Wednesday, Jun 30, 2010 8:10 AM UTC

Can a burger taste great and be good for the earth?

Proponent of ecologically-sound cooking puts the "hip" in hippie and makes a meal devoid of sprouts or tofu

By J.m. Hirsch

more
- All Share Services

Topics: 20 Burgers of Summer, Food, Life News

Michel Nischan's eco burger

For Michel Nischan, building a better burger is part of making the world a better place.

“I have seen all kinds of outlandish burger ideas, from making burgers with vegetables, fish, shrimp, you name it,” said Nischan, whose cookbook, “Sustainably Delicious,” and Westport, Conn., restaurant Dressing Room focus on ecologically sound eating.

“Yet as great and creative as these burgers can be (and fun), nothing beats a burger made with the meat that burgers were meant to be made with — grass-fed and grass-finished beef,” Nischan said in an e-mail.

The greatness of a burger depends almost entirely on the quality of the meat. And because cattle were intended to eat only grass, he says the best burgers come from those who ate only that. Once he has his beef, he still likes to dress it up a bit.

“Once cooked to your liking, pairing this meat with cheese and butter from grass-fed dairy cattle adds a depth of additional richness that takes the burger closer to the promised land,” he said. “And of course, what would a good sustainable burger be without the deep, tomato-y sweetness of locally grown, vine-ripened heirloom tomatoes?”

Which is to say, if you want to taste Nischan’s ultimate eco burger, you’ll need to shop close to home, searching out local sources for the very best ingredients. It also means that every burger will be different, the tastes influenced by the variations in the land and animals that produced the ingredients.

“Let’s bring back Main Street America by cooking a good sustainable burger,” he said. “The immediate reward is flavor. The ultimate reward is a better world!”

THE ULTIMATE ECO-BURGER

Servings: 4

Ingredients

1 pound grass-fed, grass-finished ground beef
Salt and ground black pepper
3 tablespoons butter from grass-fed dairy cows, divided
4 free-range eggs
4 slices cheddar cheese
8 slices whole-grain bread or 4 whole-grain rolls
2 medium heirloom tomatoes (2 varieties if possible)
8 slices cooked bacon
4 leaves lettuce

Directions

Heat a gas grill to medium or prepare a charcoal or wood grill, banking the coals to one side.
Divide the beef into quarters and form into patties. Season with salt and pepper.
Heat a large cast-iron skillet over medium. Place 1 tablespoon of the butter in the pan and coat the bottom. Crack the eggs individually into the pan and cook sunny side up. Remove from the pan and set aside.
When the grill is heated, cook the burgers for 4 minutes on the first side. Flip the burgers and top each with 1/2 tablespoon of the remaining butter, then top each with a slice of the cheese. Continue cooking to desired doneness.
When the burgers are done, transfer them to a warm plate and let rest for 3 minutes. Toast the bread or buns on the grill until slightly browned and crispy.
To assemble the burgers, arrange a slice of each tomato on the bottom of each bun, followed by the burger, 2 slices of bacon, a leaf of lettuce, an egg and the top of the bun.

More J.m. Hirsch.

more
- All Share Services

The week in 10 pics

close X

Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
Credit: AP/LM Otero
Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
Credit: AP/Matt Rourke
A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
Credit: AP/Molly Riley
Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite
Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster
O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid
Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield
When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin
A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin
Recent Slide Shows

6 Comments

RSS Feeds

Get Email Updates

SALON

Can a burger taste great and be good for the earth?

Proponent of ecologically-sound cooking puts the "hip" in hippie and makes a meal devoid of sprouts or tofu