Only make this burger…
If you really, really love your friends.
If you have no big plans this weekend (besides holding a spatula in one hand and a cold beer in the other).
If you have developed a strong working relationship with your local butcher.
And if you know a cocky backyard grill master, consider tying a ribbon around this burger, which you can prepare in the air-conditioned comfort of your own kitchen, and delivering it with a note: “Bless your heart. And you’re welcome.”
Only make this brisket-and-short-rib behemoth if you’re in no rush to move afterward. “You have to have some recovery time,” laughs chef Thomas Boemer. “After eating this, it might be a good time to get caught up on a crossword puzzle. Or do some bird watching.”
Boemer, whose childhood was split between North and South Carolina, now serves Southern food to wrapped-around-the-block crowds at his Revival restaurants in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota. In a recent poll, locals named the “Revival Burger” their favorite in the Twin Cities. The decadent patty is shaped with ground brisket and beef short rib. “You bite into it and it just melts,” Boemer says. “And you get this intense beefy flavor.”
The other ingredients work together in harmony, never taking away from the symphony of beef: soft potato-bread buns, which Boemer remembers from backyard parties in South Carolina, the right mayonnaise (“Duke’s has a nice bite,” he says. “It’s worthy of all the praise it gets.”), melty American cheese, and a crown of bread-and-butter pickles.
Courtesy of Revival
A few tips:
• Ask your favorite butcher to grind up their best brisket and short rib in a 2 to 1 ratio.
• Avoid over-handling the patties for what Boemer calls “weird lumps that look like someone sat on a meatball for a while.” Instead, barely combine the ground brisket and short rib in your hands and then press them into patties on the skillet with a spatula.
• And don’t go fancy on the bread. “Brioche is too rich and takes away from the hamburger,” Boemer says. “I like squishy, sweeter potato bread. The bun should just allow you to hold onto this intense, luxurious thing.”
• Consider making a double or triple decker. If you’re ready for that.
Courtesy of Revival
