BIG BURGER 4 - SUPER QUAD STACKER DELUXE BURGER
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The Quad Stacker Burger finally made it to Australia this year in September, and since it was the burger that started this whole burger project, it was fitting to end it with a homage to the Quad Stacker.  But I found out that the Quad Stacker burger was only a one-month promotion, and I was fortunate to take a photo of one before it was no longer available.
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Like it's American counterpart, our Quad Stacker burger has four layers of meat, four layers of cheese, 2 bits of bacon and smoky BBQ sauce on a sesame seed bun. Since that would be a bit boring as a giant burger, I was going to add a number of extra ingrediants, making it a 'deluxe' burger.
And this fourth and final giant burger in this project HAD TO BE OVER 10KG!!!
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After the 2nd burger, I would only do these for a group event, to help consume it, otherwise it would be a waste for me to do for myself.
So when the Quad Stacker inspired me to do this one, I had to organise an event/party to make it worth doing.  Saturday 4th of October was designated the giant burger day, and I got a few of my fellow Transformers collectors committed to attend. It was also an opportunity to try out some of my other Cheeseburger ideas I had been thinking about for a while - a Cheeseburger pizza (saw it on the Supersizedmeals.com website), a deepfried battered cheeseburger (also on that website), and a Cheeseburger pie (something I thought up, but may already exist somewhere).  Yep, I felt that a giant burger on its own was a bit boring as a food item, and planned this as a total burger party.
But 2 days before the event, I learnt that the large bread rolls I used with the previous 3 giant burgers, was no longer being made by Woolworths, which left me with 2 days to find an alternative.  I checked with a few bakeries to see if they could make one, but none could do it for me.  Then I remembered what some people were suggesting from the beginning - make my own bread.  Nervously, I decided to give it a go, but didn't have much time to see if I could.
The next day, the day before the event, I bought a number of food and cooking items, including bread-mix, and did a test run with one of the four loaf mixes in the pack.
Success, sort of.  The bread worked, but was a little small and tough, but doubling the mix and kneading it more should fix that. Hopefully. Because I was now out of time to make sure it would work on the day.
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Saturday - Burger day.  I only had until about midday to get stuff bought and prepared, so I got up early and started the bread.  It has two standing stages before it bakes, so while it was standing for its first hour, I went to buy the rest of the food items needed.
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The Ingredients.
The photo below includes items for the giant burger and the cheeseburger platter (pie, pizza and battered deep-fried). The list of ingredients below is for the Giant Burger only.
8.2kg Mince - $48.80
Breadmix - $3.90
1.2kg Cheese slices - $18.70
1kg Bacon flavoured ham - $6.79
6 Eggs - $2.69
2 Tomatoes - $1.06
1/2 Lettuce - $1.24
1 1/2 Onions - $1.51
Smokey BBQ marinade - $5.00
Smokey BBQ sauce - $2.49
Mustard sauce - $2.93
Mayonaise - $2.98
Sesame seeds - neglegible cost (already on hand)
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Total cost of ingredients used - $98.09
The mince was from Fine Freddy's Meats at Sunnybank, while everything else was from Coles.
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Construction.
As mentioned, the first thing was to get the bread started, as it would take 2 1/2 hours to complete.  When I returned home with the remaining food items, I kneaded the dough a second time and let it stand again for another hour in a deep-dish pizza dish (to cook it in).
I started with the cooking of the bacon, eggs and onion.  Then mixing in some BBQ marinade into a quarter of the meat, I started cooking the first meat patty in the frypan.
While it was slowly cooking, the bread was ready for its half hour baking in the oven. I sprinkled some sesame seeds onto the top and put it in the pre-heated oven.
As it was baking, I prepared the lettuce and tomato, so that everything was ready when the meat patties were cooked, to allow me to put it all together when the guests arrived.
The second quarter of the meat was mixed with the marinade and put onto the frypan as the bread was done baking.
Taking it out of the oven, I placed it onto a towel to prevent the base from going soggy from the steam.
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After about 10 minutes, I cut it in half to make the top and bottom of the burger.
During this time I was working on the Cheeseburger pizza and pies, but those are detailed in the Side Projects page.
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Below is the workbench ready with 2 of the 4 meat patties cooked and ready, with the third currently cooking at this stage.
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At this time the guests started showing up, and this is me cooking and answering questions about the Giant Burger and the surprise Cheeseburger platter items.  At the far end next to the oven is the construction area, while in the foreground are some of the Cheeseburger Pies being put together.
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And the building begins.  Starting with sauce and cheese, the first meat patty is then covered in more cheese, sauce and bacon.
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The second meat patty, with sauce, cheese, onion, lettuce and tomato.
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More bacon, 2 eggs and cheese, plus more sauce.  At this time, the fourth meat patty was prepared and started cooking.
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Then the 3rd meat patty was added with more sauce, bacon, the rest of the onion and eggs, and cheese.
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A little later when the fourth patty was cooked, it was then added.  A chunk fell off as the burger was getting too high to hold it all together, but most was still there to make it count and hopefully still be enough weight to reach the target.
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Cheese and sauce was added, and the monster was almost finished.
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And the patron of my giant burgers finally made his appearance - Optimus Prime.
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The last of the bacon, tomato and lettuce was added, and the top of the bun carefully added.  Four wooden chopsticks were pushed down through the top of the burger to hold it together.  The ruler shows that the burger made it to just over 30cm tall.
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Close-up shot from the back.
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And the moment I was nervously dreading - did it make it over the 10kg target.
Yes, it weighed in at 11kgs. Even with a variance of up to 1/2kg on the scales, and the tray being about 100gm, it meant that it was definitely over the goal weight.
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Then the cutting of the cake, I mean burger.  It looks a little pink in the last two patties which were rushed a little, but still cooked through.
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And completely cut up, ready for people to help themselves to the burger feast.
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But before it was cut up, a group shot with my fellow collectors, to show the scale of the burger.
With 4 Giant Burgers, a World's Hottest Burger, and a creative Cheeseburger platter, 2008 has certainly been the 'year of the burger' for me.  As much fun as it has been for me, I'm actually happy to say that the project is now over!
As for a really, really big burger, like 20-50kgs, it's too impractical for me to do in the foreseable future, without some sort of commercial help.
But maybe one day...
griffin @ otca.com.au
http://www.otca.com.au/