Burgers with pork-and-bacon patties and coleslaw

This recipe is adapted from the Perfect Pork Burgers recipe.

Minced bacon is added to the pork mince in the patties.  Surprisingly, you don't really taste the bacon flavour - it just works to enhance the flavour of the patties, and it does that really well.

• bacon, 5 slices
• garlic, 1 clove, minced
• pork mince, 500g
• cooking salt and freshly ground pepper
• dried rubbed sage, 1/4 tsp
• according to this page "Ground sage is made by grinding the entire leaf into a fine powder like any powdered herb. Rubbed sage is made by rubbing dried whole sage leaves to create a light and fluffy mix. Rubbed sage is lighter and less concentrated so a teaspoon of rubbed sage will be less intense than a teaspoon of ground sage."  So you might want to use a little less if you're using ground sage (i.e. sage powder), though I doubt it makes much of a difference whether you do or not.
• freshly ground pepper
• hamburger buns, 4, split
• unsalted butter, softened, for spreading
• coleslaw, for topping
• you could use, for example, either of these two recipes.

Patties

Pulse the (raw) bacon and garlic in a food processor until coarsely ground.

Combine the pork mince, 1 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper and the sage in a large bowl.
Add the bacon mixture and gently mix with your hands.

I find the following is the best way to make patties.  It doesn't overwork the meat, and keeps it loosely-packed in the patties.

Lay some baking paper over a chopping board and add the mince mixture in a rough layer over it

Gently form the mixture into 4 10cm-wide, 2.5cm-thick patties (these patties will be fairly large, so you may wish to make 5 or 6 patties from the mixture).

Push a hole in the middle of each patty with your thumb, so it won't bulge up in the middle while cooking.  The baking paper makes it easy to pick the patty up to transfer it to the pan.


Cook patties

Because the patties are pork and bacon, they need to be well-done inside.  The bacon will help to keep them moist, however.  Pre-heat the pan.  Cook, on a medium heat, for approximately 7 minutes on each side.

Loosely wrap the cooked patties in aluminium foil to let them rest.  Before you close up the foil you can sprinkle them with a bit of salt and pepper.


Toast buns

Turn the heat down in the pan to a medium-low heat (the exact temperature doesn't matter much), and wipe the fat and burnt bits out of it with a paper towel.

Cut the buns in half, spread a bit of butter on them, and toast them, cut side down, until they're lightly toasted.


Assemble burger

You'll want the patties to have rested for about 5 minutes before you assemble the burger (so they aren't scorching hot, and so the temperature will be even within them.  Remember that the foil will keep them warm).

Put the patty on the bottom bun, add a fairly generous amount of coleslaw, then finish it off with the top bun.