‘Outrageous’ toppings becoming the norm for burger fans
Shannon St. Onge had just returned home from a workout when she tuned into the Food Network and saw a chef pour what looked like blueberry sauce on top of a hamburger.
“I was both horrified and intrigued,” said St. Onge, formerly from Ardoise, N.S., now living in Saskatchewan.
“I said, 'Oh my gosh, I have to try this.' The horror was in the culture shock - who would ever think to put fruit on a burger?”
People do put fruit like pineapples on their burgers, so why not a popular domestic fruit from the East Coast like a blueberry, she thought.
So, she decided to whip up her own version by mixing half a lemon, a half-cup of blueberries, and some sugar, bringing it to a boil before adding some corn starch as a thickener.
In addition to the sauce, St. Onge crumbled up some blue cheese to balance the flavours.
“My daughter took a bite, but her dad and I enjoyed it,” she said. “We have some blackberries, so maybe we could make a blackberry sauce and mix it with another kind of cheese.”
SOCIAL MEDIA IMPACT
The art of the hamburger has greatly advanced in the past decade or so. Thanks in part to numerous promotions across Atlantic Canada - such as PEI Burger Love, Halifax Burger Week, Burger & Brew Fest NL, Truro Burger Week, Burger Wars in the Annapolis Valley,
and others - a tasty, locallysourced burger often needs more than a slice of tomato and a lettuce leaf to be a truly great burger.
Gabby Peyton, a food writer based in St. John's, NL, theorizes that the “outrageous” toppings coincided with the rise in social media in the early 2010s.
“(That was) when all kinds of dishes became trendy and more over-the-top visually. Think about it; without social media, Halifax Burger Week would not have been half as successful,” Peyton said.
While the sky's the limit when it comes to what one can put on a burger, Peyton points out that creating a unique burger involves more than just “mashing up” a bunch of random toppings and flavours.
“I've had burgers where they swapped out the hamburger buns for glazed donuts that were amazing, and I've had peanut butter and jelly burgers that were a disaster,” Peyton said.
As a food writer, Peyton has had ample opportunity to discover the many flavours one can add to the standard beef patty. For toppings, Peyton has had everything from bacon-wrapped onion rings to deep-fried blocks of feta to mac and cheese. She's also had a taco burger with avocado, sour cream, cilantro, and black beans, and she recently had a French Onion Soup burger, with melted Swiss cheese and “lots” of caramelized onion.
“(It) transformed the classic soup into a burger,” Peyton said. “Even a sushi burger —
maybe with a deep-fried rice patty, sushi-grade tuna, and spicy mayo — executed well is delicious.”
And as proof of how subjective taste can be, Peyton said she also had burgers with fried egg toppings, popular in Australia and New Zealand, and also found in some gourmet burgers here. She's not a fan.
“I think it's overrated,” Peyton said. “I just like to keep my breakfast sandwiches and my burgers a separate thing.”
Ella Harris, of Alberton, PEI, on the other hand, has no issue adding a sometimes-breakfast item to her burger experience. While she has several favourite toppings, peanut butter is undoubtedly near the top. She puts peanut butter on the
burgers she makes at home, basing it on similar menu items of restaurants in both PEI and Halifax.
“(Natural peanut butter) adds a rich undertone flavour, much like how peanuts on your Thai food taste good,” Harris said. “Peanut butter and bacon sandwiches are delicious for breakfast – picture eating your peanut butter toast at breakfast and taking a bite of bacon at the same time. It's wonderful.”
As a student, Harris would work summers in the kitchen at the Huntley Horizon take-out just up the road from the Town of Alberton. And she fondly recalls her youth when she and her family would stop in at the take-out for some burgers.
“It was always a cheeseburger for me,” Harris said. “Working there, I was able to cook my own food and place my own toppings and experiment.”
But this burger connoisseur believes there is such a thing as going too far.
“The burger should be kept simple and to a theme of a couple of flavour combination ideas, and not the kitchen sink,” Harris said. “If you can't handhold it, it's not a burger anymore. If your hands are disgusting while holding it, it's no fun.”
And Harris says the basic elements of the burger – the quality of the beef and the bun – are key. The bun needs to be fresh and soft, and the meat has to be cooked well, with good juice and flavour.
“If you have those two things, the rest is easy.”