Sunday, June 7, 2020

Bacon Pimento Cheese Patty Melts

We have been having a lot of burgers in the past two weeks, so last night I shook things up and made patty melts instead. These aren't traditional patty melts. These delicious sandwiches are half-pound burgers cooked on a griddle, topped with Alexis' pimento cheese, Applewood smoked bacon, and served on Texas toast.

Grilled Texas toast, applewood smoked bacon, half-pound burger, and homemade pimento cheese

Alexis made our standard pimento cheese recipe. The whipped cream cheese in there adds a velvety texture to the burger. If you opt to buy pimento cheese instead of making it, be choosy. You want good pimento cheese for this, not the bright orange goop. You should be able to see strands of shredded cheese in the mix, like the Palmetto Cheese brand.

I use an ice cream scoop to portion out my pimento cheese. Leave the pimento cheese out at room temperature while getting everything ready so it will melt more easily.

Bacon Pimento Cheese Patty Melts

By www.nibblemethis.com

Published 06/07/2020

Ingredients

8 slices Texas toast
1/4 cup Duke's mayonnaise
32 ounces fresh ground chuck
2 teaspoons finely ground NMT Beef Rub v.2 recipe or another beef rub
1 cup pimento cheese
12 slices Smithfield Applewood Smoked Bacon, cooked

Preparation

There's not a lot to do. I weighed out the ground chuck into four 8-ounce balls, and then I pressed them into patties using a burger press. Namely, the Ballistic Smash, from my friends at Craycort. There is no seasoning at this time, just straight-up beef. Then I put them in the fridge to stay cold until I grill.

Here are examples of burger presses. I used the one on the front left, the Ballistic Smash.

Tip: Do everything you can to preserve the fat in the burger grind. BBQ hounds like me will often use cotton gloves under nitrile food gloves as a lightweight, nimble heat-resistant glove. Well, this also works for keeping the heat of your hands from melting the fat in the burgers while you form or handle them.

I do like to leave the pimento cheese out at room temperature while I get things ready so it will be closer to it's melting temp when it hits the burger.

Grill Set-Up

You need a griddle for this, so you can use a skillet, a griddle plate, or a flat-top griddle. Today, I chose to use the PK Grill with Grill Grates flipped over so I could use the flat backside as a griddle.

I lit a half chimney of Kingsford "blue bag" briquettes. When they were ready, I dumped them into the charcoal basket and let the griddle preheat until it was hot. I used a non-contact thermometer to check that it was over 500°f. But if you hold your hand about 2 inches over the griddle, it should be so hot that you can't keep your hand there for more than 2-3 seconds.

Cook

This was pretty simple too. First, I lightly brushed the mayonnaise onto both sides of the Texas toast and toasted it on both sides. My grill was so hot it only took seconds per side.

I put the patties down and let them cook for 4 minutes. When the juices are starting to spring up in the top of the burger patties, you know it's time to flip.

Patty melts on GrillGrates on the PKGrill

I season the burgers immediately after flipping them. The hot, rendered fat wit soak the fine seasoning onto the burger. I used my NMT Beef Rub v.2 (kosher salt, black pepper, garlic, dried shallot, dried red bell pepper, ancho, cayenne, and oregano), but you can use other beef rubs. Just be sure to finely grind whatever you use.

Then I topped each patty with an ice cream scoop worth of pimento cheese, about 1/4 cup.

Now let them cook until the cheese is melty and the burger reaches your desired doneness. I let mine go another 4 minutes. Then I removed them to a resting rack.