Pork Burgers with Sage, Garlic & Stilton

Pork Burgers make a welcome change from the usual minced beef. Subtly flavoured with sage and garlic, I top the cooked patties with slices of creamy Stilton cheese before popping under the grill to melt. Add a crunchy, tangy apple and cabbage slaw to your bun and you’ll see burgers in a whole new way.

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I love a good burger. Meaty, juicy and satisfyingly tasty, I think a well made, quality burger can easily stand up against fancier dishes.

So it pleases me that, although those-global-chains-which-I-won’t-mention are still churning out pathetic excuses for burgers, there’s now plenty of independent eateries producing the real deal and, hopefully, using local suppliers.

But it’s still often just beef burgers that are on offer. Stacked and loaded with all sorts of goodies, yes. But almost always beef.

It doesn’t have to be that way, though. Other meats lend themselves perfectly well to burgers and in this post I want to introduce you to the delights of the Pork Burger.

Pork: the good, the bad & the vile

Once thing the experts agree on, is that you need a decent amount of fat for a burger to be good. Between twenty and thirty per cent is usually recommended.

Sadly, much of the pork available to buy is a long way from ideal. Pigs are raised intensively for quick growth and to meet the modern demand for next to no fat. Of seemingly little concern is the animal’s welfare or the production of quality, flavoursome meat.

True, it’s likely you’ll have to pay more for the good stuff due to the higher costs of production. But I prefer to eat quality, free range pork just occasionally rather than buy inferior, intensively raised meat more often.

Happily I’ve recently discovered The Good Life Meat Company, a local supplier that ticks all my boxes. Based in Sugnall, Staffordshire, they produce charcuterie and meat from their own traditionally reared livestock.

This includes pork mince from their free range, slow-maturing Tamworth pigs which is perfect for making Pork Burgers. I paid £6 for a kilo of the mince which I think is incredibly good value.

The Burgers

As you can probably see from the image above, the Tamworth pork mince has a good proportion of fat. Fat means flavour, so there’s very little you need to add to make these pork burgers taste great.

Here I’ve gone for the classic pork accompaniment of sage and onion, plus a little garlic. For a mild onion taste, I simmer the chopped onion in water, drain and cool it before adding to the burger mix.

After cooking the Pork Burgers (my preference is to fry them, pouring off any excess fat and saving it for another recipe), I put a slice of Stilton cheese on top of each one. Popping them under a hot grill for a minute or so will get the salty, creamy Stilton running enticingly down the sides of the burgers.

The Buns

I must say that I really don’t rate the burger buns you can buy in the shops. Mostly flabby, doughy and often containing palm oil, I think they’d spoil a quality burger like this.

I prefer to make my own buns, using this easy, no-knead bread roll recipe.

When I’m making buns for burgers, however, I make a minor change to the bread roll recipe I’ve linked to. Because I don’t want them quite as crunchy as usual (this makes them easier to eat), instead of cooking in a lidded pot I bake them on a tray for around fifteen minutes.

The bread roll recipe makes eight large or sixteen mini buns so you’ll only need half of them for the detailed Pork Burgers recipe at the end of this post. However, the bread does freeze very well so I’d make the full batch of buns and store some for another day.

Coleslaw

I love coleslaw on a burger. I think the crunch of cabbage makes a much better contrast to juicy, succulent meat and chewy, good bread than the usual lettuce and tomato.

For Pork Burgers, my Tangy Vegetable & Apple Coleslaw is ideal. Apple is a traditional accompaniment to pork as its acidity cuts through the richness of the meat. In this slaw, cider vinegar adds to the tart edge and yogurt mixed with the mayonnaise lightens it.

The vegetable and apple coleslaw you see above has red and white cabbage as well as carrot, celery, red onion plus poppy and sunflower seeds. But to go with the Pork Burgers, I simplified it to just white cabbage, yellow onion, apple and parsley.

This allowed more of the porky flavour to come through as I wanted the meat to be the star of the show. I also liked the more muted colour.

For me, no burger is complete without a slice or two of pickled gherkin as well.

Porky Party Food

At the time of writing, we’re coming up to party season. Wouldn’t a tray of mini Pork Burgers with Sage & Garlic, melting Stilton cheese, topped with crunchy tart apple coleslaw and gherkin go down rather well at yours?

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Pork Burgers with Sage, Garlic & Stilton

Pork Burgers subtly flavoured with sage & garlic, topped with melting Stilton cheese & a tangy coleslaw with apple.

Course Main Course

Cuisine British

Keyword pork, meat, burgers

Servings 4 large or 8 mini burgers

Author Moorlands Eater

Ingredients

• 500 g free range pork mince
• 1 medium onion roughly chopped, simmered in water, drained & cooled
• 1 tsp garlic granules or 1-2 fresh garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 tsp dried sage
• salt & pepper to taste
• 2 tsp olive oil
• burger buns see Recipe Notes
• 100 g Stilton cheese cut into 4 large or 8 small slices

To Serve (optional)

• Tangy Vegetable & Apple Coleslaw see Recipe Notes
• Pickled Gherkins sliced

Instructions

1. In a large bowl, combine the pork mince, the cooked and cooled onion, garlic and sage. Season with salt & pepper.

2. Shape into 4 large or 8 mini burger patties.

3. If you need to cook the burgers in batches: put a baking tray in a low oven before you start.

4. Heat the olive oil in a frying pan then cook the patties, in batches if necessary, until they are nicely browned and thoroughly cooked all the way through.

   If lots of fat comes out of the burgers, pour it into a clean jar & store in the fridge for use in other recipes.

5. Put the cooked burgers on the preheated baking tray while you cook the rest.

6. Split the burger buns and put the cut sides under a hot grill until lightly toasted.

7. Take the tray of Pork Burgers from the oven and place a slice of Stilton cheese on each one.

   Place the burgers under the grill and heat until the Stilton is just melting.

8. Put a burger on each bun, topped with Tangy Vegetable & Apple Coleslaw and slices of gherkin.

   Secure with skewers or cocktail sticks if necessary.

Recipe Notes

To make your own burger buns, follow this recipe for Homemade Crusty Bread Rolls with No Kneading. Cook on a baking tray rather than in a covered pot for a softer crust.

This Tangy Vegetable & Apple Coleslaw makes a great, crunchy accompaniment to the Pork Burgers.