Outside of London: Southampton: 7Bone Burger Co’s Double Shuffle to Straight Time

The Double Shuffle to Straight Time at 7Bone Burger Co, Southampton

I think people are beginning to clock on to the idea that I am a little obsessed with 7Bone.  I have written about them quite a lot on my other blog, and they were the only non-restaurant to feature on my Top 10 Burgers list for National Burger Day.  I thought I had written all there was to write on this restaurant, and thought I could instead just go for a quiet dinner whilst back in Southampton without my review head on:  I was wrong on both counts.

Whilst having a myriad of choices here in London when I have a yearning for a burger, the somewhat limited options of my home town left me a little deflated when trying to make dinner plans there.  When somebody told me last year that there was not only a burger bar opening in the city, but that the burgers were good, I hopped on the train from Waterloo to check it out for myself.  Needless to say, the hype was justified and I was so impressed that I have been back several times since (OK, every time I go back to Southampton).

So there we went to 7Bone for our quiet dinner.  Recently it has become almost impossible to get in straight away on a busy night, however they will put your name on a list and call you when a table becomes free, leaving you free to camp out in one of the nearby pubs for a quick drink.  A much better option than leaving you to queue on the street.  We waited about 40 minutes over in the Gordon Arms with a couple of drinks before our call came.  Just enough time to get us good and hungry.

The burger menu at 7Bone lists five beef burgers, two chicken burgers and the option to make any of them veggie.  They also offer hot dogs, sliders and a number of sides.  An extra £2.50 makes any burger a double (why wouldn’t you), and I quickly opted for the double ‘Shuffle to Straight Time’, a cheeseburger with fried onions and American mustard.

Trying to find any fault in this burger was a difficult task as I could not.  The patties, made with the 7-bone cut of the beef (very similar to chuck steak) have a deep beef flavour and are well seasoned with a nice amount of onion.  Both are cooked medium-rare (standard – although they do ask upon ordering if this is OK), although the bottom patty was a little more cooked than the top one – presumably residual cooking from steam-sealing the burger on the hot plate after its assembly? Just a guess.  The cheese was the slappy American kind, my favourite; and there was a good amount of fried onions, some soft and slippery and some crunchy, and a generous slick of mustard.  Initially I was disappointed not to have a pickle, but soon realised that it would have been superfluous and ruined the effect of the onions.

Having had the more elaborate creations in 7Bone previously, it is good to know that they also do the basics very well indeed.  I also had the chilli cheese fries, which were excellent.  Top marks all round.

(I couldn’t eat for 24 hours after this).

7Bone Burger Co, 110 Portswood Road, Southampton SO17 2FW.

Sylvan Post’s Angus Beef Burger with Cheddar

Angus Beef Burger with Cheddar at Sylvan Post, Forest Hill

First up, apologies for the worst food photo ever taken.  Photography in dark bars is not my forte.  I would have taken this burger to a better lit area if I were not so hungry. Sorry.

Sylvan Post is one of the new additions to Forest Hill that happened after both the Overground arrived and I moved out.  It coincided with the SEE3 project, an initiative headed by Mary Portas to boost the businesses of Forest Hill, Kirkdale and Sydenham.  The pub was not part of that scheme, but is a welcome addition to a high street with few places to eat.

It is on the site of a disused 1960s post office and has kept some of the original features of the building which, combined with some vintage furniture and interesting artwork, makes a warm and welcoming pub.  They have quite an extensive beer menu, offering a range of bottled beers, as well as some on tap.  The menu is largely British bistro food with a few international influences and seasonal ingredients.

I ordered the burger, billed simply as an ‘Angus Beef Burger’ (£10.50 with chips) and added some cheddar at a further £1.  You could also add blue cheese and bacon for the same price.

Without much description on the menu, I was not entirely sure what to expect, but was not disappointed.  I could see the shine on the brioche bun before the plate even reached the table, and they were definitely not stingy on the side.  There was definitely value for money on the cheese, as the patty was topped with a slab of cheddar so enormous that I feared what kind of dreams I would be having that night.  Having removed the slice of tomato and most of the raw red onion inside the burger (for me, neither add anything good – pickled red onions on the other hand…) I noticed that it was missing some of the additions that really make a burger.  For me, some gherkins and a sauce, either mustard or ketchup.

That being said, the patty was very, very well seasoned and cooked perfectly pink in the middle whilst retaining the outer crisp.  The abundance of cheddar may be too much for some but I loved it.  Given a few little extras, this would be an excellent burger worth venturing to Zone 3 for.  Also, the chips were homemade, which is a rarity in pubs and such a delight.  They were not quite as good at my Mum’s, but that’s an impossible standard to live up to for anybody.

Sylvan Post, 24-28 Dartmouth Road, London SE23 3XZ

Recipe: Brioche Burger Buns

Brioche burger buns

Once upon a time, a burger in a brioche bun was a novelty that only existed in a handful of places in London.  We all marvelled and wondered why we hadn’t thought of it before.  After a while, it came to be the defining ingredient of a quality burger, something that set it apart from the floury ‘pub grub’ burger baps.  Now, they are everywhere.  It has been a long time since I saw a menu without one.  Brioche-mania is far from over.

I’m not actually sure that using a brioche bun is the right choice for every burger, but anyway.  There are some renegades that do use other bread, and it works really well.

Anyway, if brioche is your preferred bun, you want the same for your home cooked burgers, right?  For a while, they were difficult to find, limited only to a few independent bakeries.  Now, you can buy them in most supermarkets.  The best ones I have found so far are Chappers’ bun of choice:  Aldi’s brioche buns at four for £1.

As well as this, you could make your own.  Of course, brioche is a time-consuming beast to make, and the amount of butter you add to the mix will make your arteries quiver, but it is worth doing.  You can create buns of the perfect size to suit your own homemade burgers.  This recipe is based on a savoury brioche by Paul Hollywood.  You will need about 12 hours to complete the whole process, including chilling the dough overnight.

Brioche Burger Buns
Makes eight

500g strong white bread flour
10g fine salt
10g instant yeast
170ml warm full-fat milk
4 eggs
250g unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 egg, beaten, for glazing
1 tbsp sesame seeds (optional)

Put the flour, salt, yeast, milk and eggs into the bowl of a free-standing mixer and, using the paddle attachment, mix until the dough becomes smooth and shiny.  Continue to mix for another five minutes, adding the butter a teaspoon at a time until all of the butter incorporated into the dough.  It is important to add the butter gradually.

Tip the dough into an oiled plastic container with a lid.  The volume of the container should be a minimum of one litre so the dough has room to expand.  Leave to prove in the fridge overnight.

Line two baking sheets with greaseproof paper.  Remove the dough from the fridge and divide into eight equal portions.  To make the bun shape, flatten out the dough into a disc and bring the edges into the centre and pinch together.  Turn upside down and place on the baking tray.  Place four buns on each tray, ensuring that there is enough space between them to allow them to expand.  Cover the rays with clingfilm or a clean plastic bag and leave to rise in a warm place for 1-2 hours or until doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 190ºc / 375ºf / gas 5.  Brush the buns with a little beaten egg and sprinkle with the sesame seeds.  Bake in the oven for 20 minutes until risen and golden.  If you tap the bottom of the buns, they should sound hollow.  Leave to cool on a rack.

Peckhamburger’s Beef Burger with Bacon and Cheese

Beef burger with cheese and bacon at Peckhamburger

Last week, I wrote my burger wishlist for 2014-15.  It seems that you can’t swing a cat in London without hitting somewhere advertising its creation with ‘medium rare patty, brioche bun and house sauce/filthy sauce/dirty sauce’ (delete as appropriate) unless, it seems, you live in my particular corner of south-east London.  There are, of course, pub offerings.  Brockley Market on a Saturday has at least one burger on offer (usually the majestic Mother Flipper), and Dirty Burger is a mere 25 minutes on the 185 to Vauxhall.  But nothing that is roll-out-of-your-front-door close.  Dulwich/Peckham/Camberwell was somewhat lacking in burgers.  So you can imagine the delight when Peckhamburger opened in the neighbourhood.

Peckhamburger is a very, very local creation.  For one, it has made its home in the excellent Anderson & Co cafe on Bellenden Road, a bit of a Peckham institution that has already hosted a number of pop-ups in the evenings.  As well as this, the meat for the burgers comes from local butcher Flock and Herd, an opening from a Ginger Pig alumni that has queues snaking around the block. 

It is a simple set up, with just three burgers on the menu; beef, chicken and veggie; and each of these can be served ‘skinny’, so wrapped in a lettuce leaf instead of a bun.  To these you can add cheese, blue cheese, a fried egg or bacon at a surcharge.  There are three sides on offer, two puddings and a range of beers, wines and soft drinks.  I opted for the beef burger with cheese and bacon and a side of the bloody mary salted fries.

The best thing about this burger is the quality of the meat.  The beef patty is well-seasoned and full of flavour.  It was cooked medium (not quite medium-rare) and tasted spectacular.  On top of this was the Flock and Herd treacle cured bacon; crispy, a little sweet and very smoky.  It is the best bacon I have had on a burger anywhere.  As well as this there was a good amount of cheese and a lot of pickles.  The challah bun, similar to brioche but without the butter, held together well despite the juiciness of the burger, and the little smear of aioli gave it a nice kick.

Peckhamburger seem to have done their research and brought the best elements of a good London burger to SE15.  Using a well-known local cafe as a base and well-known local butcher as a supplier almost guarantees a step up on any competition nearby, despite the simplicty of the menu.  There is nothing about this burger that I didn’t like, although we did end up in a debate at the table about whether such a rich bun was the right bread to use for such a great burger:  Challah is a great, slightly less rich alternative to brioche, however some at our table felt that a non-enriched bread would better showcase such quality ingredients and that the extra richness was superfluous.  Either way, we all left happy and had a very short walk home.

Peckhamburger @ Anderson & Co (Wednesday – Saturday evenings only), 139 Bellenden Road, London SE15 4DH

The Frenchie’s Duck Confit Burger

Duck confit burger with duck skin scratching at The Frenchie, Camden Food Market

I had heard whisperings on Twitter about this duck confit burger for some time, and therefore have had confit duck and brioche on the brain.  When my brother came to visit last weekend and expressed a wish for good street food, I knew this was my chance to try it.  Only one problem:  I would have to go to Camden for it.

I lived in NW1 when I first moved to London and although there were many things about it I loved, having to push through crowds of tourists, surly goths and the local, erm, marijuana pushers just to get a pint of milk in the morning was not one of them.  Camden is a busy place, especially around the lock, so putting a food market right there seems like a good idea, no?  Well, actually, no.  It is a bloody terrible idea.  For one, it is in a completely enclosed courtyard, bordered on one side by a canal and on the other by a kind of indoor shopping mall, which makes escape rather difficult.  This means that people browse, buy and eat in one place, which would be fine, except that there are millions of them.

I turned up, arranged a vague meeting-up strategy with my companions and went on the hunt for The Frenchie.  When I arrived, there was a relatively small queue so I quickly joined it and started to peruse the menu.  The concept is very simple:  you have a portion of the confit duck on brioche with a sprinkle of duck skin scratchings, some mustard, lettuce and then a choice of cheese.  The options are smoked cheddar, goats cheese with honey and a blue cheese.  This is all cooked on a hot plate and served up to you for around £6.00.  Or £6.50.  I forget.

Anyway, once I had navigated this sandwich through the crowds to a quiet corner, I found it to be one of the most spectacular sandwiches I had ever eaten.  The charms of confit duck in general require no big description, but this was a particularly excellent example:  flavoursome and moist, almost gelatinous in texture with a lovely salty crunch provided by the little pearls of duck skin scratchings scattered throughout.  I chose the smoked cheddar for the topping as I was worried the goats cheese and blue cheese might be too overpowering, and it was perfect; there was enough of smokiness to enhance the sandwich, but not too much flavour that it killed off the duck.  The brioche held it all together well until the last bite.

I have since been told that The Frenchie appear at other food markets across London, so I can enjoy another one of these wonderful creations without going to Camden. YES.