Homemade Everything-9/28/09

I was a bit nervous that making tonight's meal would be an exercise in futility. Would my homemade attempts at ketchup, mustard, and relish really improve on years of brand marketing and corporate testing? How could I, in my first attempt make something better than Heinz, French's, and Vlasic? Well, believe it. When the June article of Gourmet challenged me to give making my own a try, I did and boy, was I impressed. Heinz got nothing on me! The Homemade Ketchup recipe on page 41 of June's issue of Gourmet had a wonderful mix of sweet and spice and had a depth that commercial ketchup doesn't have. The recipe says it lasts chilled for a month and I really hope that it does. The ketchup was by far my favorite, mostly because it was so distinctive. Richard is a ketchup freak and he too kept dipping his burgers (He had 3! He's still recovering from his 70.3 Ironman this past weekend and needs some serious calories.) The mustard was also very good but it still had quite a few whole seeds, even after about 5 minutes in the processor. The flavor was quite strong, making me wonder how much of something else is in regular yellow French's. The relish was much the same as store bought relish in flavor. There was a bit more crunch though, because of the short marinade time. Commercial relish has been soaking quite a bit longer by the time it gets to your hamburger.
As for the Homemade Hamburger, what a revelation! It was so simple. Just chill skirt steak with a little salt, chew it up in the processor, and voila. No breadcrumbs, egg, or other fillers, just meat. The burgers held together well and tasted great. I will definitely do this again when I want to grill some burgers with friends. No more frozen meat hockey pucks for burgers.

The Homemade Buns were also great. I wish there had been a bit more direction in how big to make them. I used a glass to cut out the bun rounds and it wasn't quite big enough. I had a lot of left over dough. Eyrleigh decided it was Playdoh and dragged it around the kitchen so making more after the fact was not an option. Considering these were yeast buns that needed to rise twice, they were really pretty easy and rose well. Eyrleigh loved them, the carb kid that she is. I did forget the sesame seeds but other than that, these were excellent hamburger buns.
To go along with the ultimate summer burger, I made the Cornish Lemonade on page 108. I forgot and took the picture vertically which always messes up on the blog, so I'll just tell you and you'll have to believe me. This lemonade was actually just as much orange as lemon so the color was a bit darker than traditional lemonade but the taste was good. I didn't add quite as much sugar as the recipe called for because it looked too sweet as written. I was glad I did that because I though the sweet to tart mix was perfect as I made it. I used a cup and half of sugar per quart of water.

Homemade Ketchup-A

Homemade Mustard-A

Homemade Relish-A

The Ultimate Burger-A

Homemade Burger/Dog Buns-A

Cornish Lemonade-B