Cook's Country

-"Cook's Country" is about more than just getting dinner on the table.

We're also fascinated by the people and stories behind the dishes.

We go inside kitchens in every corner of the country to learn how real people cook, and we look back through time to see how history influences the way we eat today.

We bring that inspiration back to our test kitchen so we can share it with you.

This is "Cook's Country."

-Today on "Cook's Country," Christie makes brunch burgers, and I explain how burgers made it onto the breakfast menu.

Jack shares our recommended cooking sprays, and Lawman makes browned butter chocolate chunk muffins.

Mm-mm!

That's all right here on "Cook's Country."

-Funding for this program has been provided by the following.

-Monument Grills, offering innovative technology and design for the grilling enthusiast.

With a lineup of gas grills to suit every level, our mission is to ignite your passion to pursue the art of grilling.

Learn more at monumentgrills.com.

-I've eaten my fair share of burgers topped with a fried egg, often called a brunch burger, and they're delicious because, as you eat, the yolk makes a gorgeous sauce.

And today Christie is going to make a brunch burger.

But she's not just stopping at the egg.

You're going all in.

-All in.

-I love it.

-You know, breakfast foods are good for any meal.

-Mm-hmm.

-And brunch is always totally over-the-top.

-Yeah.

-So, this brunch burger is just going to tick all the boxes.

We got eggs.

We got bacon.

We got cheese.

We got some sausage.

We got some maple syrup.

It's all in there.

It's just going to take a little coordination... -Okay.

-...to make it all work.

A good brunch burger needs a good brunch-burger sauce.

-Mm-hmm.

-So, I have 1/2 a cup of mayo, 1 1/2 tablespoons of minced, canned chipotle chilies in adobo.

It's getting us heat and smoke.

-Mm-hmm.

-I also have a tablespoon of Worcestershire.

-Mm-hmm.

-So, that'll give us that savory hit.

A tablespoon of maple syrup, and I have 1/2 a teaspoon of pepper.

-Well, this is off to quite a flavorful start, I have to say.

-I told you, over-the-top, all over the place.

-[ Laughs ] -Okay, so, that's good.

Now the burger.

So, this is 8 ounces of bulk breakfast sausage... -Mm-hmm.

-...that I'm adding to a pound of 85%-lean ground beef.

-Okay.

So, that's pork sausage.

-Mm-hmm.

I'm just going to get in there and mix this all up until it's nice and cohesive.

Divide this into four equal pieces.

And then I'll take each section and fashion it into a patty.

-I can help you do that.

-You want to do that?

You want to get your hands dirty, too.

-Yeah.

Always.

-We just want these to be 4 1/2 inches in diameter.

We're going to put a lot of toppings on this burger.

-Ah!

-So, it's better to have a kind of spread-out burger than a really thick, squat burger.

Now, the only thing we have left to do is give it a little divot in the center, just kind of pressing down in the middle of the burger, because we know that as this cooks, it's going to pop up and give us a domed top.

-Mm-hmm.

-And like I said, we don't have room for domes with this burger.

-Mnh-mnh.

-We need every bit of surface area we have.

So, by making the dent, it will just pop up and cook flat.

So, these are ready to go.

You could actually cover these with plastic and refrigerate them for up to 24 hours.

But we're just going to clean up, and then we're going to keep on going.

A good brunch burger has bacon.

-Mm-hmm.

-So, we're going to have some bacon in this.

I have four pieces of thick-cut bacon, and I cut them in half because it's going to make them easier to maneuver in the pan, and it's also going to make it easier to build the burgers.

We'll cook these over medium heat.

Give them plenty of time to get nice and crispy, 8 to 10 minutes.

-Okay.

-In the meantime, I told you that this burger was over-the-top, right?

-Yep.

-So, we're going over the top of the literal burger, and we're going to play with the brioche buns.

We're going to add some Everything Bagel seasoning.

-Oh, fun.

-Now, if you have some at home already... -Mm-hmm.

-...you can use 2 1/2 teaspoons.

But we're going to make our own.

So, I have 1/2 a teaspoon of sesame seeds, 1/2 a teaspoon of poppy seeds.

Here's where the flavor is -- 1/2 a teaspoon of dried minced garlic... -Mm-hmm!

-...and 1/2 a teaspoon of dried onion flakes.

And then, of course, Everything Bagel is always a little salty -- 1/2 a teaspoon of kosher salt.

And just give that a stir.

I have one large egg that I've lightly beaten, and I'm going to brush that on the tops of my four brioche buns.

This is our glue, so I'll sprinkle these all over the top.

We're going to use this whole mix.

Now, this is going to go into the oven.

I have the oven heated to 350 degrees with the rack in the middle position.

It's only going to take five minutes until the egg has dried and the seed topping has set.

So, Julia, the buns are out of the oven.

And, as you can see, the bacon is pretty much ready to go.

Turn off my heat.

I have a paper-towel-lined plate so we can drain the bacon on that.

All right, now we have all of this super-flavorful fat.

It's a little too much for us right now.

I'm going to add a teaspoon of that back in.

Just find it's easier this way... -Mm-hmm.

-...than to try to eyeball a teaspoon.

Now I'm going to heat my burner on medium-high.

And I want to let the fat get hot enough to just start smoking.

One last thing I want to do is season the burgers.

-Mm-hmm.

-So, I've got a 1/4 teaspoon of salt and then a 1/4 teaspoon of pepper.

So, those are ready to go.

I'm seeing some smoke here.

-Oh, yeah!

-So, we'll put our burgers in.

Look at these nicely shaped burgers.

We're doing these on the first side until the bottom gets well-browned, four to six minutes -Okay.

[ Sizzling ] -Okay, Julia, look at these.

Our divots have just kind of leveled out.

-Mm-hmm.

-These look great.

It's been about four minutes.

-They smell amazing.

-They really do.

Look at that.

-Oh!

That's the perfect amount of char for me.

-Mm.

-Goodness, Christie, those are gorgeous.

-[ Laughs ] I'm going to turn my heat down to medium-low at this point because we're going to add the cheese.

I have four slices of cheddar cheese.

This is about an ounce each.

And we'll cook these for another five to seven minutes.

It's a little longer, but we've turned the heat down.

-Mm-hmm.

-We want the cheese to melt.

And we actually want to cook these to well-done.

160 degrees is what we're looking for.

And that's going to take a little while.

They'll cook on this second side for five to seven minutes.

-Okay.

-There's just nothing better than a big, juicy burger, except maybe a big, juicy burger served at breakfast time.

I assume that's the logic that gave the world the brunch burger.

And while there are infinite variations on this brunch mainstay, one topping is consistent -- the egg.

Like many food trends, it's hard to pinpoint how eggs made it onto burgers.

But we do know that hamburgers topped with fried eggs began appearing on menus by the late 20th century.

In 1974, you could order a brunch burger at Hamburger Hamlet, a California chain.

And in the 1980s, Red Robin was offering Hamburger Benedicts.

Today, you can find brunch burgers at all kinds of places, from fast-food chains to fancy restaurants.

And while we may never know who thought of it first, putting an egg on a burger is just good common sense.

At "Cook's Country," we continue the fried-egg fun with our version of a brunch burger.

-It's been about six minutes.

-Mm!

-So, let's take a temp of this.

I like to go in from the side.

So, we wanted 160.

-That makes sense because there's pork in that burger, and we want it cooked fully through.

-Right.

So, 161.

I'm happy with that.

-Yep.

-Now, there's obviously a lot of grease in this pan.

-You are not kidding!

-And we don't want that to go on to the actual bun.

So, I'm just going to let these burgers drain on a paper-towel-lined plate to get rid of any excess grease.

-Boy, I can smell the sausage.

-You really can, can't you?

-Yeah.

-Now I want to get rid of all of this fat.

And we do want to use this pan again.

So, I'm just going to take some paper towels and give it a wipe.

So, we got rid of the burger-sausage fat.

Now we go back to the bacon, and I'm going to take another tablespoon of the bacon fat.

And that's for cooking the eggs.

But we're not ready yet.

-Okay.

-So, now we're going to start building.

-Okay.

-Don't these look pretty?

-They're gorgeous.

-They look so nice.

So, I'm just going to flip the buns over.

And this is actually a pretty durable coating.

-It doesn't just flake off?

-No, you'll lose a couple little bits.

But for the most part it's going to stay on there.

I'm going to take my sauce.

See, it's thickened a bit as it sat.

-Yeah, it looks great.

-So, we'll put a bit on both of the cut sides.

-[ Laughs ] Yes!

-Well, you can't have a dry bun.

-I hate it when the sauce only goes on one side.

-Right!

-I hope there are a lot of napkins at this brunch.

-[ Laughs ] I think that our burgers have drained sufficiently now.

So, I'm going to very carefully scoop these up and put them on the bottoms.

-Mm-mm-mm!

-And now the bacon.

So, two pieces.

-Oh.

Oh-oh-oh-oh!

-All right.

Last, but not least, the eggs.

-Mm-hmm.

-Now we have our fat in the skillet.

Could you give me some medium-high heat, please?

So, we want to fry four eggs all at the same time.

So, what I've done is I've already cracked two eggs into each of two bowls.

So, I am going to season the eggs just a little bit.

I'm just going to use about a pinch of salt between the two, just to make sure that they have some seasoning, also.

The key here is to hold both of the bowls at the same time, one on each side of the pan, and to very gently pour them in at the same time.

-Nicely done.

-Thank you.

Now we're going to cover these and cook them covered for a minute.

-Mm-hmm.

-It's been a minute.

So, I'm going to turn off the heat.

-Mm-hmm.

-I'm going to move it off the heat because that burner's hot.

And if you're using electric, it'll stay hot.

Now, if you want a really runny egg, you're going to go 15 to 45 seconds with the cover on... -Okay.

-...off the heat.

If you want your egg to be soft but set... -Mm-hmm.

-...it's going to go, like, 45 seconds to a minute.

-Mm-hmm.

-And if you want more of a medium egg that's, you know, gelled in the inside but not really going anywhere, that's going to be about two minutes.

-Okay.

-So, I think you can kind of tell, too, by looking at the eggs.

When you see that they start to get a little opaque over the top, that's a good sign.

So, it's been about 45 seconds.

I think that's probably a good time to get us what we're looking for.

-Sounds good.

-Ooh, these look good.

-Mm-hmm!

-All right.

So, I want to get them out of this hot pan.

-Onto their awaiting burgers.

-Onto their awaiting burgers.

-Oh, gorgeous!

-Look at that!

-Oh, hello.

-Now, I hate to cover them... -Mm-hmm.

-...but we need to cover them.

Oh, look at that.

I mean... -Gorgeous.

-[ Sighs ] -All right.

-But we just can't look at them all day.

Now it's every woman for herself.

[ Both laugh ] -I'm going in, Christie.

I know, after watching you build them, that that yolk is going to make a lovely sauce, and that is going to go all down the front of my shirt.

-Mm-hmm.

-So, brunch burgers mean a fork and knife.

Look at that yolk.

Oh-oh-oh-oh!

-Oh, it's a messy burger.

[ Both laugh ] We should have gotten our bibs.

-[ Laughs ] -Okay.

-Mm!

You can taste the sausage.

The sage makes it taste like breakfast.

-Mm-hmm.

-I actually taste the maple syrup in the sauce.

-And isn't it good there?

-Yeah.

Maple syrup on an egg sandwich is delicious.

-You know, even though we cooked this to essentially well-done, it's so juicy.

-Incredibly juicy.

Oh, Christie, I love this burger.

Thank you for walking me through each step of how to make it.

-You're welcome.

And thank you for helping.

-There you have it.

If you want to make the ultimate brunch burger, start by mixing ground beef with breakfast sausage.

Cook the bacon first, then use the rendered fat to cook the patties and the eggs, and gussy up store-bought buns with Everything Bagel seasoning.

From "Cook's Country," an over-the-top recipe for brunch burgers.

[ Both laugh ] -Sometimes in life, the simplest things get overly complicated.

Cooking spray is a good example.

Now, if you're out shopping in the supermarket, you've probably seen there are lots of choices when it comes to oil.

It's no longer just vegetable oil.

You can have olive oil.

You can have avocado oil.

You can have grapeseed oil.

You can even have coconut oil.

Well, I've got news for you.

You're using so little cooking spray, you can't taste the difference.

You won't see the difference between any of these.

It's absolutely meaningless.

You can use whatever oil you want.

What is important is the delivery mechanism.

Now, these four are all traditional cooking sprays.

By traditional, I mean they have a propellant inside them.

There's either propane or butane inside the can along with the oil.

That propellant is liquid, but when you hit the nozzle, it turns to a gas, and it propels the oil out, and you get a nice, even spray.

Most of these also have lecithin, an emulsifier, so you get really fine coverage.

It helps it get into every nook and cranny on a Bundt pan.

The lecithin also makes cleanup easier.

The one thing we don't like about these is the lecithin does reduce the smoke point.

So, if you're doing high-heat sauting with cooking spray, these traditional models are not nearly as effective.

So, therefore, there is this new style of propellant-less.

These all have actually a bag of oil inside the can.

And there's either nitrogen or compressed air that's sort of surrounding that bag.

And when you hit the nozzle, it squeezes the bag and basically splurts the oil out.

Right -- splurting, not propelling.

Doesn't sound like a good thing.

And, in fact, with the exception of this one here from Chosen Foods, we don't recommend any of the propellant-less cooking sprays because, honestly, they're difficult to use.

Let me show you what the difference is.

So, I've got our favorite, from Pam, traditional cooking spray.

You notice that the nozzle is pointing straight ahead.

So, that's going to make it very intuitive as to where I should be pointing the can.

I'm going to demo here.

And you see here I've got a pretty nice circle.

And if I were trying to get the oil, let's say, into a small ramekin, it would really go where I want it to go.

So, I'm going to take the Chosen Foods.

Now, this is the only one we liked of the kind without the propellant.

It's got this nozzle going up.

So, the first time you use it, I promise you you're going to spray the counter.

I'm going to try not to do that today.

All right.

Let's see.

Well, I actually did kind of spray the counter a little bit.

You see it comes out much less even.

So, if you want to keep it simple, and you don't really care about high-heat sauting, which is really the only time you'd want to be using a propellant-less nontraditional style -- and, honestly, don't you want to be using olive oil when you're sauting your vegetables?

-- you should be sticking with a traditional style.

And our favorite here is the one from Pam.

If you're somebody who wants to try something new, and you want to be able to just saut with your cooking spray over high heat, you can use this nontraditional, nonpropellant style.

The Chosen Foods is our favorite.

So, there you have it.

Something simple, let's keep it simple.

-In the lineup of bakery-style muffins, chocolate chip muffins kind of seem like an afterthought.

Maybe you made some blueberry muffins.

You left the blueberries out, put the chocolate chips in.

They're not really special -- until today.

Lawman's here, and he's told me that he's going to make chocolate chip muffins spectacular.

How are you going to do that?

-These browned butter chocolate chunk muffins are going to change the chocolate chip muffin game.

-You said chocolate chunk.

-I said chocolate chunk.

-All right, I'm listening.

-So, I have 2 cups of all-purpose flour here.

I'm going to add 1 tablespoon of baking powder and 1 teaspoon of table salt.

I'm going to mix that together.

So, that's it for the dry ingredients.

-Mm-hmm.

Easy.

-So, to elevate these muffins further, I have 8 ounces of bar chocolate.

-Mm!

-So, I'm just going to cut them into nice chunks.

-What kind of chocolate is that?

-Semisweet chocolate -Okay.

-I'm using a bread knife because it just makes it a lot easier to cut them into chunks.

And they don't have to be any certain size, because once I add to the flour, and they're in the muffins, they're going to give the muffins unique pockets of chocolate-chunky goodness when they melt.

-Chocolate-chunky goodness.

-Chocolate-chunky goodness.

So, I'm just adding it right to the flour.

Just stir it in there.

So, next, when we're talking about elevating our chocolate chip muffin to something spectacular, I have 16 tablespoons of unsalted butter that I'm going to melt in a 10-inch skillet for about two to four minutes.

What we're doing is we're browning that butter.

-Mm!

-The browned butter is going to give the muffin a rich nuttiness that's going to be delicious.

-Mm!

Okay.

-So, in melting the butter, we're going to be driving off the water.

And in the muffins they're going to give it a rich, tender texture but not dense.

We're cooking it over medium-high heat for two to four minutes.

You'll notice that right on the edge, the butter is starting to brown a little bit.

So, the great thing about using a regular stainless-steel skillet is when it starts to brown, you can actually see the color.

If you use a nonstick, the bottom's too dark.

You're not going to see it browning.

-Oh, that's looking gorgeous.

-So, this is perfect.

It's well-browned.

I'm going to transfer it to a bowl.

Now, we want the butter to cool for about ten minutes because if we add the eggs to the butter right now, it's going to scramble.

And even though these are muffins, and we're having breakfast, we don't want scrambled eggs with the muffins.

-Maybe on the side of the muffins, but not in the muffin.

-Yes, on the side of them.

-Yep.

-So, in that ten minutes, we have just enough time to do a little fun art project that's going to help these muffins.

So, I have a glass here that the bottom is 1 3/4 to 2 inches wide and 12 pieces of parchment that have been cut into a 6-inch square.

-Okay.

-So, what I'm going to do is I'm going to put it right in the middle and fold it down.

-Mm-hmm.

-And what we're doing here is we're making the muffin liners.

The beauty in this is the muffins are going to be nice and tall and have that impressive look.

-All right, so, you have the browned butter.

You have the chunks, no chips.

And now special liners that go way above the edge here.

-Yes.

-Is this second glass for me?

-It is.

-All right.

-So, we have 11 more to go.

If you help me out, the quicker we get through this, the quicker we can eat muffins.

-All right, I'll do my best.

-Bridget, now that the butter has cooled, we can mix our wet ingredients.

-Okay.

-Now, I know I said wet ingredients, but bear with me.

The sugar is part of the wet ingredients.

-Okay.

-I have 1 1/4 cup of granulated sugar.

I'm going to add 2 large eggs to that.

And we're going to mix this until it's pale and yellow, about one minute.

So, you can notice it's getting pale yellow.

It's thick and creamy.

It's almost there.

-So, just really dissolving the sugar in there.

-Exactly.

So, there we go.

Now I'm going to add 2 cups of sour cream, 4 teaspoons of vanilla extract, and that browned butter.

-Mm, along with all of those little bits of toasted milk solids in the bottom.

[ Gasps ] Oh, as soon as you mix that vanilla with the browned butter, which is still just a tiny bit warm, it smells like heaven in here.

So, why sour cream?

I know some muffins use milk or buttermilk or even yogurt.

-It's going to add some richness that regular milk is not going to do.

These are going to be decadent, for sure.

Now we're just going to add the dry ingredients in there.

So, I'm just going to fold it right in there.

You don't want to overwork it.

You don't want the glutens to really be active and get tough muffins.

So, it's fine if this is lumpy and there's some streaks of flour in there.

So, now we're going to add the batter to our muffin liners.

-Okay.

-The easiest way is to use ice-cream scoop with a little kitchen spray.

This is about a 1/3 of a cup.

You want to make sure that when you scoop it... -Ooh.

-...be generous with them.

They're almost perfect.

I have a 1/4 cup of granulated sugar here.

I'm going to add a teaspoon on top of each.

It's going to give it that bakery-store, craggly, crunchy, sugary top on each one.

-Mm.

Lovely.

Oh, yeah.

Full teaspoon on each one.

-Yeah, we're not playing around here.

So, now we're going to put it in a 400-degree oven on the upper-middle rack for 20 to 25 minutes.

We're going to rotate halfway through so we get even browning.

They're going in a 400-degree oven, which is going to give it that nice dome top.

-Oh, wow!

Glorious.

-So, It's been about 25 minutes.

It's time to check to see if they're done.

-[ Sniffs ] Yes, they're done, they're done, they're done!

-So, I'm just going to stick a toothpick in here and pull out.

Bridget, that's perfect.

We're just looking for a few crumbs.

We want it to cool in the tin for about five minutes.

Then we're going to take the muffins out of the tin and let the muffins sit on the wire rack for 30 minutes.

So, now it's time to eat.

-Okay!

-Which one would you like?

-Which one do you think I'm going to choose?

-That one.

-Nailed it.

Nailed it in one.

I owe you a fiver.

Now, I noticed that you selected super-small plates so I can only eat them one at a time.

[ Both laugh ] Very gallant of you.

Now, that, my friends, is a muffin.

That's what they should look like.

-This is like opening a birthday gift.

-[ Gasps ] It is!

Now, before I break this apart, I just want to say how gorgeously statuesque, absolutely beautiful, in every single way.

Well-done.

-And look at these gooey chunks.

-[ Gasps ] Oh, yes.

Look at those gooey chunks.

Mm.

Mm.

The chocolate chunks are spectacular.

I'm just going to say that.

They are gooey.

When you go into a chocolate chip muffin, I mean, you get a chocolate chip, which isn't the world's worst thing to eat.

-No.

-But it resolidifies very quickly.

This, it's like you have little -- little, tiny bits of ganache in there that are still somehow almost chocolate puddingy.

-I like that -- chocolate puddingy.

-Mm-hmm, but the cake itself is super tender, really moist.

But the flavor, it's really deep.

It's nutty itself.

It highlights the chocolate.

It doesn't take away from it at all.

-It does.

And that layer of sugar on top?

I'm gonna tell you.

I could eat these any time of day.

-And we're going to, all day today and tomorrow.

You're going to put the bakeries out of business with these, Lawman.

These are fantastic.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

Really appreciate it.

You definitely want to give these muffins a try.

And it starts by skipping the chips.

Chop semisweet chocolate into big chunks.

Brown butter to add deep flavor.

And sprinkle the portion batter with sugar just before baking.

So, from "Cook's Country," the stellar browned butter chocolate chunk muffins.

You can get this recipe and all the recipes from this season, along with product reviews and select episodes.

Those are all on our website, CooksCountry.com/tv.

Mm.

It's still gooey!

-Let us help with dinner tonight.

Visit our website anytime for the newest season's fail-proof recipes, full episodes, ingredient advice, and equipment reviews.

CooksCountry.com/tv.

-The "Complete Cook's Country TV Show Cookbook" includes every recipe, tasting, and testing from all 17 TV seasons.

With over 650 recipes, it's our most comprehensive collection of "Cook's Country" TV recipes ever.

The cost is $24.99, $15 off the cover price of $40.

To order, head to our online shop at CooksCountry.com/book.

-Funding for this program has been provided by the following.

-Monument Grills, offering innovative technology and design for the grilling enthusiast.

With a lineup of gas grills to suit every level, our mission is to ignite your passion to pursue the art of grilling.

Learn more at monumentgrills.com.