It happens in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSWnmOvgyKc
The way the guy describes that burger makes it sound so god damn mouth wateringly delicious I haven't been able to stop thinking about it.
Unfortunatly I can't get to a White Castle being in Australia and all, so I've done some research on the interweb, read various arguments on yahoo answers from ex white castle employees, and I've given the 'White Castle Slyder' a crack a few times.
The thing about this recipe is that it calls for a strange ingredient I haven't been able to get until now, so I've previously added all manner of flavoursome things I like to the meat to ramp up the flavour, but this time I thought I'd try to stick to a simpler version that reflects the original a bit more. I have documented it here, and perhaps you will have a go at this too as the resulting burger is quite something to behold.
I started off with 500g of this nice fluffy organic premium minced beef. The cheaper stuff I used to get to make tacos and bolognaise has really gone down hill and tastes like chopped goat anus.
Next I got a beef stock cube and dissolved it in less than a cup of hot water, this wound up being almost 80% of a cup which I think made the mixture too sloppy - would aim for about 2/3 of a cup next time.
Uh oh what the fuck is that on the right there? It's beef baby food. I'm guessing the idea behind this is that adding a processed steak dinner into your meat will pack in more flavour, and perhaps if I had a food processor I would do just that. I haven't seen much beef baby food around, I'm guessing that's more of an American thing, but I did find this one in 'apple sauce' that has 36% beef. I don't know how that measures up to what Americans consider beef baby food but it's the best I could do. It's a very dubious ingredient to say the least. I've also read of people using processed liver.
Oh yeah lovely, don't make my digestive system work too hard. I read somewhere the reason they're called slyders is cos they slide out your arse real easy after. I dunno I was drinking rum so I can't really gauge that.
Ok, so in it goes...
Now mix all that shit together.
The idea here is to make some square patties, so I used a baking tray that was about the right size to spread out the mixture and get it flat enough.
On some baking paper spread it out as flat as possible, I found that since my mixture was very sloppy; slamming the tray down on the bench helped a bit.
But with the use of some Glad Wrap and a rolling pin I was able to even it out a lot more.
The next thing to do is to mark out the patties, which have to be a little wider than the bun (they shrink a tiny bit). I decided to use hot dog buns to make the buns this time, just cut the ends off and then cut it in two. Previously I've found some small buns but I didn't like the texture of them. I was actually dissapointed with these hot dog buns as they are a bit ghetto - I didn't buy them. I had imagined using the really nice soft holiday roll type ones that are shaped very smooth and consistent. Oh well, the show must go on.
And I've just sliced up the patties there. You're meant to get 16 patties out of this amount, but my maths failed somewhere I wound up with 15.
Now some holes need to poked through the meat. This is so steam can come up through the holes and help cook the burger and bun. I used a metal straw, but a knife or maccas straw can do the job.
I'm going to cook 6 patties and leave the rest for another time.
I've prepared half a cup of chopped onion - this is more onion than I needed in hindsight.
Here's a tip, get yourself a V Slicer and slice the onion up first, saves you a shit load of effort.
In White Castle they use dehydrated onions so I guess this step takes several hours - they let the onions really soak in. I probably don't need to do that.
Here's the cutting of the disappointing hot dog buns:
And then I have to cut through the slices in the frozen patties as they've all melted back together like the t1000. I found this big bastard in my knife block.
Now set a frying pan on high heat and pour in the onion mix. I think my pan was too small because the water ended up being a little too deep, so watch for that.
Now place the patties on top and watch the steam sizzle through. Season with salt+pepper.
I let the water evaporate a little before I put the bottoms of the buns on top of the patties. This is supposed to put flavour into them - it made mine a bit soggy, I'm not sure that is meant to happen.
After a total of about 4 or 5 minutes the patties will be cooked, use the flippy thing to remove the patty and bun, some onion will come with it.
Now you can build the burgers. Cheese is required, so cut down some kraft singles into the right size. White Castle also applies a crinkle cut pickle - which I stupidly didn't have.
I opted to just leave it as a cheese burger and add tomato sauce and mustard sauce
And my gf had lettuce and tomato on it as well. I would recommend Miracle Whip with a salad one - it tastes a lot more like fast food mayo than mayo does, I've also made Ranch dressing using Miracle Whip which goes well on these - but she did not want. Whatevs.
The fat black man was right - these absolutely melt in your mouth and are easier to eat than anything with beef that I've ever had. Would be way more awesome with a softer bun though.
Here is a vid of them making these at White Castle on a big gridle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spxy6LbyrGI
I hope this inspires you to give a chance to making your own patty and broiling up a burger.
I do prefer to juice up that onion-water mix with some garlic, spices, tomato paste, wocerstershista, and real stock - you wind up with a very saucy burger that doesn't require more condiments. But it's not what I set out to do here.
