Signature Dish
Hill East Burger's Smoked Puebla Burger Has Texas-Style Flavor in Every Bite
Clip: Season 3 Episode 2 | 3m 52sVideo has Closed Captions
A smoky puebla burger at Hill East Burger in Hill East, D.C.
Discover the Puebla Burger a smoky masterpiece blending Texas-inspired flavors with local ingredients at Hill East Burger in Washington, D.C. Chef Joe cold-smokes brisket-blended patties, crafts a rich poblano relish with smoked peppers, and tops it all with smoked cheddar and beef-infused mayo. The result is a burger packed with bold flavor and crunch.
Signature Dish is a local public television program presented by WETA
Signature Dish
Hill East Burger's Smoked Puebla Burger Has Texas-Style Flavor in Every Bite
Clip: Season 3 Episode 2 | 3m 52sVideo has Closed Captions
Discover the Puebla Burger a smoky masterpiece blending Texas-inspired flavors with local ingredients at Hill East Burger in Washington, D.C. Chef Joe cold-smokes brisket-blended patties, crafts a rich poblano relish with smoked peppers, and tops it all with smoked cheddar and beef-infused mayo. The result is a burger packed with bold flavor and crunch.
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Providing Support for PBS.org
Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipSETH: What are you making today?
JOE: We're going to go ahead and make our Puebla burger.
We're getting ready to cold-smoke these patties.
SETH: All right, I've never heard of smoking a burger before.
JOE: It's a bit of a Texas thing.
So we take brisket trim from Sloppy Mama's Barbecue and we mix it with some local beef for our patties here.
SETH: Oh, that sounds, that sounds awfully good.
So how does cold smoking work?
JOE: So to cold smoke something we have to keep it under a certain temperature.
So we're going to put a tray of ice in this smoking cabinet just to keep the temperature from rising.
If we were to cook them, we'd have meatballs instead of a patty that we could smash on the flat top.
SETH: I didn't come here for meatballs.
JOE: Nope.
We've got some wood chips going in there.
We used some hickory chips because we're not smoking it for a long time.
Hickory's got a really aggressive flavor.
We're going to go ahead and open the door.
SETH: Oh-ho-ho, a lot of smoke coming out of this thing.
JOE: Why don't you go ahead and grab me that ice bucket?
And we found when we were doing all the research and development on trying to create a great smoked burger, that cold smoking, it was the key to have a burger that's got the right texture.
SETH: So how long are these going to smoke for?
JOE: They're going to go in for about 30 minutes.
And basically, once the ice is melted, it's time to get it out because that means they're going to start cooking.
And it doesn't need a long time because we're only talking about a little patty here.
SETH: Not a whole hog going on here.
JOE: No, not a whole hog.
No.
I'm going to go ahead and put these in and while those are smoking, we're going to go ahead and put together our poblano relish.
SETH: All right.
So poblanos, we're adding a little more of a Southwestern flair to this burger?
JOE: Yeah.
Poblanos very traditional in Texas, New Mexico cooking.
We took our poblanos, as well as the onions, and we tossed them in a little bit of tallow and some of our burger salt.
Unlike the burgers that we cold-smoke, we hot-smoke the peppers and the onions.
After we pull them out of the smoker, we cover them up to steam it.
And then, we went ahead and peeled them and seeded them.
We are going to put a rough chop on these.
We don't need to get too fancy.
It's a burger relish.
So we're not talking about fine dining or anything.
SETH: And all that beef tallow that you coated them in, this is going to be an explosion of good meat flavor.
JOE: Yeah.
Tallow is like a flavor enhancer, right?
It doesn't make it taste like beef.
It's almost like salt in the way where salt brings out flavor.
Tallow has that magic also.
I'm going to go ahead and move these into the bowl and then I'm going to need your help kinda stirring things up as I add ingredients in.
So we're going to go ahead and do a little red wine vinegar and you can just start mixing things in.
We got a little bit of honey.
We're not making a sweet condiment.
The honey just balances it out, right?
And then here, we're adding our burger salt to season the relish.
SETH: Burger salt?
JOE: Yeah, so that's the Sloppy Momma's Barbecue rub called Happy Sprinkles, kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper.
SETH: But I'm guessing with that nice orange color, there's some other seasonings in this mix?
JOE: Yeah, so there's paprika, there's cumin, coriander, crushed red pepper, cayenne and mustard powder, some fresh thyme.
And then we've got our tallow that we roasted all the peppers in and smoked all the peppers in.
Hey, you want to give that a scrape real quick?
SETH: Oh, I sure do.
JOE: And that's our poblano relish.
Now that that's done, we're going to go ahead and pull the patties out of the smoker.
Now we're going to put the patties on the flat top and then smash them down and get a nice crust on one side.
We'll go ahead and flip them.
We'll put our smoked cheddar on it and we'll put the poblano relish on also.
And the Pueblo burger will be ready to eat and it'll be delicious.
SETH: Gentlemen, I am impressed with the size of this burger.
JOE: Yeah, get in there.
I'm going to go ahead and get into mine right here.
It's looking pretty good.
SETH: Goodness gracious.
Just hits with so much smoke, so much rich beefy flavor.
JOE: We've got the beefonaise on there.
SETH: Beefonaise?
JOE: Yeah, beefonaise.
We take tallow and we confit garlic in the tallow and then we mix it with the mayonnaise.
SETH: Like all smash burgers, I love that extra little crispiness that you get on the edges.
That's hard to beat.
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipSignature Dish is a local public television program presented by WETA