Flame Broiled

LaFrieda patty, Bibb lettuce and Carola potatoes from NUFM. Potatoes fried up in duck fat from a Plum Creek duck. Lacto-fermented pickle from summertime. Bun from Dave's.

The cheese is a semi-soft Spanish cheese whose name escapes me, but it had just the slightest funk which worked with the burger. From The Cheese Shop.

Some chai iced tea by L., curry mayo, and ketchup rounded out the summery winter meal.

As for the famed LaFrieda beef, it's hard to give a great evaluation. I just couldn't bust out the grill in this weather, and wasn't looking forward to the cleanup that comes with stovetop burger frying. So the meat went on a cast iron griddle about two inches from a gas broiler.

The quality of the meat blend was beyond reproach, but the burgers came preformed, and as such were only able to be seasoned on the outsides. I like me a salty patty. I'm also not afraid to mix some worcestershire up inside the ground. So while these were fatty and pretty delicious, 2 of the 3 burger munchers would have preferred some more salt going on. The 2 Philistines are, however, saltaholics.

It's likely that a good char on a seriously hot griddle or grill would have changed things. These were just so fatty, in a great way, that under the broiler the bubbling fat and juices created a bit of steam and prevented a good char. So for home, what I'd really like is to get one of those LaFrieda steaks before they're ground up, as the meat flavor was redic.

In the end, while these were great bugers, for CFT cookouts I'm not giving up my grassfed ground beef anytime soon.