From Our Kitchens: Brewpub’s Umami Burger

This week is Macon Burger Week, with 24 different restaurants putting together their best beef patty concoctions (save for one desert burger). 

Laurence Dantzler, director of operations for 551 hospitality, which operates local spots Brasserie Circa, Miramar Raw Bar and Tapas, Jim Shaw’s Seafood and Ocmulgee Brewpub, developed this year’s burger week entry for Brewpub, the Umami Burger.

The burger is a riff on their mushroom swiss burger, upgrading the onions and mushrooms with white miso, along with a soy and sesame aioli that emulates the notes of a dumpling sauce and cuts through the richness of the other ingredients, he said.

Umami is another flavor — like when you think of sour, sweet, or bitter — typically used to describe meat or rich broths. Miso is a salty, umami, soy bean paste used in Japanese cooking. 

Burgers are customizable and can be adjusted to one’s personal flavor profile, Dantzler said.

“When you’re putting a burger together, you want the beef to come through, that’s kind of the star of the show, and everything else that goes on it is meant to accentuate that,” he said.

Brewpub uses a blend of shortrib, chuck and brisket to incorporate the right ratio of fatty and lean meat while giving the patties a distinct texture and taste, Dantzler said. 

The best ways to cook a burger are on a flattop or cast iron or over the grill, Dantzler said. Doing it over the griddle allows for the burger to cook in its juices while cooking over a grill or open flame will add that charred element. 

While some prefer to cook their burgers with the seasoning blended into the patty, Dantzler said he prefers to season the outside to get the contrast between the caramelized shell around the patty and the juicy interior. 

Ocmulgee Brewpub Umami Burger

• 7 oz chuck burger
• Slice of swiss
• Burger buns
• 1 yellow onion, diced 
• 1 lb of button mushrooms, sliced
• 1-2 tablespoons of white miso

Dumpling sauce aioli

• 1 cup of mayo
• 4 green onions. sliced
• 1 teaspoon of fresh ginger, grated
• Soy sauce
• Sesame oil
• Rice vinegar

1. Sweat down onions and mushrooms in a pan with oil until cooked through
2. Add miso into pan with a splash of water to form a glaze, reduce until sticky.
3. Make the sauce by combining mayo, green onions, ginger and then soy sauce, sesame oil and rice vinegar to taste.
4. Form patty if using ground beef, ensure the patty is slightly larger than the bun to account for shrinkage and prevent balling up.
5. Grill patties on a griddle until cooked through, add cheese and cover patties until cheese melted.
6. Toast burger bun.
7. Plate burger starting with the bun, add the patty and top with aioli.