Adventures in Cooking: Juicy Lucy's

I've recently become a fan of the Travel Channel's 'Man V. Food', and enjoy the other restaurants the host Adam Richman goes to before the food challenges almost as much as the challenges themselves. While he was in Minneapolis during the second season, Adam went to two restaurants; Matt's Bar and the 5 - 8 Club, to try and see which restaurant made a better "Jucy/Juicy Lucy". While he was unable to determine for the viewers which was better at making the burger, thanks to some clever editing by a car honking as it drove by when he spoke the name of the joint, watching him eat the burgers piqued my interest in seeing if I could make them myself.

At the outset, it's just an ordinary hamburger but with a pocket of cheese in the middle, like an inside out cheeseburger. And during the course of the show, they showed some of them being made, so I could get an idea of how to do it.

I was set to make one for lunch today, but lack of cheddar cheese stopped that. I ventured out into the cold New England afternoon to get some cheddar cheese at Market Basket, along with a lot of food for our cats, and came back home victorious.

The recipe I used was from the website Heavy Table.com, and aside from the cheddar cheese {you can use almost any type you like; cheddar, Swiss, bleu, etc.}, I opted for 73% lean hamburger meat.

Prep was relatively easy, though I did reference the recipe a lot to ensure I was doing it correctly, and soon enough, I had my own Juicy Lucy ready to cook in the small skillet.


I opted not to use steak sauce, as we were out, and seasoned it only with salt and pepper, pushing it around as it cooked for 8 minutes on one side {which went against my nature to let it do}. I flipped it over after the 8 minute mark, added more salt and pepper, and then let it cook for 8 more minutes.

I was discouraged at seeing some of the cheese leak out, as I'd apparently made the patty too small before it cooked, but most of it was still inside, so I wasn't too concerned with that.

I prepped my bun with mayo and some ketchup, adding potato salad on the side to complete the meal, and put the burger on the bun, ready to eat in all its inside out cheeseburger glory.

The first bite was incredible; cheese and meat coming together like never before. This is definitely something I'm going to be making more of, and with more variety next time, and with a bigger patty. I might go for Hoffman sharp cheddar cheese, and see if that can turn it up to 11.


Until next time, Bon Appetit!