Minneapolis taverns are famous for the Jucy Lucy, a moist beef burger stuffed with American cheese. Replicating the Jucy Lucy seemed easy enough, but our burgers, cooked to well-done to melt the cheese inside, were dry and tough or the cheese melted through the meat, leaving an empty cavern where the cheese had been.
To keep the cheese in place, we created a double-sealed pocket by wrapping the cheese inside a small beef patty and then molding a second patty around it. Adding a mixture of bread and milk, mashed into a paste, to the ground beef kept the burgers moist and juicy.
Buy the American cheese from the deli counter, and ask them to slice it into a 1/2-inch slab from which you can cut four big cubes to fill the center of the burgers. One or two percent low-fat milk can be substituted for the whole milk. The cheesy center of these burgers is molten hot when first removed from the grill, so be sure to let the burgers rest for at least 5 minutes before serving.
JUCY LUCY BURGERS
Servings: 4
Start to finish: 45 minutes
2 slices hearty white sandwich bread, torn into 1-inch pieces
1/4 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon garlic powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 1/2 pounds 85 percent lean ground beef
1 slice deli American cheese (1/2-inch-thick), quartered
Nutrition information per serving: 432 calories; 249 calories from fat; 28 g fat (11 g saturated; 2 g trans fats); 121 mg cholesterol; 697 mg sodium; 9 g carbohydrate; 0 g fiber; 2 g sugar; 34 g protein.
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