Steak au Poivre Burgers

A burger that's pure decadence.

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Steak au Poivre has always been on the short list for my last meal on earth. It’s elegant and old school, but its never gone out of style. This burger version comes from the You Asked For It section of Gourmet’s February 1975 issue. Readers write the magazine with a prompt, and Gourmet responds with a recipe.

This might sound a bit silly, but I would very much appreciate it if you could supply me with a "gourmet" recipe for hamburger.

When I came across this recipe, I thought it would be a fun project, but I realized that I don’t think I’ve ever actually cooked steak au poivre. But, I figured, it’s a essentially a pan sauce with only a few ingredients. How hard could it be?

First, I crusted the burger with a lot peppercorns per the instructions, but they toasted far too much. The burger was dry and had a spicy-burnt crust.

When I went to make the sauce, I added the brandy, and then the cream. And then the sauce got extremely goopy and thick. Then it broke, which means it started to separate again and it got weird.

I wiped the pan out a bit and attempted the sauce again. I added the brandy with the heat off. I then turned the heat back on to continue and FLASH! A flame rose up and caught me by surprise, somehow missing my hair. I continued with the sauce and it was still too thick.

Needless to say, our burgers were so sad on recipe testing night.

Many weeks later on my final attempt, I finally nailed it. I skipped the pepper crust, and instead put all the peppercorns into the sauce to toast them with more control. I cooked off the brandy without lighting my face on fire. The sauce was creamy and thick, and it blanketed the burgers with pure decadence.

This recipe is a close adaptation of the original, but my version yields more sauce, because I am a saucy girl. Spoon it liberally over the burger then spoon more on for each bite. The burger sauce gets a traditional au poivre treatment with shallots and butter, and I am convinced that’s what makes it all come together with relative ease.

For the brandy, use something you’d actually drink. I don’t like brandy so I picked the cheapest one and it definitely was a tad sweet. I feel like higher quality ones would yield in a less sweet-forward au poivre sauce.

Steak au Poivre Burgers

Adapted from Gourmet Magazine, 1975

Serve with: A salad because you need some health

Drink with: A chilled, fruit-forward red

Serves 4

About 1.25 pounds ground beef

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

Salt

A lot of fresh cracked pepper: You will need at least 1 tablespoon (you could do more if you like it extra peppery) for the sauce and some for the burgers

1/3 cup brandy

1 cup cream

2 tablespoons butter

2 small shallots: 1 finely diced and 1 thinly sliced

4 buns, lightly toasted

Cooking oil

Mix the ground beef, garlic powder, onion powder, a heavy pinch of salt (a heavy 1 teaspoon), and a few cranks of black pepper (about a half teaspoon). Equally divide the mixture and form into rounds about a 1/2 inch thick.

Toast the buns and equally divide the sliced shallots on the bottom buns and set aside.

Heat a cast iron skillet on medium-high heat and heat cooking oil. Add each burger, pressing down so it makes full contact with the skillet. Cook for four minutes. Flip and press again, cooking for 3ish for medium rare, 4 for closer to medium. Remove from skillet and place one burger each on the sliced shallots.

Return skillet to medium heat and add butter to skillet and melt. Add the diced shallots and cook for about one minute. Add 1 tablespoon (or more) of cracked pepper and toast the mixture for about 4 minutes, stirring often. The shallots will sweat down and the pepper will get nice and toasty.

Turn off the heat and add the brandy. Return to heat and cook down to remove most of the booziness, about 2 minutes. Add the cream, bring to a strong simmer, and cook to thicken the sauce about 2 minutes. The sauce will be thick and will coat a spoon. Remove from heat and season with salt.

Spoon the sauce generously over the burgers, saving any extra to dunk.