Wicked Good Burgers Cookbook

Wicked Good Burgers - Fearless Recipes and Uncompromising Techniques for the Ultimate Patty

Not only is May National Barbecue Month and also National Hamburger Month, but the unofficial beginning of summer is right around the corner with Memorial Day cookouts and celebrations this weekend and that means the return of the burger!

Update: Congratulations to Diana A from Texas who wrote "Fearless recipes and uncompromising techniques... what a great combination." Diane, please shoot me an email before midnight CST on 6/1/13 with your complete mailing info so we can get your cookbook out in the mail to you. Congratulations!

Not that it's ever gone all that far really - I have read that the average American eats burgers three times a week - but there is just something about the aroma of those burgers flipped on a summer grill, in the midst of kids splashing in a pool, wedges of ice cold watermelon, and tall glasses of homemade lemonade and that just makes 'em taste that much better. Wicked Good Burgers will give you plenty of reasons to want to venture outside of the burger box this summer.

Making a decent burger is pretty easy. But the devil is in the details when making a "wicked good" burger, the kind of burger that hits the sweet spot of juiciness, has a perfectly seared crust, and mouthwatering flavor.

Unless you follow the competition BBQ circuits, you may not be familiar with the iQue BBQ team from Boston since they aren't exactly Southerners. But, due to their upset as the first group of Northerners in history to win the Jack Daniel’s World Championship Invitational in Lynchburg, Tennessee in 2009, and the fact that they've racked up 30 Kansas City Barbecue Society championships, maybe that ought to change.

That win led to the release of the first book in the Wicked Good series, Wicked Good Barbecue. The book went on to charm even the most fickle of BBQ aficionados and found mentions everywhere from The Boston Globe to The Wall Street Journal before finally being named “BBQ Book of the Year” by the National Barbecue News. I'd say that earned them a little bit of Southern respect y'all!

In this second in the series new release, Wicked Good Burgers, Andy Husbands and Chris Hart, along with food writer Andrea Pyenson, bring new techniques, inspirations, and ingredients to take the average burger to the next level.

What I really loved about this burger book is that it literally takes you all the way through getting the perfect burger, from A to Z, and everything in between.

Chapter 1, "The Basics of Burgers" covers how to grind your own meat, special meat blends to use, shaping burgers, the equipment to use and perfected cooking methods - from the griddle to wood-fired and charcoal.

Chapter 2 "Burgers 101," walks you through the entire process, from the meat to the condiments to the bun - leading you to the "perfect burger.' You'll find burger seasonings and special sauces, burger toppings like Gram's Bread and Butter Pickles, Pig Candy, Pickled Green Tops, Peppered Onion Rings and ketchups, mustards and other condiments such as Best.Mayo.Ever., and even how to make Black Pepper Cured Bacon! Recipes for regular and bakery style burger buns are included, and there's even info on how to do a Soux Vide Burger, if you're so inclined.

Chapter 3 "New American Classics" is where Andy and Chris bring a sampling of some of the native cuisines they picked up from all around the country as they traveled to compete on the barbecue circuits. Here you'll find the Brisket Burger, Brat Burger, New Mexican Tortilla Wrapped Chile Burger, Beach House Burger, Pastrami Burger, Diner-Style Steamed Cheeseburgers and the Hill Country Brisket Burger pictured below, among others.

Chapter 4, "Where's the Beef" moves beyond the standard beef burger to bring in burgers made from ingredients including salmon, beet, duck, bison, turkey, lamb, portobello, tuna burgers and the Tremont 647 Pajama Brunch favorite, Breakfast Burger, pictured below.

Chapter 5, "Burgers Beyond Borders," approaches burgers from a global perspective with recipes for a Banh Mi Burger, Carribean Goat Burgers, Moroccan Chickpea Burgers, a Korean Bulgogi burger and the Gold Coast Burger pictured below, plus others.

Chapter 6 "You Want Fries with That" gives us not only a great recipe for standard double cooked  French fries, but also Creole fries, Duck fat fries, Sweet Potato Pub Fries, Poutine, onion rings, BBQ Potato Chips and even includes a recipe for Salt and Vinegar Potato Chips, and more.

Chapter 7, "It's a Frappe" wraps things up with the sweet stuff, in the form of Vanilla Frappe, as pictured below and a recipe for Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream, Salted Caramel Frappe made with a Brown Sugar Simple Syrup, Darkest Chocolate Frappe with Devilish Chocolate Sauce, Chocolate Almond Banana Smoothie, and a recipe for homemade Coconut Ice Cream intended for use in their Ginger Beer Float, among others.

Hungry yet?

Pick up a copy of Wicked Good Burger and the previous, Wicked Good Barbecue, at your favorite local bookstore, or from online sources such as Amazon.

GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED! The publisher has agreed to provide ONE additional copy of Wicked Good Burger for me to give to ONE lucky Deep South Dish reader - completely free!

To enter, leave a comment on this post (Please comment only once!) and let me know what you think about the book. If you post anonymous, please leave a first name and last initial to identify yourself. This giveaway closes on Monday, May 27th, 2013 at midnight CST. One winner will be selected at random from the comments and will be announced as soon as possible on the site at this post. Winner will have 48 hours to respond to claim the cookbook. Giveaway open to U.S. residents only please.

Thanks for reading and good luck! Now if you'll excuse me, I suddenly seem to have a serious craving for a burger!

Posted by Mary on May 24, 2013

Disclosure: I received one complimentary copy of Wicked Good Burgers to review and another to giveaway.

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Material Disclosure: Unless otherwise noted, you should assume that post links to the providers of goods and services mentioned, establish an affiliate relationship and/or other material connection and that I may be compensated when you purchase from a provider. You are never under any obligation to purchase anything when using my recipes and you should always perform due diligence before buying goods or services from anyone via the Internet or offline.

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