Before you toss the usual burgers on the grill this summer, before you endure the usual groans from bored burger eaters among your family and friends, do this: Stuff it.
Yep, surprise those blasé about burgers, and up your grilling game by tucking a chunk of cheese, a spoonful of sautéed mushrooms or some chopped, grilled red pepper -- and more -- inside a burger patty before grilling.
Think about stuffed burgers the way cookbook author Sam Zien does: "For me, it's like a little party. Surprise! Here I am. You didn't think there was going to be a piece of feta inside."
The stuffed burger, Zien adds, "has always been an old-school kind of concept."
And a good, reliable one, we might add. The surprise factor has worked every time someone bites into a plump sausage orb dubbed a Scotch egg and finds a hard-cooked egg inside.
And it worked every time your granny tucked a hard-cooked egg or cheese into the middle of the family meatloaf only to elicit giggles from children when the cooked loaf was sliced.
The stuffed burger has long held a place of honor on menus across the country, from Twin Cities eateries serving the cheese-stuffed burger variously called a "juicy lucy" or "jucy lucy," to New York's Stumble Inn, where five stuffed burgers have helped build its reputation. And cookware stores boast burger-stuffing gadgets.
"I love putting things inside because certain things inside definitely help with the moistness of a burger," says Zien, who likes stuffed burgers so much he included a recipe in his latest book, "Just Grill This!" (Wiley, $19.95). He put a few in his previous cookbooks, too, and prepared them on his TV cooking show in his San Diego hometown.