Jucy Lucy

I've been sort of intrigued by the south Minneapolis cheeseburger specialty, the Jucy Lucy, that has recently been on several television food shows. If you have no idea what I am talking about, a Jucy Lucy is a hamburger with cheese stuffed in the inside. There is a debate in Minneapolis about which is the original and which is better between the 58 Club and Matt's Bar.

I've made stuffed burgers previously, but never been terribly pleased with the results. I have two criteria for a cheese-stuffed burger- the cheese (or at least 90+% of it needs to stay inside the burger and I don't like a lot of bloody schmutz in there. Watching TV, it appears Matt's and the 58 Club have figured this out. By watching TV, I learned that the Matt's burger is about a third pounder stuffed with a slice of American cheese. The 58 is a bigger burger and contains more cheese. I figured if I sort of split the difference on the size and cooked these a little slower so the outside wouldn't get overly done, but the insides would cook, I might be onto something.

My first attempt worked pretty good, but I made them too big and a lot of cheese oozed out during the cook.

Second attempt was much better. Kept the size under a half pound, say between a third and a half. Going against certain burger patty making schools of thought, I made each half of each Jucy Lucy using a rolling pin to pack the beef tightly. A burger press may serve a person very well with this. I used nearly three slices of cheese and sealed the edges as well as I could. Much better results.