It’s fairly doable that nobody is aware of hamburgers higher than George Motz, the founding father of New York Metropolis’s luncheonette-style Hamburger America and self-proclaimed burger scholar. Even earlier than opening his love letter to burgers in New York Metropolis, Motz was infatuated: He directed a documentary about burgers in America in 2004; hosted a tv collection on the Journey Channel known as Burger Land; and has written two books in regards to the historical past of burgers in america. Merely put, his fantasy of proudly owning his personal burger joint has been a very long time coming.
The burgers at Hamburger America, nevertheless, are usually not meant to be flashy or loaded with toppings. You’ll not discover fried eggs, slices of avocado, or crumbled blue cheese right here. As a substitute, Motz needs his burgers to function a historical past lesson, showcasing what burgers have been actually like after they have been first invented between the late 1800s and early 1900s.
There are solely three burgers on the menu. Motz’s fried onion burger is a tribute to Oklahoma, and options onions cooked within the burger’s rendered beef fats and a slice of American cheese. “Beforer there was ketchup and mustard and all the things else, onions have been the primary condiment,” Motz explains as showers shaved onions over the scorching beef. “It’s virtually like sweet.”
The second burger, a traditional smash burger, is impressed by burger slingers of the Midwest who would arrange store outdoors of factories and speedily make as many burgers as doable. “The smash methodology solely happened for pace,” Motz says. The smash burger, “smashed all the way in which,” as Motz says, is topped with diced onion, mustard, and two dill pickle chips. Because the burger is frying, Motz stacks the potato buns over the melting cheese and meat to make sure the beefy steam can rise and soften, and taste, the buns.
The final burger on Motz’s menu is consistently rotating. Utilizing his information of burger regionality all through the U.S., Motz selects a brand new burger every month and tries to recreate it as carefully as doable to the unique. The burger might be something — a steamed cheeseburger beloved in New England; a loaded burger from Dallas, Texas; or, the Doodleburger from New Haven, Connecticut, which options white American cheese, a single slice of tomato, onions, and a facet of purple relish.
“It’s been my life mission to be sure that folks recognize the American hamburger on a way more complicated, deeper degree,” Motz says. “There’s much more to the origin tales of those burgers.”
Watch the most recent episode of Icons: Burgers to study extra in regards to the making of those historic burgers.
