Introduction: White Castle Hamburgers AT HOME!
Featured Friday Nov. 14, 2008
first featured instructable for me, Thanks!
For tips on Cast-iron cookware, go here.
Update: When making burgers like this it is pretty important to keep them all uniform in shape and thickness.
To make sure they are all the same thickness head on down to your local hardware store and purchase 2 dowels (square dowels work the best)
and then head to walmart or your local supermarket and pick up some wax paper,a long rolling pin, and one of them roll type pizza cutters.
Set your dowels down on your counter at about the max width of your rolling pin. and then place one long piece of wax paper between and over your dowels. toss your beaten meat in between the dowels and on top of that wax paper ( try and spread it out a little so its not one giant beaten meat pile in the middle) toss another piece of wax paper over the top. get out the trusty rolling pin and start rolling making sure that the rolling pin stays on top of the dowels as you roll you may need to adjust the top piece of wax paper. you should wind up with a big somewhat square sheet of beaten meat, now all you need to do is peel off the top wax paper, slide the dowels out and run your pizza cutter across your meat in straight lines(forming squares) and you are ready to hit the frying pan!
Thanks Noblevagrant!
Step 1: Do Work.
Go get..
1/4 cup of hot water, boiled in the microwave.
About a teaspoon of dry onion in the little jar(it equals to about a small onion in really small cubes.)
3oz. jar of beef baby food (trust me, you'll love em')
1lb of Ground beef
2/3 cup of beef broth (start with 1/3 and work your way up, or they with be really mushy)
an actual pinch of salt(not an 1/8th Tsp)
small hamburger buns or dinner rolls(like burn and throw away rolls)
a small bird to help you along the way.
sliced cheese (optional)
vegetable oil (optional)
Cast iron pan (easier to control the heat, a non-stick pan will work, but dont get it too hot or use a metal spatula)
Wooden dowels I've heard work well to keep the burgers shape around them, mostly the square dowels.
Step 2: Onion Preparation
Grab your hot water and dry onions and mix them, let sit for at least 10 minutes. Or mince your small/medium onion.
Step 3: Beat Your Meat.
Mix beef, baby food, and broth in a bowl really well, i missed a few globs of meat when i mixed mine. Its fine to use your hands. Wash with soap before and after.
Update: although a pair of beaters works well for mixing the meat, they are harder than somethings, to clean.
Meanwhile Grease your Pan with a little bit of oil maybe use a paper towel to spread it around. You dont need much, just enough.
Step 4: Lets Actually Get to Cooking!
Form into small squares or circles bigger than your buns. Poke 5 holes into them with your fingers. Lay down a bed of onions and that pinch of salt where your going to put your slyders. if you forget to put them down, put them on the top while its still raw so they fry when you flip them, also if you want, put them in the holes. Keep cooking for a while on the same side until pretty brown and even. Flip them.
Step 5: End This Madness and Eat!!! Soon..
immediately place on buns to let the flavors fuse with the buns, add cheese if wanted. Repeat. then, once again If wanted, fry up some onions on their own and add them on top. they're good. Eat em' up.
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103 Comments
11 years ago on Introduction
Since you have your pizza cutter out, you can use it to mince fresh onions. A trick I picked up while working in a pizza kitchen. Rough chop onions (quartering seems best) and put into a plastic bucket or similar container. Then "stab the crap out of it" with a pizza cutter. Shake bucket to bring big pieces to the top. Continue stabbing the crap out of it. It's fun and you'll be surprised at how uniform the pieces are. If you want a finer mince... keep stabbing. A good way to process a large amount of onions and it seems to cut down on "onion eyes" because it's quick and most of the volatile chemicals stay in the bucket.
Reply 10 years ago on Introduction
Sorry if you want the real taste of a slider you need to use dried onions, and you should use ground sirloin.
white castles have little fat in them as they are made from Grade D Industrial Beef. That is an otherwise healthy cow that is too old to really give much milk. or not able to be stud anymore and is ready to be made into canned meat/sausages/white castles.
Reply 8 years ago on Introduction
"Grade D Industrial Beef" That's not even a thing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beef#USDA_beef_grades
Reply 8 years ago on Introduction
Hi, I took a course in butchering years ago, Grade D industrial beef was a cow that was near death by age and lack of reproduction abilities, or calf/milk uses. (this would have been around 1986). As described to us it was tough and dry and used for canned meat products commercial sausage makers (salami/pepperoni etc). It also was used by lo grade burger makers who grind it very very fine, and what more can I say.
Except, at white castle I took my friends over to the chart on the wall and showed it to them in print. They were suitably unhappy, but I said who care, tastes like castles to me.
Perhaps they changed to system as people get turned off by the term GRADE D INDUSTRIAL BEEF.
Oh BTW a stewing hen is about the same, a hen that no longer is laying enough to earn her grain is sold off and walked.....they are tough and make really good soup, or sausage etc. But stuffed and roasted they suck, they are just too tough. The grading system for eggs changed a few times, as well. But only chicken farmers or those living near by every find out. The "food pyramid" has changed and by the demands of various special interests they changed it.
Not everything in Wiki is true, I have changed a few entries about a school in Queens twice as the info was just crap. I will look around and see if I can find a grading chart from say 1984-5 .
12 years ago on Introduction
do you mix in the onions in the water with the rest of the other stuff
Reply 11 years ago on Introduction
Nah, just stick it in the pan until it boils. It kind of steams the hamburgers.
11 years ago on Introduction
tank you now i dont have to drive 35 miles to eat an hamburgare
12 years ago on Introduction
AWESUM!!!
12 years ago on Introduction
I'm sure the recipe above tastes lovely in it's own right, but as a long time White Castle fan and ex employee, I can tell you that you have it wrong. Slyders are actually nearly grease free. The delightful squidgeyness comes from being steam grilled on a bed of water and onions. It's more colorful to call it grease but inaccurate. The cooking process is nearly impossible to duplicate at home. Your burgers may be delicious and greasy, but they are not slyders and much more unhealthy.
Reply 12 years ago on Introduction
I am with you on that one no one can replicate the white castle goodness just like coke and dr. pepper and the big mac secret sauce
Reply 12 years ago on Introduction
Erm, I hate to break it to you but Big Mac sauce is actually very easy to make. Thousand island dressing, dehydrated onions, mayonaise (not miracle whip, yuck) and relish. :-P I like to add a bit of Johnny's too.
Reply 12 years ago on Introduction
I know its just..not the exact same
Reply 12 years ago on Introduction
Thank you Yerboogieman and panderson8. My dad worked at White Castle for 42 years (Maintenance dept./building new castles/etc.). During that time i would often go with him when he made equipment repairs and 'study' how they made the burgers. Key point is to add the 5 holes, which are actually not an original component of the White Castle burger, but were added in the 1940s or so - helps them cook quickly but more importantly "evenly" without having to flip. This is critical to achieve the moist bun. No grease involved in cooking, just plain old water and onions on a griddle will do the trick. Though i can understand why people think it may be grease. BTW, when my dad worked their the staff would often take their own WCs and dip them in the french fryer for about 35 seconds. This would create a beautifully browned and crisp burger that only a select few could enjoy! BUT it definitely had LOTS of grease!
For the serious coniseur I suggest investing in a large electric griddle. Just build a steel pan, 1/4" wall all around, to hold the water in while cooking. The electric will give you a more even cooking temperature across the griddle as well. As you all mentioned, dehydrated chopped onions are most authentic. Oh, and be sure to stack the top of the bun on top of the burger/bottom bun while cooking to ensure even temperatures.
Having a dad that worked at White Castle while I was growing up was a wonderful experience. At Christmas his bosses would sometimes give the warehouse/maintenance staff an actual box of the frozen patties! My mom would cook them up in a frying pan at home (yeah, i know, but she just wasn't in to the griddle angle).
Reply 12 years ago on Introduction
The only fat in the burgers was already in the beef which was 93/7. What was in the pan was water and onions preheated in the microwave. I would also add water every now and then while cooking.
12 years ago on Introduction
who knew harold and kumar didnt have to find white castle they just had to make the homemade knock-off versions
12 years ago on Introduction
the way to really make this is almost like how people make chicken fried steak, place a piece of plastic wrap then meat and then another plastic wrap. Now take a hammer (or something to smash it with), and swing away until you get a 2mm thick meat. Cut this to proportion and cook on the onions, this gets the thickness right and the right amount of onion absorption! :D
12 years ago on Step 3
my inner 15 year old came out at the title of this. and thats not a bad thing.lol
13 years ago on Introduction
There's a key step missing here. These burgers are greasy...that's okay, they're supposed to be. But the grease will soak into the buns and make them very hard to handle. The solution is to put a thin thin thin (may I reiterate, thin) layer of mayonnaise on both buns. This will act as a barrier and trap the greasy goodness in the burger itself. This is part of what makes a slider slide. And ummmm...a little more fat does a lot of good.
Reply 13 years ago on Introduction
White Castle burgers are supposed to be greasy like that. All the ones I've had, the grease was just soaked into the bun. Only thing I'd say is to make the patty as thin as possible.
Reply 13 years ago on Introduction
I've never had problems with grease in the past. They aren't very greasy to me when I eat them.