Sunday DrunKitchen: Burger Experiments

So recently, because I was on the internet, I saw an argument about nonsense. In this particular case, someone said they liked peanut butter on their hamburgers (I think they were talking about on the bun), so, naturally, detractors were honor bound to convince him he was wrong. Meanwhile, I said "Yeah, I'll try that."

I should note that I did not go with the idea of putting peanut butter on the bun; I decided that the peanut butter should be mixed into the patty because of course that makes sense, right?

So today I made 3 burgers, all of them about a quarter pound of beef. The first was my control group: I just seasoned the ground beef with salt and pepper; the second was my first experimental group: I mixed about a tablespoon and a half of chicken liver pâté into the beef with no other seasoning; the third was my second experimental group: I mixed about a tablespoon and a half of peanut butter into the beef with no other seasoning.

I dry fried the burgers one at a time in a non-stick pan (and cleaned out the pan between each one) in the same order described above; I didn't want any oils/fats to affect the flavors. The first two went by with no real issue, but, halfway through the peanut butter burger, I noticed that the kitchen smelled like I was baking peanut butter cookies, which didn't seem right.

That's when I Googled the jar that I thought was peanut butter (I got it at the international market) and learned that I had not mixed peanut butter into my burger: I had mixed in peanut marzipan spread. Lesson learned: Google shit if you don't know the language. I saw the drawing of the peanut, and it looked like peanut butter, so I assumed, making an ass out of you and med. I ain't no ass. In hindsight, "mazapán" should have been a giveaway.

Anyway, I finished cooking the peanut marzipan spread burger. I stuck all three of them on bare brioche buns and gave them all a taste (aka I ate half of each). The first was fine; it tasted like a normal burger, though I probably could have seasoned it a bit more (note for next time). The second was decidedly meh; the liver flavor really overtook the beef, so I probably won't give that one another go. The third, the peanut butter turned peanut marzipan spread burger ended up being pretty decent. I could definitely see peanut butter working better, to be honest. Also, I need to add some seasoning to it next time. 6/10, will definitely try again.

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