Today I have made pork and apple burgers. I’m not going to illustrate this post with a luscious photo because to be honest I’d rather just get on with eating them, and I’ve got a lot of other things to do, but I also wanted to write the recipe up in case someone finds it interesting. This is pretty simple, so I’ll get right to it and write a bit about the reasons afterwards.
These are light, meaty and have a gentle apple sweetness.
Ingredients
- 500g lean pork mince (5% fat)
- 1 large bramley apple
- soy sauce
- Worcestershire sauce
- salt
- pepper
- oil for frying
Method
Peel and grate the apple and put it, with some oil, into a small saucepan over medium-low heat.
Season with salt and vinegar and add a splash each of soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce.
Cook the apple, stirring frequently, until it is extremely soft. If it gets too dry, add a little water, but you don’t want it to be very wet for the next stage.
Once the apple is softened, stir it around to make sure it’s all smooth and then put it into a mixing bowl. Add the mince and mix until thoroughly combined.
Heat a frying pan or grill. Shape patties from the mince mixture and cook! It will be very soft as the apple has a lot of moisture, so I wouldn’t recommend trying to grill it on a grate. It should work well in a contact grill, or on a tray under a conventional grill (n.b. if you’re American I’m talking about a broiler, not a grill).
Serve however you like your burgers. I can confirm that they taste great with a bit of blue cheese on top.
Reasons
I like pork and apple burgers. I wanted a fairly low fat option because I’m still trying to lose some weight, so low fat pork mince is obviously required. Thinking of the wonderful method using roasted aubergine in turkey burgers to give it better texture (by Kenji of Serious Eats), I wondered if the apple could be used in a similar way in a pork and apple burger, and this is the result!
Verdict: it does work, but the moisture levels make it a bit hard to handle. I’d like to find a way to reduce the moisture in the apple mixture, as lean pork mince is really wet to start with so this is not a good thing to add further moisture to.