(Credits: Far Out / Hans Malmberg, Nordic Museum)
Of all the writers in all of the world, Ernest Hemingway is the one you can most easily picture gripping a hamburger with the same beholden blitheness that a lounging dog might afford a patch of sunlight. He was a hearty man, and there is no food heartier than the humble hamburger.
Hemingway recognised these gifts in life, famously writing: “We ate well and cheaply and drank well and cheaply and slept well and warm together and loved each other.” This simplicity defined his outlook and, indeed, writing style. He was a harbinger of the age-old mantra that just about all the best things in life are free, and many of those that aren’t are about £5 a pint or £8 between two bread buns.
Hemingway loved a burger, and I loved Hemingway’s burger. There is a sense as you knead the flavours of his robust patty together that you are metamorphosing into the literary giant himself. His spirit abides by these bold, meaty flavours. Your hands become more macho than they were before you delved them into the bowl to recreate the writer’s favoured sandwich.
His recipe came to the fore only recently when two thousand documents from Ernest Hemingway’s home in Havana, Cuba, made their way to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston to be digitised. Suddenly, everything from his thoughts on avocados – nice, but not to be had every day – to his car insurance papers were immortalised. But above all, his burger arose from this banal annul of reverence.
Ernest Hemingway’s hamburger recipe:
Ingredients:
- 1 lb. ground lean beef
- 2 cloves, minced garlic
- 2 little green onions, finely chopped
- 1 heaping teaspoon, India relish
- 2 tablespoons, capers
- 1 heaping teaspoon, Spice Islands sage
- Spice Islands Beau Monde Seasoning — 1/2 teaspoon
- Spice Islands Mei Yen Powder — 1/2 teaspoon
- 1 egg, beaten in a cup with a fork
- About 1/3 cup dry red or white wine
- 1 tablespoon cooking oil
Instructions:
“Break up the meat with a fork and scatter the garlic, onion and dry seasonings over it, then mix them into the meat with a fork or your fingers. Let the bowl of meat sit out of the icebox for ten or fifteen minutes while you set the table and make the salad. Add the relish, capers, everything else including wine and let the meat sit, quietly marinating, for another ten minutes if possible. Now make your fat, juicy patties with your hands.
“The patties should be an inch thick, and soft in texture but not runny. Have the oil in your frying pan hot but not smoking when you drop in the patties and then turn the heat down and fry the burgers about four minutes. Take the pan off the burner and turn the heat high again. Flip the burgers over, put the pan back on the hot fire, then after one minute, turn the heat down again and cook another three minutes. Both sides of the burgers should be crispy brown and the middle pink and juicy.”
Serving suggestion, from the following Hemingway quote: “The beer was very cold and wonderful to drink. … After the first heavy draft of beer I drank and ate very slowly.” Enjoy.
0 Comments
Yorum ekle