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JUSTIFICATION – MAXIMUM CARAMELIZATION

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SO you watched Tony Bourdain in Bronx, didn’t you?

And if in the next following days, a certain very catchy phrase got stuck in your head like the most maddeningly annoying tune, echoing “chop’cheese… no, chop-peh-ded cheese… chop’cheese…”, steady, you are not mad.  You are just, like me, actually more Bronx than you ever thought you were.  This supposedly Bronx-via-Harlem native dish, even though, was not at all the leading lady in the narrative of that show (i mean let’s face it, Chuchifrito… who can beat that diva), but she struck a tune that I couldn’t stop singing, and there’s only one way to shut her up.

But just because I wrote about this handsome dude here awhile back, doesn’t mean I’m familiar with the other girl next door.  So who’s chopped cheese?  With a name like “chopped cheese”, you know she’s not the kinda girl who reads Goop, al’right.  She doesn’t take the hipster burger non-sense or customizable patty elitism, in fact, pffff, she doesn’t even give a fuck about her slightly more polished cousin, cheese burger.  Chopped cheese, is about disrespecting a patty in the most gloriously wrong of ways, dismantling it half-way during cooking with complete disregard to the concept of, juice, or the ludicrous question of, doneness.  Hey.  Just ain’t the way she likes it.  Everything we’ve been taught not to do to a patty, she’s done.  Justification?  Maximum caramelization.  To brown every possible square inch of ground beef to draw out the beefy-ness within, and let the cheese melt into the desperate nooks and crannies in between in a greasy, fluid unison.  In the most non-vogue sorta way, she’s some kinda sexy.

So here you’re thinking, how do I get me some of that sexiness.  Well first, before you even pull your pants up to go out to the grocery stores, you gotta put your mind right.  Any obsession within you for refinement, artisanal bullshit, the love for your French cuffs, should be tossed out the window.  She’s not impressed with your suits and ties.  She likes fatty and economically friendly ground beef (and if you even raise a thought of grinding your own beef?  To the left.).  She works better with non-real American cheese and a soft, squishy bun.  And she likes to be eaten instantly when you’re still in your grease-splattered T-shirt, standing by the edge of the kitchen counter, marvelling.   It makes her feel special.

Well now… so you’ve been introduced.  I guess this is the perfect time to… leave you two alone. 

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Serving:  1 burger ONLY

Well, as you can see this beauty right here is the product of me, channeling my inner chopped cheese-girl (who am I kiddin’.  I’m born a chopped cheese-girl).  In fact, I didn’t just chopped-cheesed it.  I srira-chopped-cheesed it!

The recipe is for 1 burger only, so you can double or triple it according to your needs.  I like to toast the buns and cook the patty all in one skillet and multi-task a bit, but if you are making multiple burgers or simply don’t want to be stressed with more than one thing at a time, feel free to separate the tasks.  You can also add lettuce and tomato based on your likings, but I like to keep it simple.

Another thing about cheese.  When it comes to cheese burgers (which is what this kind of is), I’ve always felt the non-real American cheese slices deliver the most “cheese burger-ness” that we are so accustomed to.  But I happen to have a chunk of sharp cheddar in the fridge so that’s what I used, because what kind of person wastes a good chunk of sharp cheddar?  You can use what you like.

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