Usually, I find a cuisine, research its culture and history, learn something about the country or region, if applicable, and then look for recipes that I want to make that would illustrate the food of that region.

This time, the exact opposite happened. In exploring regional varieties on burgers in America, I learned about the Twin-Cities' Juicy Lucy and I thought they'd be great to try this Fourth of July.

I had a problem, though. Alphabetically, I'm still on the "M's" on my international food project, and while Juicy Lucys are broadly identified with Minnesota, I already had a planned dish for the state. Fortunately, as it happens, Juicy Lucys were actually born in one of two bars located in South Minneapolis sometime in the 1950's, and they are still most popular there, so I decided to just attribute it to Minneapolis. Minneapolis does not seem to have too many other dishes that are unique to it, but few cities do - that's why I've included a limited number of them in this project.

Juicy Lucy

A Juicy Lucy is just a burger stuffed with American cheese, rather than having it on top. Most versions I've seen come with pickles - which I personally dislike - or with the usual tomato/lettuce/onion trifecta that characterize most American burgers.

The original version just calls to season your beef with salt and ground black pepper - but I see a tendency in recipes for cooks to just use whatever seasonings they use in their everyday burger mix, in particular Worcestershire sauce and garlic powder. As I use these myself, I added them. You can spice them up even further with some cayenne.

While the original Juicy Lucy seems to have had American cheese in it, Twin City restaurants now stuff them with whatever they can think of. Put blue cheese in them and you have a juicy blucy - something I independently made, a couple of decades ago. You can also use cheddar, pepper jack for a spicy version, or anything you want.

Serious Eats warns that making a Juicy Lucy is not as easy as it sounds. The point of the Juicy Lucy is to have the American cheese ooze out of the burger, something hard to achieve without overcooking the actual patty. Their solution is to add some gelatin to the meat to make it feel juicy, even if overcooked - and to modify American cheese by melting it and adding beer and sodium citrate, to make it gooier. That not only seemed like a lot of work, but not at all faithful to how Juicy Lucy are made in Minneapolis. As it turned out, it wasn't necessary. The current formulation of Kraft singles - which cannot legally be called cheese or cheese product - melted even though I cooked the burgers rare/medium rare.

In all, I was quite pleased with the results. The burgers were quite tasty, they held together well and the "cheese" inside was melted. It wasn't exactly oozing, however. To get that for the photo, I had to press on the burger. Using two slices of "cheese" might be the way to go here.

I seasoned the ground beef with salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce and ground mustard, though I think it might not have been necessary. If I make them again, I'd skip that. I used used 80/20 ground which means the burgers shrunk significantly, and the quarter-pounder burgers were really quite small for their normal-sized buns. If I made them again, I'd use 1/3lb per burger.

I tried both cutting the cheese into a circle with a cooking cutter or into pieces with a knife, and I don't think it made a difference on how it melted.

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Juicy Lucy Ingredients 1 lb ground beef 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce (optional) 1/4 tsp ground mustard (optional) salt & ground pepper to taste (optional) 4 - 8 slices American cheese or Kraft singles 4 hamburger buns mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard to taste sliced pickles to taste (optional) caramelized onions to taste (optional) Directions Mix the ground beef with the Worcestershire sauce, ground mustard and salt and pepper to taste, if using. Divide into 6 to 8 equal parts. Using your hands, shape each part into a ball, then flatten to a thin circle. Set aside. Using a round cookie cutter, cut each slice of cheese into a circle. Alternatively, cut them into quarters. Place a cheese circle in the middle of each patty. Cover with another party, and crimp the sides, so you have uniform patty. Repeat. Preheat grill to 375° to 400°F. Add the patties, cover, and lower heat to medium-high. Cook for 3-4 minutes, turn and repeat. Place the burger patty in the bun and add desired condiments and toppings.

Adapted from several recipes

American Regional Cuisines: American, Alaskan, Appalachian, Alabamian, Angeleno, Arizonan, Arkansas, Baltimore, Californian, Coloradoan, Connecticuter, Delawarean, Floridian, Georgian, Hawaiian, Hoosier, Idahoan, Illinoisan, Iowan, Kansan, Kansas City, Kentuckian, Lowcountry, Mainer, Marylander, Massachusetts, Michigander, Minnesotan, Mississippian, Missourian, Montanan

Other Ethnic American cuisines: American, Acadians, African-American, Amish, Appalachian, Cal-Mex, Cajun, Creole, Cuban-American, Floribbean, German-American, Hungarian-American, Irish-American, Italian-American, Jewish American, K-Mex, Korean-American

North-American Indigenous cuisines I've cooked so far: Choctaw, Cree, Iroquoian, Kiowa

Historical American Cuisines: Ante Bellum, Colonial, Cowboy

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