Prep Time:  3 minutes.  Cooking time:  12 to 14 minutes.

I once saw a French chef make a hamburger by pushing a filet mignon of Kobe beef through a meat grinder.  He sautéed the burger in a pan, served it on a Kaiser roll, and topped it with truffle sauce!  The chef said it would be the best burger of my life, but at $100 per plate, I will never know.

You and I don’t need to do all that.  We can have the best burger of our lives for around $4 total.  The French chef got one thing right:  the beginning of a perfect burger is the actual burger.  If you use high quality ingredients, you don’t need to dress up the burger very much.  The cooking process itself brings out the flavor.

We use ground pork for our burgers, because we have plenty of pork, and because it is so incredibly good.  We have spent years working to get the perfect balance of protein and fat in our ground pork, to obtain maximum flavor and juiciness, while keeping our pork extraordinarily healthy.  You can also mix grass-fed ground beef with pastured ground pork, at a ratio of one to one, for an equally delicious burger with a slightly different flavor.   

Why this recipe is incredible:  Using this recipe and these ingredients, you can enjoy the best burger of your life within 20 minutes of warming up the pan.  This also may be the healthiest burger you ever enjoy.  And you can make this burger at home for less than you would pay for it in any restaurant. 

One other note:  The coup de grace of this burger is our unique substitution for truffle sauce.  The most intense and wonderful flavor of the burger is actually left in the pan after you remove the burger.  Simply de-glaze the pan with a good red wine, cook out the alcohol, and then drizzle the glaze on the burger.  The glaze adds an amazing flavor.  

Ingredients (serves 2 half-pound burgers):

• one pound pastured ground pork
• 4 tablespoons Worchestershire sauce
• several dashes of hot sauce
• a pinch of sea salt and pepper
• (optional:  good red wine for a thick deglazing sauce)

To prepare:  Divide a pound of pastured ground pork in half, roll each half into a ball, and flatten each ball into a patty.  Do not overwork the pork, which can toughen it, just press into flat patties.  For best results, the patty should be just thick enough to cook all the way through as it crisps in the pan. 

Pour a generous tablespoon of Worcestershire over each patty, several dashes of hot sauce, and a good pinch of sea salt and pepper.  Place the dressed side down in a pan over medium heat.  While the patties are cooking, splash more Worcestershire and hot sauce on the patties, and another pinch of salt and pepper.

Sautee the patties over medium heat until they crisp on bottom, about five to seven minutes, then turn them over in the pan.  Continue to saute until the patties are cooked through and slightly crisped on the other side, another five to seven minutes.  Remove from pan and let rest on a plate for five minutes before serving. 

Deglaze the pan with about one cup of good red wine immediately after removing the burgers. Cook over medium heat while stirring continually for about one to three minutes, until all of the alcohol cooks out.  Pour the thick sauce you have made into a bowl and give it a taste–it will be intense and wonderful–then pour as much as you would like directly over the burger.  Serve.

We serve our burgers on our homemade bread, and top them with our own pickles, grilled onions and mushrooms, and a little English Coleman’s mustard.

Nutrition Information

(for 1/2 lb burger) 

Calories: 386 kcal

Fat: 19.8 g

Sat fat: 8 g

Protein: 44 g

Sodium: 544 mg Na