Rusty Divine

This summer one of my goals was to make a gourmet burger so good that my friend Adam Costenbader would choose it over his favorite 1809 burger at Honest Abe’s.

I mostly succeeded today at the unveiling. I’m happy with the outcome – it was generally agreed that it was on par with Abe’s burgers – but there is still room for improvement!

The Costenburger Recipe. Feel free to fork this recipe and send me pull requests!

Edit 8/25/14:

Cooking is one of my favorite hobbies. I love tweaking recipes to try new flavors and learning about different combinations that go well together. It’s one reason I love Cook’s Illustrated because they teach you by telling you all the things they tried while perfecting their recipe.

I also love burgers, and there’s a few places in Lincoln, NE that really are doing great things with burgers:

1. Honest Abe’s
2. Gretta’s Gourmet
3. HF Crave

There’s a burger at Honest Abe’s that a friend of mine orders every time (the 1809 burger). I told him that my summer project is to develop a burger that he would order instead of that burger – one that surpasses its savory excellence. I’ve taken the first step towards that goal by creating a repository to version my recipe until it is perfected, and a video to teach you how to make a gourmet burger in your backyard. Enjoy!