The ultimate cheeseburger

Serves 4 Starters and mains

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Method

Get your grill going on medium-hot heat, then prepare your toppings. To make the mayo, mix the grated horseradish, smoked garlic, lemon juice and mayonnaise in a bowl. Set aside. Mix the chopped dirty onion with the cider vinegar, then season with a pinch of salt and set aside.

To make the salt seasoning, mix all the dried ingredients together in a bowl with 1tbsp sea salt and 1tsp black pepper. Divide the mince into four equal-sized piles. Carefully sculpt each pile into a patty around 2.5cm thick. Make sure it is even all round, so there aren’t any bits that are fatter than the rest. Don’t worry about cracks around the edge of the burger. As the fats render down, they will cascade down these and flavour the patty.

Sprinkle the seasoning salt onto both sides of the patties and place them over direct heat. When the patties come away from the grill easily, flip them. Flip again when the grill releases the patties on the other side and keep flipping every 1-2 minutes until the burgers are cooked through. If you get flare- ups and too much heat, move the patties to the indirect side, to calm things down. This gives the burger a chance to do some more cooking on the inside.

Once the burgers are around 3⁄4 done (around 50C/122F), place 1 slice each of the cheeses in a cross on each patty and place the cloche over the burgers to quickly melt the cheese. Move the burger to the indirect side just before it’s hit the internal temperature you are after. As a guide, medium-rare will be around 55C/131F.

As soon as you move the burgers over, get the bacon on the direct heat along with the bun halves, cut-side down. When the bacon and the buns have a nice crispy char, remove everything onto a board ready to assemble.

To assemble, lay out the bottom half of the bun, spread over a dollop of the smoked garlic mayo on it, followed by a piece of lettuce. Next, place the patty base down on top of the lettuce. Finish off with the bacon, tomato and dirty onions. Pop the toasted bun on top and serve.

For the dirty onions

Make sure your coals have properly cooked down and are not too fierce. The coal bed should be evenly laid out.

Take a pair of tongs and place the unpeeled onions straight into the coals. Push the coals around the onions so that they get heat from all sides. You don’t need to cover the onions as you’ll turn them a couple of times during the cook. The big ones should take anywhere from 11⁄2 hours to 2 hours. The perfect dirty onion will ‘pop’ from the top. This is when the centre gets extremely hot and erupts like a volcano. Not every onion will pop but most do. To make sure the onions are done, squeeze them with the tongs. They should be really quite soft. Be careful not to overcook them, as once the moisture has been cooked out, they will go hard as a rock, especially smaller ones.

Carefully take the onions out of the coals and rest them on a baking tray covered with foil. This helps the onions rehydrate. Be careful in case there are any coals, which can sometimes stick to the onions. You can use them right away but they are very hot. They can also be cooked in the morning and left for a couple of hours to cool before handling.

Squeeze the skin and pop the onion flesh out. Remove the ash and dried skin but don’t worry if little bits of charred skin remain – they only add flavour and texture.

These can now be chopped and used in other recipes or as a condiment. Soak them in a little bit of cider vinegar and a pinch of salt for added flavour.