On a recent episode of “Man v. Food“, Adam headed to Minneapolis, MN to take on some monster brat. Along the way he sampled the two famed Jucy Lucy and Juicy Lucy (note the spelling differences) at Matt’s Bar and 5-8 Club, respectively.
A Jucy Lucy is a cheeseburger that has the cheese inside the beef, rather than on top. They looked delicious! So we decided to assemble our version. One with the classic American Cheese filling, and another with Fontina, a delicious Italian cheese that melts so well. Because these burgers are supposed to cook farther (to medium or medium-well) than we prefer our burgers (medium-rare), we added spinach to the beef, to help keep it moist. They were delicious!
FoodMayhem Jucy Lucy Burgers
~makes 4 burgers
Ingredients
- 2 pounds Ground Beef (80% preferred), chilled
- 3 oz Frozen Spinach, frozen and crumbled
- 1 tbsp. Worcestershire Sauce
- 2 tsp. Garlic Powder
- 4 oz. Cheese (American or Fontina, or whatever you like), cut to roughly 1″ squares.
- Kosher Salt
- Ground Black Pepper
Instructions
1. Pre-heat grill to high.
2. Thoroughly combine beef, spinach, Worcestershire, salt and pepper. If the meat starts to warm up (from your hands) put it back in the fridge, you need to keep it chilled. Measure out 4 oz balls of beef mixture.
3. Roll into a ball then flatten into a thin patty on top of wax paper, about 1/4″ high and roughly 5″ in diameter. On half of the patties place 1 oz of cheese.
4. On to each cheese-topped patty, flip a second patty to cover the cheese. Pinch the edges together forming a swell in the middle. Re-cover with wax paper and refrigerate at least 10 minutes.
5. Grill chilled patties five minutes on first side, then flip, grill another two minutes. Serve on your favorite bun with sauteed onions.
No melty cheese shot of the fontina one? -=(
dang, look at that ooooooze.
i wish i had an indoor grill.
Saw your comment on A Duck in Her Pond last week when the Blonde Duck was gracious enough to let me post for her. Thought it would be fun to stop by and check out your blog. So glad that I did too. You just helped me to figure out what I’ll be making for dinner tonight. Thank you.
Let’s do this again sometime!
-Francesca
Wonders, sorry, we were in a rush to eat. =)
3 Bay B Chicks, thanks for visiting! Love the name of your blog!
soopling — yes, the ooze is alluring! You can do this on a griddle or a frying pan too. Actually I think the MN places do it on a griddle.
Holy burger!! Looks amazing!
wow. looks so yum.
We haven’t tried putting spinach in our beef patties. Will try.
I’m from minnesota and I think your burger looks just as good( if not better) than Matts and the 5-8 club!! Oh and a heads make sure you let the burger cool down before you chow down into it. Trust me it’s a pain you don’t want to experience!!
DashDiva – No joke.. that is the nicest thing anyone could have written in!!! I’m blushing.
Oh yeah, these will be made – and soon! I am now salivating and my keyboard is going to be ruined – RUINED! It will be worth it, though!
I JUST SAW A TV PROGRAM ABOUT JUICY LUCY… YUM!
My husband and I tried this once, and the cheese oozed out all over the coals. I’m going to try freezing them a little before they go on the grill. I have a feeling I’ll end up putting cheese on top of the patty though….never enough. sigh.
EMC – I shared your thoughts exactly! There’s not much to say about the urge to put cheese on top of the patty, I fought the urge to sample the real deal. I think the trick is to make sure you put enough cheese inside to fulfill your cheese desire =)
As for the coating the grill issue. Yes, definitely chill your burgers first (I wouldn’t freeze them though). Also make sure to really pinch the top and bottoms together. Then when you start grilling them, do not move them for a good 4-5 minutes after placing them. This will give the edges enough time to cook through, so that when you flip, the cheese won’t come out.
Wow, these look amazing!
Since the first time I saw one of these, it’s the only way I’ll make cheeseburgers. Try blue cheese. Or, if you’re in the mood for a salty, tangy wonder, try feta. And, of course, for the ultimate in decadence, use the middle of the brie. (I love the rind, but not in a burger.) The possibilities are basically endless.
If you don’t want spinach, one other way to avoid dried out beef and still get a wonderful flavor is to add lightly caramelized onion to the beef. Or, my favorite, lightly sauteed diced mushrooms. Just enough liquid still in them to moisten the meat, but the flavor addition is wonderful. (FWIW, while I love roasted red pepper on my burgers, it didn’t come out well when added to the meat.) Just make sure you don’t saute either the mushrooms or the onions so much that all the liquid cooks out, which defeats the purpose.
Motherzucker – Thanks! These are really helpful tips. I love the idea of either the onions or mushrooms. Especially onions, since so many burger places seem to use them while cooking to add flavor and they usually stay quite moist.
Best burger I’ve ever tasted – bloody wonderful
If he came to the Twin Cities and didn’t go to the Nook in St. Paul, he didn’t even get the best Jucy Lucy in town. What a shame!
WoW! this looks absolutely scrumptious but since i dont see myself going to Minneapolis, Minnesota any time soon I see what i can do by myself but i don’t know about the spinach part.
I have tried twice to make a Juicy Lucy. I never got an ooze. It seems the cheese cooks into the meat. I don’t know if I cook it too quick or not quick enough. Any ideas?
SweetJudy – What type of cheese are you using? I can think of several reasons. (1) perhaps you’re not using enough cheese; (2) the cheese is too warm, try freezing it before using it; (3) you’re overcooking the burger?
Try #2 — let me know if it helps.
Fabulous recipe! Brilliant idea to mix spinach (or onion, mushrooms) into the beef. I love to brush even more Worcestershire sauce mixed with melted butter and a squeeze of lemon-flavored agave syrup over the finished patty.
I love the idea for the onions, I will try it next time. I personally started making these a few years back, unknowing that they existed. I use different seasonings that I preffer and soy sauce not werchsertsercser whatever sauce. I will also mix in mustard and an egg to the mix for flavor and bonding. The cheese of choice is either Cream Cheese or Blue Cheese. My buddy crisps bacon and chopps it and mixes it into the meat as well, it is also great.
Ate at the NOOK in MN last week the “JUCY LUCY” is the BEST BURGER EVER!!!!!! Fresh Summit beer and fried cheese curds!!!!! Everyone needs to go to The Nook if they are in MN.
We definitely want to go one day!!
I’m in college so we don’t have a grill handy, but how would these work on the foreman grill???
Linda, I haven’t made burgers on a foreman grill before but I imagine it would work very well, and cook in the same way as most burgers. My only other guess would be don’t press down on too hard, otherwise all the cheese might ooze out and make a mess.
I make these at home on the grill quite often. Never tried chilling them down before cooking though, gonna have to try that. I had one at the 5-8 club one night…..worst burger I’ve ever had in my life. Dry, overdone, flat, and the cheese was as far from “oozzing” as you could get. I’ve heard Matt’s bar is the best place to get one, gonna have to try ’em out sometime.
The story I hear is, my grandpa was the cook at Matt’s in Minneapolis, and came up with the Juicy Lucy…..I think the story is still up on the wall in a newspaper article…
I did a version in a H.S. cooking class in 1990, and was praised at the flavor, and uniqueness….They never heard of it yet….lol
Rod, how cool is that? Grandson of the inventor of Juicy Lucy! I’d get a T-shirt made!
I just made them. I’ve been living away from Minnesota for a few years so this was a great recipe to get a taste of home! I used mushrooms and onions to keep it moist and used soy sauce instead of Worcestershire Sauce and added some cumin. Thanks!
I just made a turkey Jucy Lucy tonite. Don’t bother. To the person that complained about the cheese oozing out during cooking: next time, adapt an old baker’s trick (minus the water). Wherever a crack appears, just gently smoothe the meat together like a cracked pie dough.
Cooper’s Cheese adds a nice flavor
Ross, do you normally like turkey burgers? I don’t, but Lon does.
We will try it tonight and let all of you know if thie works or not …
•To keep the cheesy center in place, create a double-sealed pocket by wrapping a chunk of cheese inside a small beef patty and then molding a second patty around the first.
•Grilling the burgers over medium heat fully cooks the burgers and melts the cheese inside. Adding a panade— which is simply a mixture of bread and milk mashed into a paste—to the ground beef will help to keep the burger moist and juicy.
Hey it says 1 oz of cheese between the patties how many slices cut into little squares do you think you used??? 2 slices?thanks!
Ashley – From the picture it looks like I did 1 1/4 slices, which makes sense, according to this Yahoo post saying that would be roughly 1 oz. If Jessica was watching over me, I probably used a scale to hand cut and measure the fontina.
[…] a new twist on a burger? Why not try stuffing your burgers with cheese? Or mixing the beef itself with blue cheese. Or going for something more exotic like buffalo, or […]