Make your own Huxtaburger

While I don't wish to insult the kitchen intelligence (from here on in known as 'Burger IQ') of anyone reading, goodfood.com.au has today put up the recipe for the now infamous Huxtaburger - now available on Smith St and in the CBD.  Click here for the recipe. 

If the recipe seems incredibly simple and straightforward, that's because it is.  However I highly doubt that I will be able to recreate these perfect little burgers at home.  For starters, I'm a big believer in the 'context' of food - a burger is always going to taste better after you have spent an hour waiting for it on Smith St, in the freezing cold with your mates, watching the 'unique' inhabitants of Collingwood amble along muttering obscenities.  It's the same phenomenon that occurs when you visit a winery, usually in a beautiful setting, with great company and more than a few 'samples' under your belt - only to return home and buy the wine from your soulless local boozer, take it home and discover that it wasn't really that good after all.  Call this phenomenon the 'terroir' of the food in question if you will (if you're prone to using wine-snob language), as apparently this roughly translates to 'sense of place'.  

I will also note that while the recipe on the surface appears very exact - for example measuring the salt and pepper in grams - it doesn't specify what sort of ketchup, mayonnaise, mustard, and even cheese are to be used.  I understand though - chefs have to keep some secrets.  After all, if you could make it at home, why would you go and wait for it.  Well I suspect that the key to making it the same as the original lies in those sauces, the cheese, and the bun used.  Who knows - perhaps they are importing a ketchup usually un-available here (or making it in-house), and I'm pretty sure their not just squeezing Kraft mayo onto those delicious buns.  It is no doubt some kind of delicious house-made aioli.  

So for those whose burger IQ is on the lower end of the scale, remember this - all successful burgers have a formula!  From the Big Mac, to the Raph Burger (of Beatbox kitchen fame) to the Huxtaburger - they all need a consistent supply of quality ingredients, and they're all put together in a certain order.  No doubt all of the above-mentioned purveyors of burgers have agreements with suppliers to supply them only the softest of buns, the ripest of tomatoes and the crunchiest of lettuces - not to mention meat with a certain fat content (clearly I'm not talking about Maccas any more).  The buns at Huxtaburger seem to be some kind of delicious brioche bun (from Breadtop according to the link) - they are not your usual sorry and soggy burger bun.  So while I am going to try and replicate a Huxtaburger at home, and while it may capture the essence of the burger to which it is paying homage, I am under no illusions that it will be as good.  Happy burger making!