Easy Cheesy Diner Style Patty Melt Hamburger
One of my guilty pleasures is a good greasy spoon, old-school diner. I love the history/necessity of them, the fact that the same 15 or so items are on every menu, they all somehow have the same waitress, it’s all great. Fortunately, making short-order style meals is really easy to do at home.
The humble patty melt is one of my favorite hamburgers ever. I wanted to highlight this particular hamburger not only because it’s awesome, but it’s also a good example of taking a known thing and making it yours. I wanted to take the base recipe and do a few things to it:
- Add some depth of flavor. All too often, hamburgers can somehow end up bland, and I didn’t want that to happen this time. So, I figured out a way to add some Worcestershire sauce and garlic powder (twice!) to give it some nice umami (savory) flavor.
- Make it patty melt-ier. The traditional recipe uses Swiss cheese, which is fine, but you don’t normally get that gooey, stringy, cheesy mess that everyone loves so much with just Swiss. Normally I’d add some mozzarella to get a better melt effect (and you can certainly do that here), but this time I opted for some good old-fashioned, processed American cheese. While I don’t use this particular ingredient often, it both adds the meltiness I was looking for and has a bit of a nostalgic feel, reminding me of the cheap sandwiches I choked down as a kid for lunch, but in a good way?
- Add some zip. A sandwich like a patty melt can feel very heavy. Whenever you hear this term, think “lot of fat, no acid”. The acid helps cut the fat, making it taste balanced. Cheese is naturally acidic, but our chosen cheeses won’t cut it here. So, I added some mustard in the quick sauce and serve w/ a pickle on the side (you can put pickles on if you want, but I personally prefer controlling the ratio of burger-to-pickle on each bite myself).
Okay, let’s get to it! Caramelizing the onions and jalapeños is the most time-consuming step, so we want to do that first. So, slice up a half of a yellow onion and one jalapeño and cook in your cast iron over medium-low heat with some butter, stirring infrequently, for about 20 minutes or so. Be careful to not let the heat get too hot, else you’ll burn them. Low and slow is key to caramelizing onions.
While the vegetables are cooking, we’ll get our sauce made. Simply put the mayonnaise, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper, and garlic powder (SPG is the acronym popular in BBQ for salt, pepper, and garlic powder) into a bowl and mix. Taste, adjust seasoning as you’d like, and set aside for later.
Next, let’s talk meat. For hamburgers, I generally recommend an 80/20 blend. Also, I’ve found that 5 ounces pre-cooked weight is about right for what I’m normally looking for. Now, some recipes will have you mix some salt, pepper, and Worcestershire sauce into the raw meat. I’ve done this in the past and find it can negatively affect the texture, so that’s why I’m adding the Worcestershire to our sauce instead. So, take your 10 oz hamburger meat, divide in half into two firm balls, and flatten out and sprinkle some SPG on the top half.
When your vegetables are done, remove from the pan and keep warm (an easy way is to put in a bowl and set inside the microwave until you’re ready for them). Wipe the pan out as needed and turn up to medium-high. Once the pan starts to smoke just a bit (you need it this hot to get the nice brown bits on the meat, known as the Maillard reaction), place one burger SPG-side down. Take your spatula and, working in a clockwise fashion around the burger, gently mash the burger into the pan a bit. This will help ensure as much surface contact as possible.
- Good surface contact = seared, browned, delicious meat
- Bad surface contact = steamed, gray, not-as-delicious meat
Sprinkle some more SPG on this side and cook until the edges of the burger turn brown. Hamburger likes to try and bunch itself up in the middle, so flatten it out a bit as you go, using the clockwise technique above. Once the edges are brown (about 5 minutes or so), turn and cook on the other side until done, probably about 3-4 minutes.
When you turn the burger, this is the time to start your assembly. Take 2 slices of bread (I used wheat here, rye is traditional, sourdough is always a good choice, so use whatever you’d like), slather a bit of the sauce on one side, and put a slice of Swiss on one and a slices of American on the other. Take half the veggies and place on one of the pieces of bread (I normally put it on the American slice b/c I like it melting all over the onions). When the burger is done, place it on top of the veggies, and place the other piece of bread on top to complete assembly. Wipe out the pan as needed.
Now, you could stop here and have a fine hamburger. However, it wouldn’t be a patty melt! So, we’re going to now finish this like a grilled cheese. Most grilled cheese recipes say to slather butter on the outside of the bread before putting in the pan. In my experience, few people have room-temperature butter at the ready, and it gets messy if you also have a sauce or some condiments on the other side of the bread. So, I take 1 tbsp of cold butter, split it in half, and add one half to the pan. Once it finishes melting, I set the assembled burger in it and cook until golden brown & delicious, 2-3 minutes or so. When it’s time to flip, I add the second half tablespoon, lift the sandwich, swirl and melt the butter, then flip and cook the other side.
When the patty melt is done, we’re ready to plate! I like cutting in half diagonally if using square slices. Add a pickle spear on the side for some acidity, and dive in!
Riffs
This can be of course customized to your preference; by switching out breads and cheeses, you can create all sorts of different flavors. If you like a little extra heat, sprinkling some cayenne into the sauce will certainly suffice.
Patty Melt
Ingredients
Sauce
- 2 tbsp Mayonaisse
- 1.5 tsp yellow mustard
- 2 dashes Worcestershire sauce
- salt
- pepper
- garlic powder
Hamburger
- 1/2 yellow onion sliced
- 1 jalapeno sliced, seeds removed
- 3 tbsp butter divided
- 10 oz ground beef 80/20 preferred
- salt
- pepper
- garlic powder
- 4 slices bread
- 2 slices Swiss cheese
- 2 slices American cheese
Instructions
- Add 1 tbsp butter to heavy pan (cast iron preferred) and preheat over medium-low heat
- Cook the onion and jalapeno slices until caramelized, about 20 minutes
- While the vegetables are cooking, make the sauce: combine all ingredients in a bowl, mix to combine, and set aside.
- When the onion and jalapeno slices are almost done, divide the hamburgers into 2 5-oz balls, flatten, and season one side with salt, pepper, and garlic powder
- When the vegetables are done, remove from the pan, turn the heat to medium high, and add 1 hamburger, seasoned side down, season the top with more salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Cook burger until edges are brown on top, about 5 minutes, then flip and cook until done, about 3-4 minutes
- While the hamburger is cooking, take 2 slices of bread, slather the sauce on one side of each, add the American cheese to one slice and the Swiss cheese to the other slice, and place half of the vegetable slices on top of the American cheese.
- When the hamburger is done, add it on top of the vegetables, and add the other slice of bread on top to build the burger. Wipe the plan clean and add 1/2 tbsp butter and melt. Place the assembled burger in the pan and cook like a grilled cheese until golden brown, about 3 minutes. Add another 1/2 tbsp butter, flip, and cook the other side.
- Remove from pan, slice diagonally, and repeat for the other burger.