Heston Blumenthal’s recipe for Boerewors burgers: a review
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Beef and Steak and Veal, Pork Ham Bacon Sausages, Sauces Gravy Dressings | 6 comments
Photo: Heston's burgers
Waitrose has teamed up with Delia Smith and Heston Blumenthal to produce recipes that customers can make at home. This is quite a clever promotion as you don’t have to rush about the shop looking for the specific ingredients as they are all on the display stand. Some of the ingredients had me goggle eyed – such as packs of dried breadcrumbs 125g for £1.25. But I suppose most people don’t make their own anymore.
I was intrigued by Heston’s Boerewors burgers as they were made with a mix of Aberdeen Angus beef and pork. Apparently South Africans eat a coiled sausage called a Boerewors made out of spiced pork and beef.
Waitrose sells some excellent Aberdeen Angus half pound burgers – somehow these taste so much better than the quarter pounders. But they are quite pricey so it was the combination of the meat in Heston’s burgers that caught my eye. The pork was much cheaper than the beef so the cost of each burger would be reduced.
So I grabbed the packs of pork and beef. And selected Norwegian Jarlsberg as the finishing cheese. Rain stopped play on the barbecue front so I grilled these while Andrew took care of the chips.
I did change some of the ingredients in the burgers – using a teaspoon of garlic granules, a tablespoon of coriander powder (rather than the seeds) and a pinch of cayenne pepper. I ditched the ground cloves as D loathes them and slipped the sliced tomatoes under the cheese. The burgers tasted great – loads of texture and flavour – but as Danny usually cooks our burgers I would have liked a few pointers on timings, rather than ‘cooked to your taste’.
Incidentally D bought a couple of Aberdeen Angus (Tesco finest) from the *CFC last night. The favour was good but the ‘compressed’ texture was disappointing. It was as if a horrendously over weight person had slipped and crushed all the air out of these burgers.
The combination of French’s mustard, tomato ketchup and mayonnaise in Heston’s recipe tasted divine. But again I had to experiment with the quantities as these were not specified in the recipe. This combination got the green light from us both:
2 tablespoons of mayonnaise
1 teaspoon of tomato ketchup
1 teaspoon of French’s mustard
A perfect relish for any burger. And from now on I will regularly make pork and beef burgers. They didn’t taste of pork – just delicious and succulent.
*Condemned Food Counter
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I think these are great and have made them loads of times. I also use ground coriander. The ground cloves are an acquired taste but complete the overall taste. Maybe just cut down on the ammount if the specified amount is too much.
We used to get similar sausages in Holland- they were fabulous.
Love this blog.I have tried some of these Boerewors from a stall in Petersfield Hampshire. They are absoutely delicous and come in a variety of flavours. Might just give this recipe a go.
The majority of goat meat, comes from a breed called the Boer Goat: when I saw “Boerewors Burgers” – & knowing how Heston likes to push innovative food boundaries – I had high hopes that at last, Waitrose was promoting this low-fat, healthy, delicious meat! Sadly not. And I suspect they’d be far pricier than these burgers.
But if you do get the chance, try goat burgers – you certainly won’t be disappointed regarding the taste (somewhere twixt venison & lamb); & the fact that they’re healthier, is the icing on the positively delicious cake…!
I’ve got a ‘stash’ in the freezer – so will be firing up the BBQ later on, when I’ve finished my ridiculously full, fast-&-furious day’s work. Haymaking sheep shearing (not to mention, crafting gelato; a conference; & a couple of Food Festivals, this week – no rest for the wicked, heh?!).
Wow those look good!
Now what I planned for dinner isn’t doing it for me….
Hi Fiona and Danny,
You were right to leave out the cloves as my sister made these a few days ago and said that the cloves added a bitter twist and completely over powered the burger.
I suppose it’s a matter of taste but “oil of cloves” and “toothache” spring to mind!