THE SECRET TO A MOIST TURKEY BURGER
Plus the boozy slushie you'll be making all summer!
Happy Thursday W4D friends! We are on the precipice of Summer and, boy, are we excited for grilling season. But don’t you worry if you don’t have a grill, this week’s recipe is just as good made in a cast-iron skillet. Anthony’s giving you his secret to perfectly moist turkey burgers—even though he HATES the “M-word.” Plus, if you’re looking for the most refreshing drink of the summer, look no further than Elizabeth’s Easy Peachy Bourbon Slush!
TURKEY BURGERS SHOULDN’T BE HOCKEY PUCKS
AU: There’s an inherent problem with turkey burgers. When you order a beef burger, you can choose it to be cooked Rare to Well-Done. I usually land somewhere in the Medium range, because the less a beef burger is cooked, the more tender it tends to be. However, the more a beef burger is cooked, the BEEFIER tasting it tends to be (hello smash burgers!)… Do you find this to be true, Elizabeth??
EK: I do! And In the case of the smash burger, I think it’s because you smash it and it fries in its own fat—that beefy tallow! Also, I think the better the quality of beef, the less it matters if it’s well done. Shake Shack is famous for their high-quality Pat LaFreida beef and it is always cooked through, a.k.a. well done, but the flavor is as beefy as it gets.
AU: The point is, the consumer of said burger can decide whether they want it to be a fall-apart-in-their-hands burger experience, or a beefy cooked-all-the-way-through experience.
But you’ve got to cook turkey (or chicken) burgers all the way through—no exceptions. Nobody wants POULTRY TARTARE between two buns! So how does one do this without the meat turning into a dense, dry hockey puck?!?
Enter the Panade.
Panade - (Noun; pe-NÄD) A milk-and-bread paste that's mixed into ground meat to prevent it from becoming too dry or hard during cooking; the bread starches absorb milk to form a gel that coats and lubricates the meat,
keeping it moist and tender.
AU: If you grew up in an Italian household, chances are your Nonna or Nonno soaked breadcrumbs, crushed saltines, or sliced bread in milk to make their meatballs light and tender. Well, it turns out, there’s actual science behind this method…
🚨🤓 SCIENCE NERD ALERT 🤓🚨: When you cook ground meat, the strands of proteins start to twist like a towel being rung out, and what are they wringing out? Moisture. It’s going right into the pan or through the grill grates. When you add a panade to ground meat, the starch molecules from the bread combine with the milk and create a gel (sounds terrible; is good!) that keeps all the moisture from seeping out of your lovingly-seasoned meat.
EK: OK, you win the prize! That is the best description! I love the wringing towel analogy! It is often difficult to explain food science in an appetizing way and you have succeeded. You made your point and I still want to make the recipe!
AU: Now that I’ve fully come out as a CULINARY NERD, let’s proceed to the recipe, shall we?
This is my husband, Josh’s, favorite turkey burger. I’ve been making this since we first started dating. I got the inspiration for this recipe from Melissa Clark’s first cookbook, In the Kitchen with a Good Appetite, after she came onto GMA for a cooking segment (It was around 2010, maybe?).
Melissa Clark has been writing her column, A Good Appetite, for the New York Times Food Section since 2007. I’ll never forget the morning she came on, because she brought in warm brownies that she had just baked individually wrapped in foil to hand out. They were fudgy and warm, with a hint of chipotle pepper and tons of flakey Maldon sea salt on top. Turns out they were Kate Krader’s recipe!
EK: First, the thing that most people in the food world don’t talk about it that almost everything that we create is inspired by something we saw, or tasted. I love hearing about the origin of the recipe and I love that Melissa Clark from the New York Times brought Kate Krader’s brownies to GMA! For those who don’t know Kate, she was a longtime editor at Food & Wine magazine and has been the Food Editor at Bloomberg since 2016. The point is that we all make each other’s recipes and riff on them…
AU: It’s true, and that’s the beauty of food! Melissa was lovely and a total pro. (And to answer your question, yes, I scarfed down two brownies at 5:30am.)
Anywho, I don’t remember what we made from the cookbook on GMA that day, but I do remember loving most of the recipes in it. She has a recipe for “Dahlia’s Fragrant Chicken Fingers,” which she apparently based off of a recipe for lamb kibbeh, a heavily-spiced combo of ground meat and bulgar wheat. I made and adapted the dish into a turkey burger for Josh many moons ago, and he loved it so much, that it’s become our go-to turkey burger recipe!
EK: I can’t wait to make this because truth be told, I have never really had a good turkey burger!
AU: Well today’s the day, EAK!! The method is super simple: Make a panade by soaking two slices of torn sandwich bread in 1/2 cup of whole milk. Then mix in all the flavorful ingredients: scallions, garlic, whatever soft herbs you have on hand… Then load your turkey mixture up with warm spices like cumin, allspice, cinnamon, and Aleppo pepper.
AU: With damp hands, I form the meat mixture into patties and let them “set up” in the fridge for a while—I find this is helpful when grilling them on grill grates, but it’s not necessary, especially if you’re just cooking them in a pan or on a flat-top griddle.
As I mentioned earlier, you need to cook these burgers allllll the way through… ‘til the internal temp reads 165ºF on an instant-read thermometer. Don’t worry about them being dry—your panade is like a little moisture insurance policy.
AU: Sometimes I serve ‘em as burgers, sometimes I make smaller patties and wrap them in a pita with an easy yogurt-feta sauce (or store bought tzatziki) and a salad, and sometimes I just eat them straight up with some spicy harissa or muhammara—any way you serve ‘em, they’re gonna be your new go-to, too!
EASY PEACHY BOURBON SLUSH
EK: My drink today was also inspired by a New York experience and a New York Friend, although she is originally from Kentucky. Like Melissa Clark and Kate Krader, Kat Kinsman is a fixture in New York Food Media and she is famous for her Bourbon Slush.
It’s the drink recipe that Kat remembers having at every party in her hometown, and she brought the recipe with her to NYC, which made converts of anyone who was lucky enough to share a glass with her.
It is a great make-in-advance recipe, because you have to store it in the freezer, and it inspired me to make a simpler version with frozen peaches and tea. I love a good peach tea and this is the icy boozy version of that. It is topped with your favorite ginger ale or ginger beer and drinks like a refreshing punch with a punch!
AU: This seems like a drink that’s RIGHT UP MY ALLEY! I don’t drink a lot of frozen drinks because I feel like they’re so often overloaded with sugar (I prefer to get my sugar from baked goods thankyouverymuch). This seems like a low-sugar (aside from the alcohol itself) option!
EK: It is infinitely customizable. You can decide how sweet to make it, how strong to make it and how slushy to make it.
If your idea of “peach tea” is from a tea soft drink or a Jolly Rancher, you will need to add sugar—probably more sugar than you think you need—because frozen peaches are not very sweet on their own. I like to use maple syrup because it adds some nice flavor that compliments the bourbon but simple syrup is a good choice if you want the peach notes to be the most prominent flavor. The lemonade and the ginger-ale/ginger beer will add a little sweetness to the drink so if you don’t like sweet drinks, don’t add any sugar.
And, if you want to make it a low ABV cocktail, use only 1/2 cup of Bourbon for the whole batch. If you want to make it medium-strong, use 1 cup of bourbon and if you want to make it a strong drink, add a bourbon floater on top of the ginger ale. 🍑🥃
Peach-Ginger Bourbon Slush
This is a refreshing drink that is like an adult “Slurpee,” and was inspired by the Bourbon Slush served in parts of Kentucky. You make the peach-bourbon mixture in advance and freeze it. When you are ready to imbibe, you spoon it into a glass and top it with a ginger ale floater.
Makes about 8 drinks
½ cup strong black tea
1-2 tablespoons maple syrup or simple syrup, if you like your drinks sweeter
½ cup lemonade
½-1 cup Bourbon, depending on how strong you like it
2 generous cups frozen sliced peaches
Ginger Ale or Ginger Beer for serving
Make the tea and let it cool. I use 1 tea bag and ½ cup of boiling water to make a strong cup.
If using the extra sweetener, add to the tea and stir. Maple syrup gives the drink a nice added flavor while the simple syrup just adds sweetness.
When read to make the drink, add the tea, lemonade, Bourbon and frozen peaches to a high-powered blender or smoothie machine. I make this in my Ninja Foodi Smoothie Maker which works exceptionally well.
Blend until it is completely liquified and place in the freezer, at least 4 hours. If making in advance, let it freeze overnight and place in the refrigerator to soften about 5 hours before serving. It should have the texture of a soft sorbet.
When ready to serve, spoon 2 small scoops of the frozen mixture into a glass and top with strong ginger ale or ginger beer.
Enjoy with a straw or even a spoon!
Enjoy them!!
We’re huge turkey burger fans, and I am very grateful for this recipe. I usually add bread, ketchup, fried onion and a whole lot of spices, but I haven’t tried soaking the bread in milk. Is there some reason the liquid needs to be milk?