July 21, 2025 • 22 mins
Burgers! What are they without their toppings? Let's talk about the most popular trends for burger toppings in 2025!
We're Bruce Weinstein & Mark Scarbrough, veteran cookbook authors of thirty-seven cookbooks (plus Bruce's knitting books and Mark's memoir!).
We're going to get Bruce's honest reactions to the most popular burger topping trends for 2025. Plus, we've got a one-minute cooking tip for better drinks this summer. And all about sour cherry jam and home-grown currants.
If you'd like to get a copy of our newest cookbook, COLD CANNING, please check it out at this link right here.
Here are the segments for this episode of COOKING WITH BRUCE & MARK:
[01:20] Our one-minute cooking tip: Refresh the ice in your ice maker.
[03:20] What are the most popular burger toppings for 2025? Mark lists them for Bruce to see his reaction!
[18:40] What’s making us happy in food this week? Sour cherry jam and home-grown currants!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Hey, I am Bruce Weinstein and this is thePodcast Cooking with Bruce and Martin.
And I'm Mark Scarborough.
And together with Bruce, we have written,as you well know, 36 plus 1 37 cookbooks.
The plus one is out just aboutnow called Canning, small Batch
Canning, and Preserving with.
Out a pressure or a steam canner, youcan make two jars of strawberry jam.
(00:22):
You can make two jars of pickle relish.
You can make two jars of kimchi,one larger jar of kimchi.
You can store them in thefridge, and many of them in the.
Freezer indefinitely, and you don'thave to worry about pathogens.
You don't have to worryabout giant processing.
You don't have to worry about hair net.
You don't have to worry about setting upan industrial cooking line, and you don't
(00:44):
even have to worry about the apocalypsebecause you're not trying to survive it.
You're just making a couple jarsof something that's delicious
that you wanna set back andenjoy over the next month or so.
So check out our new book,cold Counting in this.
Episode of Cooking with Bruce and Mark.
We've got a one minute cooking tip.
We are gonna talk about hamburgertoppers and the current craze for what
(01:06):
they are and what goes on burgers.
Given that it's summer, um, we havea special way we're gonna do this.
I'm gonna talk about that when weget to it and we'll tell you what's
making us happy in food this week.
So, uh, let's get started.
Our one minute cooking tip, andI'm not doing it, mark, is okay.
I am.
And that is.
Refresh the ice in your ice maker.
(01:27):
If you haven't thrown the iceout in your ice maker in three
months, please throw it out today.
I can't believe we haveto tell people that
I know, but the ice in your icemaker gets, as they say, stale.
That is the official bartending term stale
rancid.
Ooh, okay.
Rancid isn't.
But it does get stale.
You know what it does, especially if youhave a self defrosting freezer, it starts
(01:50):
to clump together in big, icy birds,gross inside your, just gross your, uh,
ice ice tray or wherever it dumps out to.
And also, not only that, it doespick up refrigerator odors over time.
So
when you put the kimchi in there,you're gonna have kimchi ice.
Yeah.
So right.
Throw it out about everyfour to six months.
(02:11):
Get, get in there and just.
Dump out that tray.
Ours is in a tray.
I don't know how yours isa bucket, however it dumps.
Dump it out and let it start again.
And by the way, if you haven't changedthe filter on your fridge in a while,
maybe it's time to do that for the water.
Can't
believe we have to tell people that too.
I know, but so it goes.
Okay.
That's our one minute cooking tip.
If you want better icedtea, better drinks.
(02:33):
Better.
I don't know.
Frozen drinks.
Better daiquiris this summer.
Just change the ice in your ice maker.
All right.
Before we get.
To our main segment about BurgerToppers In this podcast, let me say
that we do have a TikTok channelcooking with Bruce and Mark.
You can check out there the two ofus we're making all kinds of dishes
into on TikTok, and we're also beyondthat talking about us, how we met.
(02:57):
Oh, it's a whole story.
Thing so you could check.
It's fun.
It is.
You could check us out on TikTokand believe it or not, it's called
Cooking with Bruce and Mark.
Aren't we clever?
Um, there's even a YouTube channelcalled Cooking with Bruce and Mark,
but the TikTok channel is much moreactive, so check that out if you
want to find out more about us.
All right.
On to the next segment.
Of this podcast,
(03:20):
we're gonna talk about the mostpopular hamburger toppers these days.
Mm-hmm.
And this is based on thetrends that are out there.
What are people ordering across Canada andthe United States, and even into the uk?
I did a lot of research for this, andwe're gonna do this in a strange way.
I know what these things are, and Bruce.
Doesn't.
So I'm gonna, I've got thelist right in front of me.
(03:42):
Mm-hmm.
And I'm gonna read off the list andBruce is gonna react to these things
and whether this is a decent thing toput on a burger or not, I'm gonna weigh
in with color commentary, but, uh,we're gonna kind of do this with, Bruce
doesn't even know what's happening.
Okay.
So we get his honest reaction.
So, you ready?
This is Sure.
Based on all kinds of.
Surveys based on restaurant menus,based on marketing, looks across
(04:06):
burger restaurants and across recipespublished online, published in, uh,
databases, Epicurious, places like that.
Like what are people searching for?
And also, I can tell you Idid a little bit of Google
keyword search on this mm-hmm.
To make sure that this isreally what was going on.
Alright.
Please tell me peanut butter, jellyand caramel sauce is one of the
topics.
(04:26):
No, it is not.
And why Mark and I,
why would you
say that?
Because Mark and I went.
Out to dinner once in New Englandwith a famous food writer.
Yes, she was an older woman,
really famous at the time, food writer.
She has since passed away.
She
has, and she invited us out to dinnerand took us to one of her favorite places
and she ordered the special, which wasa burger, which had peanut butter and
(04:47):
jelly, and a caramel dipping sauce.
That is just perhaps thisis why she passed away.
It's so disgusting.
I can't even get my, my brain.
That's why I brain wanted to make
sure that's on
there.
No, it's not.
Okay.
Up first.
Here's the first one.
Ready?
Mm-hmm.
And this is the most popularcurrent hamburger topper
beyond lettuce and tomato.
Okay.
Onion rings.
Yum.
(05:07):
First of all, they'recrunchy, and crunchy is good.
Um, as long as they're not too breaded.
'cause if there's too muchbreading, then it's bread and a bun.
Now I can imagine getting rid of the bunsand just holding onion rings on the top.
Oh, what, how, how?
I don't know.
I would just do it.
I, I don't know how you do
that.
Well, actually.
There's a place in New England calledPlan B Burger Bar, and I went there
(05:29):
by myself last summer and had lunch.
One day I was delivering somethingto somebody and I had a burger
sitting at the bar that hadbarbecued sauce and onion rings.
So I know firsthand that that's fabulous.
Okay,
um, so here's my Clic commentary.
Ready?
Mm-hmm.
Gross.
My color, Terry is grossbecause I love onion rings.
Mm-hmm.
Beyond the pale.
(05:50):
I love onion rings.
I want them to be super crunchy,and I fear that if I get them near a
hot steamy patty or near ketchup orbarbecue sauces or whatever you put on
your burger, they're gonna get soggy.
Well, there's a
way.
There's a technique.
Well, there's a technique to eating them.
You don't put the other stuff, themayonnaise and mustard, the ketchup.
On the burger, but
(06:10):
the burger's hot, that's it's
steamy.
That's, they still stay crunchybecause the bun absorbs it,
not their onion ring coating.
And then you have a pile of thesauce and you dip each bite in it
as you eat it, not not buying it.
It works.
Do not destroy my onion rings.
It works.
Do not adulterate them in anyway.
Okay.
And second, the second biggest trendright now on burger topping is a really
(06:30):
old fashioned classic, and that is chili.
Mm, A chili burger.
I used to eat chiliburgers back in college.
What I don't like about them is you haveto eat them with a fork and a knife.
Ooh.
How European?
You can't
pick them up.
Oh my God.
How French have you.
But then
you also have to have someraw onions, because that's the
only way a chili burger works.
(06:51):
Oh, my stomach.
Oh, my stomach.
And then the other thing is,and this is a. Bigger question
about toppings in general.
You cannot, and I will not allowyou to put chili on a rare burger.
'cause the texturecombination is disgusting.
It has to be a well done burger.
'cause think about that texture ofbiting into a rare burger, right?
Woo.
(07:11):
With the chili?
No.
So that's a bigger question.
How do these toppings change?
Based on whether you like yourburgers, medium, rare, or well
done, and especially in Canadawhere they're not allowed to serve
anything, but well done burgers, right?
Well then maybe chili works.
Okay.
That third is again, a huge oldfashioned topping for burgers.
It's been around for forever.
(07:32):
The third major thing this summer,based on all this marketing
and keyword search is bacon.
Yes, but not alone.
Bacon needs something else.
You can't just put bacon.
I mean, I loved bacon Swisscheeseburgers when I was in college.
That was what I ate in NewYork City diners all the time.
But I have to say that no matter whatyou put in a burger, ketchup is a given.
(07:56):
Right?
So ketchup with baconand Swiss cheese, yum.
That is a fabulous combination.
Yeah, I do like bacon, but ithas to be with something else.
I
don't.
I don't eat burger with bacon.
Bacon.
Here's my color commentary.
And it's not because I don't likeit, it is just it, it seems to
be overkill, but um, I know Bruceloves it, but my problem is.
It if, if I do have a bacon cheeseburger,let's say once every five years, if I
(08:20):
have one, um, the bacon just can't be,um, for lack of a better word, flacid.
No.
It has to be so sharded up that whenyou bite it, it crunches otherwise,
otherwise you bite it and it doesn't.
Bite and you pull the whole stripof bacon out with each bite.
No, it has to be super crunchy.
It's funny, I don't like super crunchybacon with eggs, but only on a burger.
Yeah, but on burgers.
(08:40):
Yes.
That's true.
I agree.
Okay, I agree.
So I already know the answerto this one from Bruce.
Oh, you know what my, I know exactlywhat, so I do know you without a question.
So, uh, it must be mayonnaise.
No, it's dev.
It's uh, it's a devil de ew.
I wish there was a vomitbucket in the studio.
(09:00):
Deviled eggs shouldnever have been invented.
They should be wipedoff of hard boiled eggs.
Let's start with hard boiled eggs.
Okay?
I have seen you
eat eggs on a burger.
I've seen you eat fried eggs on a burger
Different.
Different.
That's a, that's a runny, runny yolk.
I do not like a cooked yolk.
Once you cook the yolk tosolid, it is inedible it.
Okay.
So why, as my dog would say,you're giving me poison.
(09:23):
Is that what your dog says?
My dog.
My dog says that.
Okay, so why would, let'sjust think for a second.
Why would someone put adeviled egg on a hamburger?
But it's like
putting egg salad.
That's why.
I guess that's right.
It's like putting egg salad,except there's not as much pickle
relish and that kind of thing.
At least in the egg salad.
I knew as a kid, but I guess I,it's probably for the creaminess.
(09:44):
Once you smush it down in the bun, it'sgonna smush out and get the YI can.
Okay.
I can imagine and I wouldn't eat it.
I can imagine the innards of adeviled egg, the yolk part spread on
a burger, but I cannot, well, come on.
It's mayonnaise, it's mustard, it's,it's, you're pushing all my buttons.
(10:04):
Um, well, I can imagine that, butI just can't imagine that white,
and I just can't imagine the bite.
And I'm back to the rare burgerversus the well done burger.
Well, okay, that's, it's a textural
thing.
Okay.
But.
It's not your textural thing, soyou don't have to worry about it.
Let me worry about rare burgerssince you don't eat them.
So, okay, there you go.
Um, here's another one.
This is a little bitsurprising and it's a riff.
(10:26):
It's a modern, I think, millennial riffoff of an old topping, and that is aioli.
Hmm.
Interesting.
It's mayonnaise based.
I'm, you see there,
there's the old riff.
It's mayonnaise.
I,
I'm not a mayonnaise fan.
I don't like mayonnaise on thingsunless it's mixed with things
like, I like Russian dressing.
(10:46):
I like tuna salad.
I like salmon salad andwhitefish salad, chicken salad.
But I would never in a millionyears put mayonnaise on bread.
It's just gross.
Okay.
Um, that's fair.
I guess I don't, I I likemayonnaise on burgers.
So aioli, my problem would be thegarlic that's usually in aioli and
(11:07):
I would think it would overwhelm theburger, but I, I would certainly try it.
Okay, here we go.
Here's another one.
But this one is very common inour house and uh, I already know
what you think and that is kimchi.
Uh, kimchi is good.
It's not my favorite.
It's your go-to.
You like it with mayonnaise.
I, I love it.
Beyond compare on Burger?
Yeah.
I mean, when Mark does his kimchiand mayonnaise, I always do, um,
(11:27):
chili crisp and sweet pickle relish.
That's my go-to combination.
Um, kimchi iss great.
I love kimchi.
Yeah.
I could put it on a burger.
Yeah.
And spicy.
That's what I like is that it's spicyand a little fermenty and it's umami.
I like all of that.
We
were at this place in Dallasonce visiting Mark's parents' hop
daddies, and I had a burger that had.
Um, pork belly, it was,
(11:48):
I love the burgers at
hopped outies.
It wasn't bacon, it was thickcut, super crispy pork belly
and kimchi, and it was really
good.
I mean, they have a rangeof burgers at Hopped outies.
Mm-hmm.
And if you're near one, I thinkthey've even expanded outside of Texas.
Now, if you're near a hopped outiesand we are not supported by them,
I can definitely say try hoppedbecause their burgers are spectacular.
(12:08):
Mm-hmm.
Okay, so here's another, now very currentKoran topping, and that is chutney.
Yeah.
Okay.
Any kind of chutney on anything?
I'm a chutney fiend.
So just
in case, uh, somebodydoesn't know what is chutney?
Think about jam now.
Add spices and vinegar
and drop the sugar dramatically.
Yeah.
Well, they could be sweet, butthey're not as sweet as, as most jams.
(12:29):
Yeah.
Don't
think about jam.
Think about.
I don't know what you're right.
Jam.
But,
but, but that's a texture of jam.
It's fruit and sugar.
Add
lots of ginger and aromaticand lots of spices.
Think
Indian spices, think coriander and thinkgarlic and ginger and mustard seeds.
What would you add
with.
Chutney to a burger.
Chutney and cheese are a classiccombination, and I can actually
(12:52):
imagine a slice of Bri and some plumb.
Chutney Wow.
On a burger.
Wow.
Yeah.
Well, it's now you gotit up to a $20 burger.
Wow.
Okay.
A slice of Bri.
Mm-hmm.
Well, I, I would try it.
Okay.
Here's one that does not come from theUnited States, and you will know instantly
that this is not from the United States.
Okay.
Okay.
(13:12):
But a major.
Topping this summer forburgers in another place.
Mm-hmm.
Is Lime Pickle.
Oh, that's gotta be the uk.
Well of course, because you know theRaj and all that and they've adapted
everything from India of course.
So Lime Pickle is a pickle is just a,some kind of a preserve from India.
And this is limes.
(13:34):
Including the rind that has beenpickled with salt and spices.
Super sour.
Super sour, not very sweet, supersour, not very sweet, and it's a really
super salty,
interesting, interestingidea to put lime pickle.
I would put that on the top and then Imight put something sweet on the bottom.
I, I. I mean, I can imagine, sincewe're gonna be in the UK for a second,
(13:55):
I can imagine Branston Pickle betteron a burger than, than Line Pickle.
But that's thing You're pickle going.
Sweet again.
Branston Pickle is, um, ru Yeah, but the,the, the sauce on it is molasses and it's
a dark brown sweet Raisiny molasses with.
Chopped up vegetables.
Yeah, I can imagine.
Branston pickle.
See of course me, I would putBranson pickle with mayonnaise
(14:15):
and I would probably, of courseput kimchi back on it again
with the branston pickle.
Why?
Yeah,
why not?
I mean, just go crazy.
Okay, so here two, we got two moreyet to go, uh, for your reaction.
And, uh, a very currenttopping for burgers is pesto.
Hmm, sure I could do it.
And we're talking now, notpesto, with pasta and not pesto.
(14:37):
No mixed potato.
Just pesto.
Right.
I can imagine.
Sun dried tomato pesto.
Even more than basil pesto.
Oh,
you're getting fancy.
All right there.
But I
can see it and I can, here's,here's where I'm gonna go.
I can even imagine mixingeither of those pestos.
With some mayonnaise andputting it on the burger.
All right.
I can probably imagine that.
I can imagine pesto on a burger.
(14:57):
I don't think I would choose it.
Mm. I think it's a littlebit too out there for me.
And the thing about burgers is mostof us, at least in North America,
we grew up with a kind of burger.
And we kind of stick to that.
Now, I did not grow up with mayonnaiseand kimchi burgers, but I certainly
grew up with cheeseburgers with lettuceand tomato and mayonnaise and mustard.
So there's this kind of a childhood thing.
(15:18):
Mm-hmm.
People grew up, for example, with ketchup,with burgers, and they don't want to
pull away from ketchup with burgers.
Back in the eighties therewas this chain restaurant.
French bistro chain restaurant in NewYork, and I used to go there for lunch
all the time with my best friend and Iwould get their steak hase countryside,
oh my God, with steak hase, chopped steak.
It was a burger on a plate.
And their idea of countryside is theytopped it in the French version of pesto.
(15:41):
It was a garlic and.
Parsley and butter mixture as opposedto basil and garlic and olive oil.
And so I grew up eatingthis fabulous burger steak.
I love the steak, steak ache, countryside.
I love the, the, the French word shovedand attache just means chopped up.
So steak and then countryside.
Countryside.
I, I so pretentious.
(16:03):
That's unbelievable.
I, I was still eating hotdogs, so what did I know?
Okay, and here's our.
Final topping, uh, for burgersthat is very popular this
summer and that is hummus.
Oh no.
The texture's
all
wrong.
It's too thick.
Mm. It's too you.
No, that's Nope, nope.
I'm gonna say nope.
No matter what flavorhummus it is, it's wrong.
(16:23):
Chocolate chip hummus is,I say now sell the dessert.
Hummus.
Because
you could make a burger out of chickpeas.
Right?
You can have a chickpea burger.
That's right.
You can.
So I feel like I'm you.
Why didn't you just put hummus onthe bun and top it with ground beef?
I feel
like the problem with hummus isit would have to be, as you've
already indicated, sort of, itwould have to be an an extremely.
Thin layer.
Mm-hmm.
(16:43):
I would not choose humuson online burger at all.
No.
Nope.
But I think if it got very thickit would just get so gushy.
Mm-hmm.
That it would be hard to deal with.
Um, I now
maybe the chocolate hummus, I don't know.
Oh, stop All those dessert humusis, I remember the first time I
saw dessert, hummus is in Wegmans.
We were shooting, uh, an episode for QVCand we were down in Pennsylvania and uh,
(17:05):
we went in this big Wegmans to pick up.
Car snacks for the ride backfrom Pennsylvania to New England.
And we passed the hummus andthere was snicker dole hummus.
Mm-hmm.
And chocolate chip hummus.
Mm-hmm.
And I remember taking a picture andposting it on my socials because I was
like, what in the hell is this, thatsomeone would make snicker doodle hummus?
(17:26):
Is this in?
Insane.
So, um, yeah, I don't think I'mone for hummus on a burger either.
Mm-hmm.
I, I don't think so.
I can kind of imagine.
No, I was gonna say, I can kind ofimagine hummus on a hot dog, but
No, I can't even imagine it there.
Oh, gross.
No, it's a category mistake.
Yeah, it does seem like acategory mistake in cooking.
Okay, so there's our toppings.
(17:47):
For burgers for this episode.
Bruce didn't know the list before.
IL it up onto the podcast and loadedit up into it so that we got his
honest reactions to everythingand my color commentary since I
already knew what all this was.
Um, I hope that you thought about whatwe like and maybe you'll write in and
tell us what you like on a burger.
We have a face.
Book group called Cookingwith Bruce and Mark.
(18:09):
We'd love to know what you preferon your burgers, and if any of
these toppings absolutely grossesyou out, we'd love to know that.
You can see that the deviled eggsis the one that Bruce just freaked
out over of all of them, but, um.
Just, no, I'm just imagining thatfirst bite with a half a devil.
There go.
Oh, just, no.
I'm imagining how much it's on my lap,in my lap and how much it's on my shirt.
(18:33):
Anyway.
Okay, so we'd love to hearfrom you at the Facebook group
Cooking with Bruce and Mark.
Let's get to the traditionallast segment out the podcast.
What's making us happy and food this week?
A friend called me the other day and saidshe was going to a friend of hers to pick
sour cherries in the friend's orchard.
Did I want to come along?
Well, that's a no brainer.
(18:53):
Of course.
I went along and not only did I gothat day and pick three quarts of sour
cherries, I went back two days laterand picked another six quarts of sour
cherries, and let me say that you pickedall this and she picked, and other people
had been picking, and this woman had two
trees.
It's just two trees produced.
So much.
So I spent about three hours at thesink pitting each one of these little
bright red cherries, and I made10 jars of sour cherry preserves.
(19:18):
Oh, it's
so good.
I had five times the recipe fromour book, cold canning and was
good.
So you, you canned it shelf stable.
You, you did it the old fashioned way.
I did, but
the same proportions.
It's the recipes in the book.
It, it works.
It's delicious.
There's nothing like sour.
Cherry preserves.
It
is a really deliciousand fine thing to eat.
(19:39):
I think that one of the things that'smaking me happy this week is that not only
did Bruce go over and, uh, harvest fromthis person's house, uh, but we've been
harvesting around here and we grow white.
Currents, red currents grow.
You grow, you're the gardener.
Okay, we grow.
Let me have it.
White currents, red currents andblack currents, or as you might
(20:01):
know them, cais, uh, the Frenchterm for the black currents.
And we grow all three ofthose currents at our house.
Uh, we also grow blueberries,but those aren't near ready yet.
But, uh, I harvested.
All of the current bushes this last week.
And I have to say that therewas something very zen about it.
If you know about harvesting currents,they grow in little Juul like strands
(20:22):
of multiple of them on a stem, multipleof each of the currents on a stem, and
you kind of have to strip each stemwith your fingers and a lot of the
stems, of course, over time lose allbut one or two of the berries that are.
I guess they're berries, right?
Berries hanging there.
But you kind of have to workvery diligently and slowly.
It's not very easy to pick cards.
Mm-hmm.
(20:43):
'cause you, you do it by kind of yourfingertips and you're trying to hold
them in the palm of your, and notsqueeze them right before you dump it
'em a bowl and then fill up the palmof your hand again with the next one.
It takes a while and you have tokind of zen out and get into it.
And I did, and I loved it.
I. There was a catbird that was veryangry at me that kept kind of flying
near me as I was picking the red cards.
Stop eating my currents.
It said, because I needed to get out thereand pick them because this catbird was
(21:06):
having a meal every day of red currents,and I needed to get, uh, as many of
the berries off the bushes as I could.
I could tell you justto say that I did leave.
Some on the bush for that bird, andthey are in fact slowly disappearing.
Mm-hmm.
The white currents I left nothing.
They're too precious.
I took them all out and I was ableto currents make two jars most.
Yeah.
(21:26):
I was able to make two jars of whitecurrent jelly out of what you got.
I haven't touched the black currents yetand can't wait that maybe this afternoon.
Okay, so let me say as we finish upthis podcast that it would be great
if you could rate this podcast, giveit a dare, I say a five star rating,
and if you could write a reviewfor it, that would be terrific.
Thanks for doing that.
That keeps it fresh in thealgorithms, which is everything
these days and apparently moreand more with coming of ai.
(21:48):
You should know, we guaranteeyou 100% that nothing in this
podcast was AI generated.
I did my own.
Google keyword searches forthose hamburger toppings.
I did not feed it into chat GPT and my
reactions were genuine.
That's right.
I did not feed it into
clawed, I didn't feed it intoany of the AI content generators.
In fact, I never have for this podcast.
(22:10):
So we can guarantee you 100% thatwe are the real deal and we are
not using AI to create our lists.
And I can tell you we're not using AI on.
Any of those social platformsthat Mark talked about on our
YouTube channel, on our Facebookgroup, on TikTok or Instagram.
Follow us all there cookingwith Bruce and Mark.
You will get us and not AI alwayshere on cooking with Bruce and Mark.
Hey, I am Bruce Weinstein and this is thePodcast Cooking with Bruce and Martin.
And I'm Mark Scarborough.
And together with Bruce, we have written,as you well know, 36 plus 1 37 cookbooks.
The plus one is out just aboutnow called Canning, small Batch
Canning, and Preserving with.
Out a pressure or a steam canner, youcan make two jars of strawberry jam.
(00:22):
You can make two jars of pickle relish.
You can make two jars of kimchi,one larger jar of kimchi.
You can store them in thefridge, and many of them in the.
Freezer indefinitely, and you don'thave to worry about pathogens.
You don't have to worryabout giant processing.
You don't have to worry about hair net.
You don't have to worry about setting upan industrial cooking line, and you don't
(00:44):
even have to worry about the apocalypsebecause you're not trying to survive it.
You're just making a couple jarsof something that's delicious
that you wanna set back andenjoy over the next month or so.
So check out our new book,cold Counting in this.
Episode of Cooking with Bruce and Mark.
We've got a one minute cooking tip.
We are gonna talk about hamburgertoppers and the current craze for what
(01:06):
they are and what goes on burgers.
Given that it's summer, um, we havea special way we're gonna do this.
I'm gonna talk about that when weget to it and we'll tell you what's
making us happy in food this week.
So, uh, let's get started.
Our one minute cooking tip, andI'm not doing it, mark, is okay.
I am.
And that is.
Refresh the ice in your ice maker.
(01:27):
If you haven't thrown the iceout in your ice maker in three
months, please throw it out today.
I can't believe we haveto tell people that
I know, but the ice in your icemaker gets, as they say, stale.
That is the official bartending term stale
rancid.
Ooh, okay.
Rancid isn't.
But it does get stale.
You know what it does, especially if youhave a self defrosting freezer, it starts
(01:50):
to clump together in big, icy birds,gross inside your, just gross your, uh,
ice ice tray or wherever it dumps out to.
And also, not only that, it doespick up refrigerator odors over time.
So
when you put the kimchi in there,you're gonna have kimchi ice.
Yeah.
So right.
Throw it out about everyfour to six months.
(02:11):
Get, get in there and just.
Dump out that tray.
Ours is in a tray.
I don't know how yours isa bucket, however it dumps.
Dump it out and let it start again.
And by the way, if you haven't changedthe filter on your fridge in a while,
maybe it's time to do that for the water.
Can't
believe we have to tell people that too.
I know, but so it goes.
Okay.
That's our one minute cooking tip.
If you want better icedtea, better drinks.
(02:33):
Better.
I don't know.
Frozen drinks.
Better daiquiris this summer.
Just change the ice in your ice maker.
All right.
Before we get.
To our main segment about BurgerToppers In this podcast, let me say
that we do have a TikTok channelcooking with Bruce and Mark.
You can check out there the two ofus we're making all kinds of dishes
into on TikTok, and we're also beyondthat talking about us, how we met.
(02:57):
Oh, it's a whole story.
Thing so you could check.
It's fun.
It is.
You could check us out on TikTokand believe it or not, it's called
Cooking with Bruce and Mark.
Aren't we clever?
Um, there's even a YouTube channelcalled Cooking with Bruce and Mark,
but the TikTok channel is much moreactive, so check that out if you
want to find out more about us.
All right.
On to the next segment.
Of this podcast,
(03:20):
we're gonna talk about the mostpopular hamburger toppers these days.
Mm-hmm.
And this is based on thetrends that are out there.
What are people ordering across Canada andthe United States, and even into the uk?
I did a lot of research for this, andwe're gonna do this in a strange way.
I know what these things are, and Bruce.
Doesn't.
So I'm gonna, I've got thelist right in front of me.
(03:42):
Mm-hmm.
And I'm gonna read off the list andBruce is gonna react to these things
and whether this is a decent thing toput on a burger or not, I'm gonna weigh
in with color commentary, but, uh,we're gonna kind of do this with, Bruce
doesn't even know what's happening.
Okay.
So we get his honest reaction.
So, you ready?
This is Sure.
Based on all kinds of.
Surveys based on restaurant menus,based on marketing, looks across
(04:06):
burger restaurants and across recipespublished online, published in, uh,
databases, Epicurious, places like that.
Like what are people searching for?
And also, I can tell you Idid a little bit of Google
keyword search on this mm-hmm.
To make sure that this isreally what was going on.
Alright.
Please tell me peanut butter, jellyand caramel sauce is one of the
topics.
(04:26):
No, it is not.
And why Mark and I,
why would you
say that?
Because Mark and I went.
Out to dinner once in New Englandwith a famous food writer.
Yes, she was an older woman,
really famous at the time, food writer.
She has since passed away.
She
has, and she invited us out to dinnerand took us to one of her favorite places
and she ordered the special, which wasa burger, which had peanut butter and
(04:47):
jelly, and a caramel dipping sauce.
That is just perhaps thisis why she passed away.
It's so disgusting.
I can't even get my, my brain.
That's why I brain wanted to make
sure that's on
there.
No, it's not.
Okay.
Up first.
Here's the first one.
Ready?
Mm-hmm.
And this is the most popularcurrent hamburger topper
beyond lettuce and tomato.
Okay.
Onion rings.
Yum.
(05:07):
First of all, they'recrunchy, and crunchy is good.
Um, as long as they're not too breaded.
'cause if there's too muchbreading, then it's bread and a bun.
Now I can imagine getting rid of the bunsand just holding onion rings on the top.
Oh, what, how, how?
I don't know.
I would just do it.
I, I don't know how you do
that.
Well, actually.
There's a place in New England calledPlan B Burger Bar, and I went there
(05:29):
by myself last summer and had lunch.
One day I was delivering somethingto somebody and I had a burger
sitting at the bar that hadbarbecued sauce and onion rings.
So I know firsthand that that's fabulous.
Okay,
um, so here's my Clic commentary.
Ready?
Mm-hmm.
Gross.
My color, Terry is grossbecause I love onion rings.
Mm-hmm.
Beyond the pale.
(05:50):
I love onion rings.
I want them to be super crunchy,and I fear that if I get them near a
hot steamy patty or near ketchup orbarbecue sauces or whatever you put on
your burger, they're gonna get soggy.
Well, there's a
way.
There's a technique.
Well, there's a technique to eating them.
You don't put the other stuff, themayonnaise and mustard, the ketchup.
On the burger, but
(06:10):
the burger's hot, that's it's
steamy.
That's, they still stay crunchybecause the bun absorbs it,
not their onion ring coating.
And then you have a pile of thesauce and you dip each bite in it
as you eat it, not not buying it.
It works.
Do not destroy my onion rings.
It works.
Do not adulterate them in anyway.
Okay.
And second, the second biggest trendright now on burger topping is a really
(06:30):
old fashioned classic, and that is chili.
Mm, A chili burger.
I used to eat chiliburgers back in college.
What I don't like about them is you haveto eat them with a fork and a knife.
Ooh.
How European?
You can't
pick them up.
Oh my God.
How French have you.
But then
you also have to have someraw onions, because that's the
only way a chili burger works.
(06:51):
Oh, my stomach.
Oh, my stomach.
And then the other thing is,and this is a. Bigger question
about toppings in general.
You cannot, and I will not allowyou to put chili on a rare burger.
'cause the texturecombination is disgusting.
It has to be a well done burger.
'cause think about that texture ofbiting into a rare burger, right?
Woo.
(07:11):
With the chili?
No.
So that's a bigger question.
How do these toppings change?
Based on whether you like yourburgers, medium, rare, or well
done, and especially in Canadawhere they're not allowed to serve
anything, but well done burgers, right?
Well then maybe chili works.
Okay.
That third is again, a huge oldfashioned topping for burgers.
It's been around for forever.
(07:32):
The third major thing this summer,based on all this marketing
and keyword search is bacon.
Yes, but not alone.
Bacon needs something else.
You can't just put bacon.
I mean, I loved bacon Swisscheeseburgers when I was in college.
That was what I ate in NewYork City diners all the time.
But I have to say that no matter whatyou put in a burger, ketchup is a given.
(07:56):
Right?
So ketchup with baconand Swiss cheese, yum.
That is a fabulous combination.
Yeah, I do like bacon, but ithas to be with something else.
I
don't.
I don't eat burger with bacon.
Bacon.
Here's my color commentary.
And it's not because I don't likeit, it is just it, it seems to
be overkill, but um, I know Bruceloves it, but my problem is.
It if, if I do have a bacon cheeseburger,let's say once every five years, if I
(08:20):
have one, um, the bacon just can't be,um, for lack of a better word, flacid.
No.
It has to be so sharded up that whenyou bite it, it crunches otherwise,
otherwise you bite it and it doesn't.
Bite and you pull the whole stripof bacon out with each bite.
No, it has to be super crunchy.
It's funny, I don't like super crunchybacon with eggs, but only on a burger.
Yeah, but on burgers.
(08:40):
Yes.
That's true.
I agree.
Okay, I agree.
So I already know the answerto this one from Bruce.
Oh, you know what my, I know exactlywhat, so I do know you without a question.
So, uh, it must be mayonnaise.
No, it's dev.
It's uh, it's a devil de ew.
I wish there was a vomitbucket in the studio.
(09:00):
Deviled eggs shouldnever have been invented.
They should be wipedoff of hard boiled eggs.
Let's start with hard boiled eggs.
Okay?
I have seen you
eat eggs on a burger.
I've seen you eat fried eggs on a burger
Different.
Different.
That's a, that's a runny, runny yolk.
I do not like a cooked yolk.
Once you cook the yolk tosolid, it is inedible it.
Okay.
So why, as my dog would say,you're giving me poison.
(09:23):
Is that what your dog says?
My dog.
My dog says that.
Okay, so why would, let'sjust think for a second.
Why would someone put adeviled egg on a hamburger?
But it's like
putting egg salad.
That's why.
I guess that's right.
It's like putting egg salad,except there's not as much pickle
relish and that kind of thing.
At least in the egg salad.
I knew as a kid, but I guess I,it's probably for the creaminess.
(09:44):
Once you smush it down in the bun, it'sgonna smush out and get the YI can.
Okay.
I can imagine and I wouldn't eat it.
I can imagine the innards of adeviled egg, the yolk part spread on
a burger, but I cannot, well, come on.
It's mayonnaise, it's mustard, it's,it's, you're pushing all my buttons.
(10:04):
Um, well, I can imagine that, butI just can't imagine that white,
and I just can't imagine the bite.
And I'm back to the rare burgerversus the well done burger.
Well, okay, that's, it's a textural
thing.
Okay.
But.
It's not your textural thing, soyou don't have to worry about it.
Let me worry about rare burgerssince you don't eat them.
So, okay, there you go.
Um, here's another one.
This is a little bitsurprising and it's a riff.
(10:26):
It's a modern, I think, millennial riffoff of an old topping, and that is aioli.
Hmm.
Interesting.
It's mayonnaise based.
I'm, you see there,
there's the old riff.
It's mayonnaise.
I,
I'm not a mayonnaise fan.
I don't like mayonnaise on thingsunless it's mixed with things
like, I like Russian dressing.
(10:46):
I like tuna salad.
I like salmon salad andwhitefish salad, chicken salad.
But I would never in a millionyears put mayonnaise on bread.
It's just gross.
Okay.
Um, that's fair.
I guess I don't, I I likemayonnaise on burgers.
So aioli, my problem would be thegarlic that's usually in aioli and
(11:07):
I would think it would overwhelm theburger, but I, I would certainly try it.
Okay, here we go.
Here's another one.
But this one is very common inour house and uh, I already know
what you think and that is kimchi.
Uh, kimchi is good.
It's not my favorite.
It's your go-to.
You like it with mayonnaise.
I, I love it.
Beyond compare on Burger?
Yeah.
I mean, when Mark does his kimchiand mayonnaise, I always do, um,
(11:27):
chili crisp and sweet pickle relish.
That's my go-to combination.
Um, kimchi iss great.
I love kimchi.
Yeah.
I could put it on a burger.
Yeah.
And spicy.
That's what I like is that it's spicyand a little fermenty and it's umami.
I like all of that.
We
were at this place in Dallasonce visiting Mark's parents' hop
daddies, and I had a burger that had.
Um, pork belly, it was,
(11:48):
I love the burgers at
hopped outies.
It wasn't bacon, it was thickcut, super crispy pork belly
and kimchi, and it was really
good.
I mean, they have a rangeof burgers at Hopped outies.
Mm-hmm.
And if you're near one, I thinkthey've even expanded outside of Texas.
Now, if you're near a hopped outiesand we are not supported by them,
I can definitely say try hoppedbecause their burgers are spectacular.
(12:08):
Mm-hmm.
Okay, so here's another, now very currentKoran topping, and that is chutney.
Yeah.
Okay.
Any kind of chutney on anything?
I'm a chutney fiend.
So just
in case, uh, somebodydoesn't know what is chutney?
Think about jam now.
Add spices and vinegar
and drop the sugar dramatically.
Yeah.
Well, they could be sweet, butthey're not as sweet as, as most jams.
(12:29):
Yeah.
Don't
think about jam.
Think about.
I don't know what you're right.
Jam.
But,
but, but that's a texture of jam.
It's fruit and sugar.
Add
lots of ginger and aromaticand lots of spices.
Think
Indian spices, think coriander and thinkgarlic and ginger and mustard seeds.
What would you add
with.
Chutney to a burger.
Chutney and cheese are a classiccombination, and I can actually
(12:52):
imagine a slice of Bri and some plumb.
Chutney Wow.
On a burger.
Wow.
Yeah.
Well, it's now you gotit up to a $20 burger.
Wow.
Okay.
A slice of Bri.
Mm-hmm.
Well, I, I would try it.
Okay.
Here's one that does not come from theUnited States, and you will know instantly
that this is not from the United States.
Okay.
Okay.
(13:12):
But a major.
Topping this summer forburgers in another place.
Mm-hmm.
Is Lime Pickle.
Oh, that's gotta be the uk.
Well of course, because you know theRaj and all that and they've adapted
everything from India of course.
So Lime Pickle is a pickle is just a,some kind of a preserve from India.
And this is limes.
(13:34):
Including the rind that has beenpickled with salt and spices.
Super sour.
Super sour, not very sweet, supersour, not very sweet, and it's a really
super salty,
interesting, interestingidea to put lime pickle.
I would put that on the top and then Imight put something sweet on the bottom.
I, I. I mean, I can imagine, sincewe're gonna be in the UK for a second,
(13:55):
I can imagine Branston Pickle betteron a burger than, than Line Pickle.
But that's thing You're pickle going.
Sweet again.
Branston Pickle is, um, ru Yeah, but the,the, the sauce on it is molasses and it's
a dark brown sweet Raisiny molasses with.
Chopped up vegetables.
Yeah, I can imagine.
Branston pickle.
See of course me, I would putBranson pickle with mayonnaise
(14:15):
and I would probably, of courseput kimchi back on it again
with the branston pickle.
Why?
Yeah,
why not?
I mean, just go crazy.
Okay, so here two, we got two moreyet to go, uh, for your reaction.
And, uh, a very currenttopping for burgers is pesto.
Hmm, sure I could do it.
And we're talking now, notpesto, with pasta and not pesto.
(14:37):
No mixed potato.
Just pesto.
Right.
I can imagine.
Sun dried tomato pesto.
Even more than basil pesto.
Oh,
you're getting fancy.
All right there.
But I
can see it and I can, here's,here's where I'm gonna go.
I can even imagine mixingeither of those pestos.
With some mayonnaise andputting it on the burger.
All right.
I can probably imagine that.
I can imagine pesto on a burger.
(14:57):
I don't think I would choose it.
Mm. I think it's a littlebit too out there for me.
And the thing about burgers is mostof us, at least in North America,
we grew up with a kind of burger.
And we kind of stick to that.
Now, I did not grow up with mayonnaiseand kimchi burgers, but I certainly
grew up with cheeseburgers with lettuceand tomato and mayonnaise and mustard.
So there's this kind of a childhood thing.
(15:18):
Mm-hmm.
People grew up, for example, with ketchup,with burgers, and they don't want to
pull away from ketchup with burgers.
Back in the eighties therewas this chain restaurant.
French bistro chain restaurant in NewYork, and I used to go there for lunch
all the time with my best friend and Iwould get their steak hase countryside,
oh my God, with steak hase, chopped steak.
It was a burger on a plate.
And their idea of countryside is theytopped it in the French version of pesto.
(15:41):
It was a garlic and.
Parsley and butter mixture as opposedto basil and garlic and olive oil.
And so I grew up eatingthis fabulous burger steak.
I love the steak, steak ache, countryside.
I love the, the, the French word shovedand attache just means chopped up.
So steak and then countryside.
Countryside.
I, I so pretentious.
(16:03):
That's unbelievable.
I, I was still eating hotdogs, so what did I know?
Okay, and here's our.
Final topping, uh, for burgersthat is very popular this
summer and that is hummus.
Oh no.
The texture's
all
wrong.
It's too thick.
Mm. It's too you.
No, that's Nope, nope.
I'm gonna say nope.
No matter what flavorhummus it is, it's wrong.
(16:23):
Chocolate chip hummus is,I say now sell the dessert.
Hummus.
Because
you could make a burger out of chickpeas.
Right?
You can have a chickpea burger.
That's right.
You can.
So I feel like I'm you.
Why didn't you just put hummus onthe bun and top it with ground beef?
I feel
like the problem with hummus isit would have to be, as you've
already indicated, sort of, itwould have to be an an extremely.
Thin layer.
Mm-hmm.
(16:43):
I would not choose humuson online burger at all.
No.
Nope.
But I think if it got very thickit would just get so gushy.
Mm-hmm.
That it would be hard to deal with.
Um, I now
maybe the chocolate hummus, I don't know.
Oh, stop All those dessert humusis, I remember the first time I
saw dessert, hummus is in Wegmans.
We were shooting, uh, an episode for QVCand we were down in Pennsylvania and uh,
(17:05):
we went in this big Wegmans to pick up.
Car snacks for the ride backfrom Pennsylvania to New England.
And we passed the hummus andthere was snicker dole hummus.
Mm-hmm.
And chocolate chip hummus.
Mm-hmm.
And I remember taking a picture andposting it on my socials because I was
like, what in the hell is this, thatsomeone would make snicker doodle hummus?
(17:26):
Is this in?
Insane.
So, um, yeah, I don't think I'mone for hummus on a burger either.
Mm-hmm.
I, I don't think so.
I can kind of imagine.
No, I was gonna say, I can kind ofimagine hummus on a hot dog, but
No, I can't even imagine it there.
Oh, gross.
No, it's a category mistake.
Yeah, it does seem like acategory mistake in cooking.
Okay, so there's our toppings.
(17:47):
For burgers for this episode.
Bruce didn't know the list before.
IL it up onto the podcast and loadedit up into it so that we got his
honest reactions to everythingand my color commentary since I
already knew what all this was.
Um, I hope that you thought about whatwe like and maybe you'll write in and
tell us what you like on a burger.
We have a face.
Book group called Cookingwith Bruce and Mark.
(18:09):
We'd love to know what you preferon your burgers, and if any of
these toppings absolutely grossesyou out, we'd love to know that.
You can see that the deviled eggsis the one that Bruce just freaked
out over of all of them, but, um.
Just, no, I'm just imagining thatfirst bite with a half a devil.
There go.
Oh, just, no.
I'm imagining how much it's on my lap,in my lap and how much it's on my shirt.
(18:33):
Anyway.
Okay, so we'd love to hearfrom you at the Facebook group
Cooking with Bruce and Mark.
Let's get to the traditionallast segment out the podcast.
What's making us happy and food this week?
A friend called me the other day and saidshe was going to a friend of hers to pick
sour cherries in the friend's orchard.
Did I want to come along?
Well, that's a no brainer.
(18:53):
Of course.
I went along and not only did I gothat day and pick three quarts of sour
cherries, I went back two days laterand picked another six quarts of sour
cherries, and let me say that you pickedall this and she picked, and other people
had been picking, and this woman had two
trees.
It's just two trees produced.
So much.
So I spent about three hours at thesink pitting each one of these little
bright red cherries, and I made10 jars of sour cherry preserves.
(19:18):
Oh, it's
so good.
I had five times the recipe fromour book, cold canning and was
good.
So you, you canned it shelf stable.
You, you did it the old fashioned way.
I did, but
the same proportions.
It's the recipes in the book.
It, it works.
It's delicious.
There's nothing like sour.
Cherry preserves.
It
is a really deliciousand fine thing to eat.
(19:39):
I think that one of the things that'smaking me happy this week is that not only
did Bruce go over and, uh, harvest fromthis person's house, uh, but we've been
harvesting around here and we grow white.
Currents, red currents grow.
You grow, you're the gardener.
Okay, we grow.
Let me have it.
White currents, red currents andblack currents, or as you might
(20:01):
know them, cais, uh, the Frenchterm for the black currents.
And we grow all three ofthose currents at our house.
Uh, we also grow blueberries,but those aren't near ready yet.
But, uh, I harvested.
All of the current bushes this last week.
And I have to say that therewas something very zen about it.
If you know about harvesting currents,they grow in little Juul like strands
(20:22):
of multiple of them on a stem, multipleof each of the currents on a stem, and
you kind of have to strip each stemwith your fingers and a lot of the
stems, of course, over time lose allbut one or two of the berries that are.
I guess they're berries, right?
Berries hanging there.
But you kind of have to workvery diligently and slowly.
It's not very easy to pick cards.
Mm-hmm.
(20:43):
'cause you, you do it by kind of yourfingertips and you're trying to hold
them in the palm of your, and notsqueeze them right before you dump it
'em a bowl and then fill up the palmof your hand again with the next one.
It takes a while and you have tokind of zen out and get into it.
And I did, and I loved it.
I. There was a catbird that was veryangry at me that kept kind of flying
near me as I was picking the red cards.
Stop eating my currents.
It said, because I needed to get out thereand pick them because this catbird was
(21:06):
having a meal every day of red currents,and I needed to get, uh, as many of
the berries off the bushes as I could.
I could tell you justto say that I did leave.
Some on the bush for that bird, andthey are in fact slowly disappearing.
Mm-hmm.
The white currents I left nothing.
They're too precious.
I took them all out and I was ableto currents make two jars most.
Yeah.
(21:26):
I was able to make two jars of whitecurrent jelly out of what you got.
I haven't touched the black currents yetand can't wait that maybe this afternoon.
Okay, so let me say as we finish upthis podcast that it would be great
if you could rate this podcast, giveit a dare, I say a five star rating,
and if you could write a reviewfor it, that would be terrific.
Thanks for doing that.
That keeps it fresh in thealgorithms, which is everything
these days and apparently moreand more with coming of ai.
(21:48):
You should know, we guaranteeyou 100% that nothing in this
podcast was AI generated.
I did my own.
Google keyword searches forthose hamburger toppings.
I did not feed it into chat GPT and my
reactions were genuine.
That's right.
I did not feed it into
clawed, I didn't feed it intoany of the AI content generators.
In fact, I never have for this podcast.
(22:10):
So we can guarantee you 100% thatwe are the real deal and we are
not using AI to create our lists.
And I can tell you we're not using AI on.
Any of those social platformsthat Mark talked about on our
YouTube channel, on our Facebookgroup, on TikTok or Instagram.
Follow us all there cookingwith Bruce and Mark.
You will get us and not AI alwayshere on cooking with Bruce and Mark.
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Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.