A Burger is not a Burger

We started making your burger 2 days ago.

It starts with the bun. The starter (a culture of flour and water), is fed and ferments the first night. In the morning the dough is mixed and is then put in the “dough retarder” (refrigerator), to slow the fermentation process, until 10 pm. This is where the dough forms all its natural flavor. At 10 pm, the dough is then portioned into 4 oz pieces and let rise for another 6 hours where it develops more flavor. Baked at 4 am and delivered to us a 9 am with that freshly baked bread smell filling the kitchen.

Then the meat. We use local 100% grass-fed “chuck” which comes from the top shoulder of the steer. 100% grass-fed beef is very expensive. It is also much healthier. If you really knew what was fed to commercially raised cows, your body would convulse.

As far as the chuck, most everyone else that sell burgers use “trim”, the excess leftover meat after the steer has been butchered into the pieces you recognize in the store. It’s delivered to us at 10 am, 5 days a week. Super fresh!!

We then cut the chuck into cubes and remove any sinew. It is then fed into our grinder for the first pass and then a SECOND pass, a rare step into the burger world. This second grind is necessary to give the burger the tenderness we demand. We grind 2-3 times a day. Another rarity.

Fat needs to be added to the chuck to make the meat juicy and flavorful. We use AGED beef fat. Marin Sun Farms ages the beef fat specifically for us. This step adds tenderness and deepens the flavor of the meat. No one in the world does this.

Then the cooking. We use a griddle (or sometimes called a flat-top) to “sear” the burger. In our opinion, it is the only way to bring out the most flavor. This produces a nice brown crust named as the famous “Maillard Reaction”, named in 1912 by Louis-Camille Maillard. It can be thought of as “caramelization” or browning, produced by a reaction between amino acids, sugar and heat.

Then there are the sauces for the burger. We make them in house. They do not come out of a can or jar. Never!

The buns are “toasted” on a griddle, not a toaster, another key element to bringing all the flavor of the bread. High quality bread should be toasted on a flat pan over medium heat until it forms a nice, brown crust. The toasting also caramelizes the bread with a nice thick crust.

It is then lovingly assembled by our talented kitchen staff.

That’s our process every time. We want it to be the best it can be.

This process took over 2 years to discover and get right - a labor of love. Bierhaus is a place that gives one of the most popular food items in the US respect it deserves.

It’s worth it.