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Superbowl food?

jsharr

By jsharr
in The Café

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MickinMD KOM / QOM

MickinMD ★

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Among wings, crabcakes, meatballs, sausage dogs, and more, the BIG hit was that my brother made Harley Burgers!

Back in the 60's and 70's, there was a chain of several carryouts in the Baltimore Area named "Harley's."

THE big seller was a hamburger, marinated for an hour or more in an onion-heavy ketchup and Worcestershire-based sauce called the "Harley Burger."

When I worked at a fast-food place a couple doors away from Harley's where we workers got free food - including KFC chicken - every once in a while we STILL bought a Harley burger because they were so good.

So my brother Tim's contribution was the big hit.  I had found two variations on the recipe and posted them in the private Facebook site, "I Grew Up In Brooklyn Park."  I don't know which recipe Tim used but these both work, though marinating the burgers in the hot sauce for a couple hours helps more than hurts:

Harley Burger

Recipe 1: Bill's Harley Burgers

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2014-07-22/entertainment/bs-fo-recipe-finder-harley-burger-20140722_1_letter-and-recipes-recipe-finder-patties

Makes 8 burgers

8 frozen beef patties, as thin as possible (2 pounds total)

3 cups water

2 tablespoons A1 steak sauce

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

1/3 cup ketchup

1 teaspoon brown sugar, optional

2 large onions, sliced in rings

Salt and pepper to taste

8 soft kaiser rolls (hamburger buns work fine)

Saute frozen beef patties in a large skillet over medium-high heat, turning once, until cooked about half way. Remove patties from pan and set aside.

Drain any fat from pan and add the water, steak sauce, Worcestershire sauce, ketchup and brown sugar (if using). Bring to a boil, reduce heat and cook and stir for about 2 minutes then add in the sliced onions.

Cover and simmer on low until onions are tender, about 10 to 15 minutes, then place the patties back into the pan and cook another 10 minutes or until patties are thoroughly cooked.

Place individual patty on roll and top with sauce and lots of onions.

 

Recipe 2 Baltimore Harley Burger

http://www.vintagerecipeblog.com/2016/03/the-harley-burger.html

     Reconstructing this recipe has not been easy.  The original recipes were lost after Shane's, the successor to Harley's, closed down in the 90's, however the clues are out there like this recipe.  The model for it appeared in an old edition of the Baltimore Sun.  I tried it but thought the sauce was watery and under-flavored compared to the original Harley Burger Sauce.  So since then I've made it no less than 7 times trying out different variations and ingredients until one day, one glorious day I hit the nail on the head

     Now keep in mind, this recipe is my own interpretation, based on what I remember the originals tasting like as such, it's open to interpretation.  I'm always open to comments and suggestions from anyone else who experienced this heaven on a bun back in the day.  I have 2 measurments of water in the recipe to cover 2 different lengths of the last simmer.  In the restaurant the burgers were simmered in the sauce a long time so you need to ad more water initially to cover this time, however if you want a quicker recipe you can simmer the burgers a shorter time and use the reduced amount of water.

1# ground chuck, divided into 4 parts and smashed evenly thin and frozen
4 Potato Bread Hamburger Buns
2-3 cups water

Sauce Seasoning:
2 large red onions sliced in medium rings
1/4C A-1 steak sauce
1/4C Worcestershire sauce
2/3C ketchup
1 teaspoon sugar
1tsp Tabasco Sauce (can be reduced by half for a less spicy sauce)
1/2tsp Mustard Powder
1/4tsp Garlic Powder
1tsp Salt
1/2tsp Pepper

The first step is to form the meat into 1/4lb patties.  These burgers are much thinner than your usual 1/4lb patty so I used 2 small plates and smashed each meatball into a patty 1/4inch thick.  Stack them separated by wax paper and freeze completely.  Get all your sauce seasoning ingredients ready by mixing together in a bowl until well blended. Get a frying pan (not nonstick!) searing hot and sear the burgers 3 mins on each side then set aside.  Your pan should have a nice brown coating on the bottom (fond).  Deglaze the pan with the water using 2C for a short final simmer or 3C for a long final simmer.  Scrape up all the brown bits on the bottom and mix into the water then add your bowl of seasonings and mix well.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 2 minutes before adding onion rings.  Simmer uncovered for 15 minutes then add burgers back in making sure they are covered with the sauce.  If you used 2C water simmer for 15 minutes before serving, if you used 3C water simmer for 30-45 minutes.  In either case the sauce should have reduced down to a gravy like thickness.  To serve, split a potato roll, on the bottom place a patty and top with some onions and add a teaspoon of sauce to the top bun.  These can also be served with cheese, lettuce and sliced tomato.

Remove onions from any leftover sauce and save sauce in the fridge, I'll get to a use for that in another recipe but in the meantime try it on a roast beef sandwich.

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