{"id":826,"date":"2009-01-29T17:56:10","date_gmt":"2009-01-30T00:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cocktailhacker.com\/?p=826"},"modified":"2009-01-29T16:25:53","modified_gmt":"2009-01-29T23:25:53","slug":"super-bowl-xliii-food-4-sliders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cocktailhacker.com\/?p=826","title":{"rendered":"Super Bowl XLIII Food #4: Sliders"},"content":{"rendered":"

Take a moment to look at the picture below, what do you see?\u00c2\u00a0 A white castle?\u00c2\u00a0 Good.\u00c2\u00a0 Now let’s do some word association.\u00c2\u00a0 What’s the first thing that pops in to your head when you hear the words “White Castle”?\u00c2\u00a0 If you immediately said sliders then allow us to continue on.\u00c2\u00a0 If not, please take a moment to bring yourself<\/a> up to speed<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 White Castle’s signature food is the slyder, a diminutive hamburger meant to be consumed in multiples (like 6 or 47, if you’re bold).\u00c2\u00a0 I claim sliders (the other spelling being trademarked) are a perfect Super Bowl party food and can easily be made at home.<\/p>\n

\"whitecastle500\"<\/p>\n

Sliders are great for a party.\u00c2\u00a0 The ingredients are pretty cheap, they’re quick to make, go down easy and you can spice them up in a zillion different ways.\u00c2\u00a0 Viola! Great party food.\u00c2\u00a0 The first thing you’re going to want to consider when making your slider shopping list is the buns.\u00c2\u00a0 Keeping in mind that a standard slider is much smaller than your typical hamburger, standard hamburger buns are going to be much too large.\u00c2\u00a0 A couple ready options do exist.\u00c2\u00a0 You could go with premade (or bake yourself) dinner rolls which are tasty, but I think there is a better solution, Hawaiian rolls.\u00c2\u00a0 King’s Hawaiian makes rolls that are light, fluffy and lightly sweet.\u00c2\u00a0 A perfect pairing for the beefiness to come.<\/p>\n

Next on the shopping list is meat.\u00c2\u00a0 The default is beef, but you could easily use pork, lamb, turkey, chicken or some combination of your own design.\u00c2\u00a0 My preference is beef though.\u00c2\u00a0 I’d recommend going with something on the fattier side as it will make your final burgers juicier and more flavorful.\u00c2\u00a0 My choice would be something like 80\/20 or 85\/15.\u00c2\u00a0 If you wanted to get really in to the meat you could even ask your butcher to grind a special cut for you.<\/p>\n

Like other foods we’ve talked about this week there are numerous recipes for how to flavor and form the patties.\u00c2\u00a0 Being a huge Good Eats fan my recomendation would be Alton’s recipe<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 If you’d like more info on exactly how he makes and cooks his sliders check out the Man Food Episode here<\/a> and here<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 Alton cooks his on a griddle, but you could just as well use a frying pan or even broil them.\u00c2\u00a0 I wouldn’t suggest grilling them since they’re so thin, probably have too much break up.<\/p>\n

Finally you have to think about toppings.\u00c2\u00a0 As you well know there are nearly unlimited options on how to top a burger.\u00c2\u00a0 Some suggestions and links to recipes are below.<\/p>\n