The juicy secrets behind Gimlet’s legendary late-night cheeseburger (and how to make it)

If you’re going to the effort of making a cheeseburger from scratch, you might as well go all-in on this one, from the cookbook Meatsmith: Home Cooking for Friends and Family, co-written by chef-restaurateur Andrew McConnell and butcher Troy Wheeler.

The pair have been tinkering with the recipe for a few years, and it’s become a late-night cult favourite at McConnell’s opulent, bougie Melbourne restaurant-bar Gimlet.

At Gimlet, the kitchen holds the onions because as McConnell says, “When you’re out on a date, you probably don’t want a mouthful of onion.”

Wheeler suggests enlisting your local butcher to mince the short rib, chuck and rib cap to order. Each cut contributes something different to the patties. The addition of bone marrow helps bind the meat and adds a rich mouthfeel.

Seasoning the outside of the patties before they hit the grill helps create the perfect crust.

The Meatsmith cheeseburger

This burger is unashamedly based on a fast-food chain burger, but without all the additives. Still, there’s something great about occasionally treating yourself to something that’s not exactly healthy.

We like to use potato rolls – they’re like sweet puffs of nothing but are great at soaking up the burger juices (so they end up in your mouth rather than on your clothes). We also like using American cheese, which doesn’t add much flavour-wise but helps glue the whole thing together and gives the burger structural integrity.

The trade-off? We use quality meat in the patty – a blend of short rib, chuck and rib cap, plus a little bone marrow. The stewed onions are not essential but do come highly recommended.

INGREDIENTS

Beef patties

• 350g coarsely minced short rib
• 350g coarsely minced chuck beef
• 350g coarsely minced dry-aged beef rib cap
• 100g frozen beef bone marrow, grated

Stewed onions

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 4 onions, sliced
• 10g salt
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter
• 60ml (¼ cup) sherry vinegar

To serve

• 4 tbsp clarified butter or olive oil
• 6 slices pre-sliced orange American cheese
• 6 potato buns or brioche buns, split
• Kewpie mayonnaise
• 6 tbsp Burger sauce (see below)
• shoestring fries and dill pickles
• salt and pepper, to season

METHOD

To prepare the patties

Combine meat and bone marrow in a large bowl. Using your hands, mix for about 2 minutes. Divide the mixture into 6 roughly 200g portions and shape into patties. Set aside.

To make the stewed onions

Heat the olive oil in a stockpot or large saucepan over a medium heat. Add the onion and salt and cook for 5 minutes, stirring frequently until the onions begin to turn translucent. Add the butter and cook for a further 10 minutes, stirring every few minutes. The colour should start to become a bit darker at this point. Add the Sherry vinegar and cook until the liquid has reduced by half. Reduce heat to low and cook for a further 15 minutes. If you find that the onions are catching on the base of the pot, just add a splash of water to loosen them up a little. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.

To cook the patties and assemble your burgers

Heat 2 tablespoons of the clarified butter or olive oil in a large heavy-based frying pan over a high heat until hot. Add 3 of the patties to the pan, pressing each one down with a spatula to flatten to about 2 cm (3/4 in) thick and a diameter equal to your bun size. Season with a good pinch of sea salt and a little pepper. Cook for about 3 minutes, then flip and cook for a further 4 minutes. Remove from the pan, top each with a slice of cheese and transfer to a tray to keep warm. Rinse the pan, then repeat to cook remaining patties.

Once you have cooked the burgers, rinse the frying pan again and place over a medium heat. Brush each cut-side of the buns generously with mayonnaise, then toast, cut-side down, in the pan until deep golden brown.

Place 1 patty on each bun base and top with 2 tablespoons of the stewed onions (if using), 1 tablespoon of the burger sauce and the bun top. Serve immediately with shoestring fries and a wedge of dill pickle.

Serves 6

Burger sauce

This keeps for a week, refrigerated – use it as dressing for a green salad or in a ham sandwich.

INGREDIENTS

• 250g (1 cup) Kewpie mayonnaise
• 50g cornichons, finely chopped
• 60ml (¼ cup) tomato sauce
• 50g American mustard
• 1½ tsp garlic powder
• 1¼ tsp onion powder
• 1¼ teaspoons ruby red paprika
• ½ tsp smoked paprika
• pinch of cayenne pepper
• 1¼ tsp ground white pepper
• ½ tsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt

METHOD

Whisk together the mayonnaise, cornichons, tomato sauce and mustard. In a separate bowl, whisk together the remaining dry ingredients, then add the wet ingredients and continue to whisk until combined.

Makes about 400g (430ml)

This is an edited extract from Meatsmith by Andrew McConnell and Troy Wheeler published by Hardie Grant Books

Photography: © Mark Roper 2023