.  It’s a hearty, quick meal, and while nothing beats a burger — this sure comes close!  It’s also perfect for kicking back for the big kick off.  Great cheeseburger taste with less than half the trouble.  It just doesn’t get much better than this.  And for you connoisseurs, it pairs well with Bud Light.

Ribs: Honey barbecued baby back ribs are a national treasure and are surprisingly easy to prepare.  Just pick up about six racks of ribs, divide them among two large pots, and cover with cold water.  Bring the pots to a boil, and then simmer for 3 minutes.  After this, add a little of whatever seasoning you prefer (choose flavors like garlic powder, celery salt, or other savory herbs) and continue to simmer for about an hour, covered.  When the ribs are tender, they’re ready for the grill.  Fire it up to a medium hot flame and coat the ribs with your favorite sauce.  You’ll need to grill them for about 15 minutes total, so flip these babies frequently.

Grilled Chicken: This is another of America’s favorite foods, and there are so many ways to prepare it.  Some people like to leave the skin in to seal in the moisture and create a crispy outer shell, while others who are watching fat grams prefer to remove the skin and visible fat.  Some people like to make elaborate kabobs with chunks of chicken and an assortment of colorful vegetables.  No matter how you like your chicken on the grill, you can bet it will be a big hit at your Independence Day get together.

Shrimp: There’s nothin’ like shrimp on the barbie, and it only takes a few minutes to get these bad boys done.  Clean and peel some jumbo shrimp and rinse thoroughly.  After patting them dry, toss them in your favorite seasonings with some oil and arrange on skewers.  Old Bay Seasoning is a tasty choice.  Serve with cocktail sauce and some celery sticks.

So, call up your friends, install satellite tv to watch the fight, and get ready to party!  Happy Fourth!

One thing that makes sliders so great is that you can have about four little burgers, all with different condiments, toppings, and flavors.  It’s sort of like having a few meals at once, instead of just one big same tasting entree.  With sliders, you can be creative and try different taste combinations.  The important thing is to keep the beef patties relatively unflavored, except for the natural flavors brought out by grilling.  When you serve these small burgers at your next cookout, you’ll need to focus on the “extras” by offering a wide variety of toppings to suit your guests tastes, or to give them flavors to experiment with. satellite TV

Some popular toppings you will want to have around for your sliders are:

• slices of cooked bacon
• sliced avocado (or guacamole)
• several sliced cheeses (colby, American, pepper jack, gouda, cheddar)
• caramelized onions and mushrooms
• bleu cheese crumbles
• olive tapenade
• roasted peppers of varying heat
• sweet and smoky barbeque sauce
• wasabi mayonnaise
• lettuce
• tomatoes
• sliced red onions
• sour cream with salsa
• pesto
• marinara sauce
• Caesar dressing

These are just some ideas to get you started, but don’t let them put the brakes on your creativity.  There are literally as many potential variations for slider flavor combos as there are taste preferences in people, so feel free to dream up anything you think sounds good.  Be adventurous.  What’s the worst that can happen?  You might have to change toppings.

As far as buns go, a lot of people use soft dinner rolls.  In some stores you can actually find slider-sized burger rolls, but that’s still not common in most locations around the country.  Alternately, you could buy full sized hamburger buns and alter their size.  All it takes is a little cutting, and that can be done with large cookie cutters.  You could try different shapes to give your sliders an artistic flair.

Now that we have the basics out of the way, all you need is an excuse to cook up some flavorful mini burgers for your friends.  Time to pick up the phone and start calling your homies.  Who really needs an excuse?  Once you fire up the grill, everyone will agree these burgers make their own party.

Or, is it?  We’ll take a look at two of the western world’s most popular fast food burgers, and compare them for taste, price, and other qualities that might help you make an equation of your own. cable internet bundles

In America, the first burger many people think of when fast food is brought to mind is the Big Mac from McDonald’s.  Last week, we featured an article about the man who eats two of these sandwiches every day of his life.  There must be something to the magical ingredients many people know by heart from the old jingle: “Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, and a sesame seed bun.”  Over the years there has been much debate as to what, exactly, the special sauce is made of.  Some people (with obviously less delicate palates) insist it is merely Thousand Island Dressing, but the savvy among us know this is untrue.  There is something about the Big Mac’s special sauce that is far beyond the flavor found in any salad dressing.  Certainly, it looks like Thousand Island.  It seems to contain many of the same ingredients.  But there is some difference.  Some people believe it to be more a combination of the following ingredients:

1 c. Miracle Whip
1/3 c. creamy style French dressing
1/4 c. sweet pickle relish
1 tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. dried minced onion
1/4 tsp. pepper

Having never tasted the above concoction, I can neither attest to its authenticity nor deny the same.  It does, however, sound plausible.  If any of you have sampled this recipe and found it to be about right, please leave a comment and let us know.

Still, I suspect that the real ingredients in McDonald’s special sauce are far more subtle than any replicas I have encountered in my vast Web searches.

Aside from that mysterious special sauce, there is little to be thrilled about in the Big Mac.  The rest is all pretty much plain, non-grilled flavored beef patties, bread, and few token veggies thrown in for decorative purposes.

Now, let’s move on the Whopper with Cheese from Burger King.  The reason I’m going right to the Whopper with Cheese, instead of just the classic Whopper, is to place it on equal footing with the Big Mac from the get go.  The Big Mac comes with cheese, so the Whopper I will talk about will also have cheese.  The Whopper features a flame broiled 1/4 lb beef patty, which is substantially more meat than the Big Mac, which features a pair of 1.6 ounce patties.  That comes to just 3.2 ounces of beef, whereas the quarter pounder should have 4 ounces.  Not only is the patty larger, but the sandwich is far more substantial looking, being bigger around and containing whole lettuce slices (rather than shredded lettuce as found on a Big Mac), large tomato slices, larger slices of cheese, sliced rings of fresh onion (as opposed to McDonald’s finely diced onion), and even the pickles seem to be more sturdy somehow.   There’s no special sauce here, except for the classic American condiment combination of mayonnaise and ketchup.  Mustard is available upon request.

In a survey of companions here in our Smart Home Security office, one respondent reported the Whopper with Cheese was the best of the two sandwiches, hands down.  Another, having never tasted a Whopper of any kind, had to choose the Big Mac as her favorite by default.  Still another colleague participating in the survey flipped a water bottle lid and chose the Big Mac.  So, looks like the Big Mac wins, even without the open flame grilled flavor of the Whopper with Cheese.

Gorske’s burger Odyssey began 39 years ago, when the now 57 year old enjoyed his very first Big Mac to celebrate the purchase of a new car.  That’s when something snapped in his mind.  Experts speculate that the man became fixated on the tasty burgers with special sauce, and decided to make his entire diet of it.  Don Gorske eats exactly two Big Macs every single day of his life.  Out of fear of not being able to obtain them for unexpected reasons, he stockpiles them in his freezer so that he won’t run out.

What do the doctors have to say about all this?  Nothing.  In fact, Gorske recently passed through a barrage of physical examinations with flying colors.  His cholesterol is low.  His blood pressure in fine.  He has good blood sugar levels, and is not overweight.  But is this the result of his very limited diet of nothing but Big Macs, or something else?  Doctors all seem to agree that the reason Gorske can get by with this odd behavior without damaging his body can be chalked entirely up to genetics.  Basically, he is pre-wired for the diet he has chosen for himself, and he can do what would likely be very harmful for most people not similarly endowed with such genetic gifts.

It certainly isn’t exercise for Gorske, who admits to a fairly inactive lifestyle that does not involve deliberate physical activity.

What does OCD have to do with this?  OCD by its very nature can show itself in the ritualistic behavior patterns of its sufferers.  That Gorske must have exactly the same number of Big Macs every single day without fail is pretty substantial evidence that he does have the disorder.  Another indicator is the venue for his 25,000th Big Mac:  on that day, he ate it in the same restaurant, at the very same hour and minute, and on the same day when he ate his very first Big Mac. Actually, he ate nine Big Macs on his very first day — but that was when it was all so new to him.  The first time, he ordered three Big Macs, then kept going back throughout the day until he had eaten a total of nine.    Gorske also likes to count things.  A lot.  The fact that McDonald’s signs usually keep a running tally of the number of people served might be part of the attraction.  Gorske has collected his Big Mac boxes and kept his receipts over the years, too.  If that isn’t OCD, we don’t know what is.

Asked about his plans for the future, Gorske firmly lets people know that he plans to keep eating Big Macs until he dies.  Judging from his good health report after forty years of munching down in McDonald Land, we can safely assume that it won’t be the burgers that do him in.

Burgers need to be big.  Texas big.  So tall that a burly 6’5″ fellow would have trouble chomping down on it without some kind of flattening device.  They should also be pretty, though, so that may mean a bit of sacrifice during the first few bites while you munch away at the circumference of the burger, before you make it to the middle where all the good stuff’s at.

Another way to maximize your burger experience is to add crispy fried onions and steak sauce instead of the customary lettuce, tomato, and cheese.  Or, you could top it with fried mushrooms and swiss cheese.  You might even consider sharp cheddar with salsa and sour cream for a South of the Border Burger, complete with a side of guacamole and tortilla chips.  This would break up the monotony quite a bit.

Once you decide on your burger, you need to think about side items.  It’s just so typical to eat french fries.  Think of something more creative, like maybe a skewer of grilled vegetables like peppers, onion, potatoes, and mushrooms.  What about asparagus tips with a creamy dipping sauce?  Any of these would be great, as long as they don’t overshadow the real star of the show:  the burger.

Have you ever tried a stuffed burger?  That’s where you start with a really thick burger patty, then towards the end of cooking time, remove it from the grill and slice it in half.  Scoop out a little of the meat inside, and replace with some soft, easy to melt cheese like mozzarella or gouda.  You could stuff your burger patty with things besides cheese, too.  Be creative and see what you come up with.

Next time there’s a cook out showdown, you will be the music piracy protection Burger Ninja!  No one will doubt you are the King of Grilled Goodness!  Isn’t that what the perfect burger is all about?  I think so.  So get out there, grab some meat, get that grill going and make a difference.  Make someone realize what a great grill cook you are!  Take no prisoners.  Play no games.  Get going and make yourself and everyone else proud.  And don’t forget to have fun while you are at it.  Grilling is a great hobby that can lead to all kinds of tasty adventures.