If you’ve caught up with London’s The Meatwagon you may have noticed something different riding on its bacon cheeseburgers. In place of bacon rashers (strips) Yianni Papoutsis piggybacks his beef burgers with a griddle-fried patty of chopped boiled bacon.
The bacon patty is positioned directly atop the beef patty, essentially creating a double burger with an even distribution of bacon flavour and fat in every bite. You may lose much of the bacon’s crispness, which is a bad thing, but through the mingling of matching minces the beef and pork become inseparable, which is a very good thing –  at least until the greasy meats reach your stomach.
The patty-backed bacon burger was made famous by Hodad’s Burgers, which opened right off San Diego’s Bacon Street (I kid you not) in 1969. Hodad’s simmers strips of American-style bacon (British streaky rashers) until they shred easily, drains and chops the boiled bacon and shapes the bits into a thin patties. Meatwagon appears to follow the same practice. Both sides of the patties are fried on the griddle under the weight of a bacon press or, in the home version, a spatula and a strong hand. (Click here for detailed text version of recipe seen in video below for Hodad’s bacon cheeseburger).
This is an interesting take because, more often than not, when you order bacon on your burger you get a flabby piece of gray bacon with almost raw fat. It needs to be crispy!
Derek – The grill cooks who don’t know how to fry bacon are as prevalent as those who don’t know how to fry burgers to the desired doneness.
Great reading about Hodad’s – I thought their burger was amazing when I went in November. I will say though that if anything the boiling/frying process makes the bacon MORE crispy, not less.
Oh and it’s spelled Yianni 🙂
Chris – Thanks for the correction and your kind comment. You might be right, a bacon patty can seem crisper than fried streaky rashers (strips). It’s just a different kind of crispy: There’s give and compression to the crunchy chew of the patty, which I’d liken to a bacon hash or a sausage cake. Fried, evenly browned streaky rashers, however, crumbles and melts to the chew. It’s a crispy sensation that’s particular to bacon and lost in the patty process.
I enjoyed the bacon patty a la Meatwagon.
Also like your new site , bravo !
D