We'd like to meet the guy who first decided to put a big, juicy burger patty between two slices of brioche. It's a multicultural marriage made in culinary heaven: the French are responsible for the rich, eggy bread, and the Americans (with a little help from 19th-century German immigrants) lay claim to the ground-beef patty. If that's not international diplomacy, we don't know what is.

But while French babies are rumored to start cranking out unimpeachable brioche at birth, the rest of us can run into trouble. There's dry, stodgy brioche, cloyingly sweet brioche, and—perhaps the worst offender when it comes to burger building—the dreaded butter bomb. So what's the secret to the gorgeous, golden-brown buns that grace so many restaurant menus these days? Most chefs and bakers will evangelize their own formulas, and for good reason: different approaches work well for different reasons. We designed this simple, universal formula to yield a great result at home.

Our recipe calls for about 30% butter relative to the weight of the bread flour, whereas many recipes use as much as 75% butter and a few artisan formulas combine equal parts flour and butter. In general, as you increase the butter-to-flour ratio, the brioche will taste more like a cake, and less like a bread. We use a nice, lean "bread-like" formula, and tenderize the crumb with amylase, an enzyme that breaks starches down into sugars. Amylase is naturally present in wheat germ—and thus naturally present in flour—but only in small amounts. A small amount of pure amylase speeds the fermentation process by breaking the starch into sugars the yeast can consume (while enhancing flavor at the same time), leading to a softer product with none of that stodgy quality we’re so eager to avoid. 

Follow the instructions below and you'll wind up with a bun that's rich in flavor, moist, and eggy, while also durable enough to hold up to a juicy burger. As they teach the babies in France to say: Bon appétit.

For more insight into the development process for these buns, [link https://www.chefsteps.com/recipe-development/brioche-burger-bun#/brioche-buns-development-brief click here.]

Brioche Burger Buns

Though the French canon does not technically categorize a demi-glace as a “mother sauce”—those sauces from which numerous others are derived—this sauce is, in fact, the springboard for many recipes and is commonly considered fundamental. A demi-glace, or “half-glaze,” is made by cooking a rich veal or beef stock down until its volume has reduced by upwards of 90%, which results in a viscous, highly flavorful liquid perfect for drizzling over meat, vegetables, burgers, or [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/new-school-poutine poutine]. But as the natural gelatin cooks down and creates that characteristic sticky, viscous texture; it also zaps a lot of the flavor. We solve this problem by adding confectioners’ glucose syrup to a sauce we reduce by 85%. It adds hardly any sweetness, and yields a sauce with just the right mouthfeel, without the stickiness.

Beef Demi-Glace

Many an American childhood involves processed cheese—there's just something about a warm grilled cheese, filled with gooey, melty Kraft American, or a big bowl of creamy Velveeta Shells &amp; Cheese, that appeals to kids' tastebuds. As adults we still crave the comforting texture and unctuousness of processed cheese, but most of us also crave cheese that's a little more nuanced in flavor—the nutty, earthy notes of Gruyère, for instance, or the wake-you-up funk of Roquefort or Stilton. 

Enter melting salts. A cornerstone of the commercial cheese world, salts such as sodium citrate, sodium hexametaphosphate, and sodium caseinate allow manufacturers to create sterile products that don't "oil off"—an industry term that refers to the tendency of the fats in melting cheese to separate from the proteins. In the modernist kitchen, chefs have taken advantage of these additives to alter the texture of great cheeses, creating slices that have that great melty, creamy quality of the plastic-wrapped stuff you find on supermarket shelves, while retaining the wonderful complex flavors of the best fromages.

Here, we walk you through the steps for creating such a product using sharp cheddar. After combining the cheese with milk, salts, and clarified butter, you'll heat the mixture and blend it together until it reaches a smooth consistency. You can use the cheese right away, but if you want firm slices you'll need to cast it in a mold and chill it for eight hours. We made a round mold—the perfect shape for topping burgers—but you can opt for any shape you like. 

The process works differently for every cheese. Below, you'll find directions for working with a number of popular cheeses; these represent the best results in our kitchen. In general, younger cheeses such as mild cheddars and pepper jack tend to work very well for this application. Fresher cheeses, cheeses with less protein content, and older cheeses will require more manipulation. Basically, you're going to have to do some trials of your own. If you find the process tricky, tell us what's up in the comments and we'll help you troubleshoot. Hey, that's what we're here for.

Melty Cheese Slices

What smells better than onions browning on the stove? Nothing we can think of. Caramelized onions taste amazing too, lending rich, satisfying deliciousness to all kinds of meals: Use them to create killer dips, savory tarts, or rustic pissaladières. Serve them in French onion soup, steak sandwiches, burgers, pastas, seafood preparations, curries, omelets and scrambles, quesadillas, couscous, and pan sauces. Toss them atop steaks, pizzas, hearty salads, sauteed greens, grits, baked or mashed potatoes—we could do this all day, but you get the point, right? Caramelized onions are the ultimate augmenter, lending rich flavor and lovely texture to dishes both simple and refined. 

We like ours seasoned with some fresh minced thyme, though rosemary or marjoram would be great too. Before serving, we add water and champagne vinegar—the water helps cut down on oiliness, while the champagne vinegar rounds out and brightens the flavors. These onions serve as a topping to our decadent [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/au-jus-burger Au Jus Burger], but feel free to use them however you like—heaven knows you’ve got options.

Caramelized Onions

Japanese mayonnaise (and [link http://www.amazon.com/Japanese-Kewpie-Mayonnaise-17-64-oz/dp/B0000WKU8K?tag=delvkitc-20 Kewpie brand] in particular) is beloved worldwide for its delightful spreadability, savory flavor, and sunny disposition. Why does it rise above the rest? It has a silky-smooth consistency and rich yellow color that come from egg yolks (most American mayos are made with whole eggs), and it takes on a deeply satisfying umaminess thanks to a little MSG. 

The most difficult thing about making our version at home is ordering the ingredients—and even that is freakin’ easy: just click the shopping cart icons in the ingredient block below and wait patiently for your packages to arrive. After that, it’s a two-step, ten-minute process for a 500-gram reserve of delicious mayo that you can keep in your fridge for weeks. Drizzle it on [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/au-jus-burger burgers], dip your [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/thin-cut-french-fries fries] in it, or smash it into a [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/warm-mustard-potato-salad warm potato salad]—the best thing about having a stash of homemade mayonnaise on hand is you can use it in hundreds of innovative ways. And when it’s Japanese mayo, you can count on it lending a deep, savory flavor to just about anything.

PSST: There are tons of ways to spice up this recipe. Try one of the variations at the bottom of this page, or get inventive with your own flavor enhancements. Regardless of which variation you choose, we think you’ll find this mayo a cut above the stuff they slather on your sandwich at the local Subway.

Japanese (Kewpie-Style) Mayo

Picture this: It's the first barbecue of the summer, and you've got 30 guests gulping beers in the backyard. And then there's you. An hour into the event and you're still stuck behind the grill, sweating beneath your novelty apron, flipping burgers a few at a time, and worrying about who is getting fed and who isn't. **We love grilling as much as anyone**, but it's an undeniable fact that if you're manning the Weber, you're often missing the party.

Don't call the caterer just yet—there's another option. You can cook those burgers sous vide. Now before you start freaking out in the comments, let's revisit that summer shindig: A half-hour before the first knock on the door, you mix some ground beef with egg, portion it out, and give each patty a quick sear. Then you drop your patties in a water bath for 15 minutes while you prep the toppings. Your first friends begin arriving, and you've got **a bunch of perfectly cooked, snappy-textured patties** ready to go, and nothing left to do but pop a bottle and start socializing. Sounds pretty good, doesn't it? 

Look, we know some of you think we're excessive on the sous vide front—we read your feedback, and we take it to heart. And if you love spending your time at the grill, we totally respect that—in fact, we share your affinity. But here at ChefSteps, we are always looking for ways **to streamline the cooking process to yield delicious, predictable results**. The fact of the matter is, sous vide is the method that tends to deliver on those fronts. This technique makes a mighty fine burger patty, and requires far less micromanaging than traditional ones—leaving you time to relax and have fun with your nearest and dearest. Not convinced? Try it. We can't wait to hear what you think.

Sous Vide Burgers

Let’s Discuss This Burger

Putting this project together, we noticed: The French come up a lot in the recipes that make up our ultimate burger. We discuss the Gallic love for mayonnaise in our [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/chefsteps-mayo-no-4 Mayo No.4] preparation, and the country appears again when we talk about [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/beef-demi-glace Beef Demi-Glace] (not considered a mother sauce in France, but certainly fundamental to its cuisine). Then, in our [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/brioche-burger-buns Brioche Burger Buns] recipe, we mention how the skills to craft that particular bread are rumored to be a birthright dans L'hexagone.

All of this seems appropriate enough for an homage to the au jus sandwich, the name of which refers to the bowl of meaty juice served alongside it for dipping. While it’s often referred to as a French dip, the sandwich is actually an American invention, and a damn tasty one at that. With the aforementioned demi-glace and a beefy patty, our custom burger shares its satisfying heartiness, but we layer in gooey Swiss cheese and caramelized onion, meaning it also calls to mind—here we go again—French onion soup. Horseradish-laced mayo lends contrasting zest and spice to all that richness. The result: a flavor-packed, texturally diverse burger that rivals any you’ll find at the neighborhood gastropub, and celebrates some of the best elements of two great culinary traditions. 

A quick (but important) note: We don't call it a project for nothing. We kick this baby off five days in advance, making the brioche buns and storing them until they achieve optimal texture. The slice of Swiss we use is the result of a technique that involves melting salts and a custom mold. All of which is to say: There's a lot going on. If you want to simplify, opportunities abound. Buy buns at the bakery. Mix grated horseradish into storebought mayo. Use normal-people cheese. You'll still wind up with a great-tasting burger, and you can circle back and learn the technique when you have the time.

The Au Jus Burger and Why We Love It

Au Jus Burger

Everyone has a favorite burger, and this juicy, cheesy masterpiece is ours. To our minds, a burger should be something you can wrap your mouth around, with distinct components and clean, unmuddled flavors. This made-from-scratch, French-inspired American sandwich fits the bill. Inspired by the French dip, the Au Jus Burger is about as elaborate as a ChefSteps burger gets. But it’s also awesome, and it’s totally replicable at home—provided you’ve got time. We start five days ahead, preparing, then resting, our Brioche Burger Buns for optimal texture. Then we subject some swiss cheese to our Melty Cheese Slices technique—giving it all the creaminess of a Kraft Single while maintaining the flavor of the European fromage. On game day, we sear the patties, then drop them in a sous vide bath, leaving us free to prep the other ingredients while the burgers cook. Then, when the time is just right and our guests are gathered round the picnic table with napkins tied dutifully around their necks (this burger is messy, after all), we finish the job with caramelized onions and a horseradish-spiked version of our mayo, drizzle Beef Demi-Glace all over the burger, and serve it piping hot. “All that work for a burger?” you might ask. We enjoy every minute of it. You can always simplify matters by using store-bought brioche buns and cheese (or making our buns just two days in advance—they’ll still be spectacular). But at the end of the day, what excites us about this project is that it’s a beautiful, restaurant-style dish you can re-create at home, with magically delicious results. Plus—what can we say?—we’re willing to bend over backward for a kickass burger. Are you?

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