LTHForum.com

HI,

As Gary noted, the addition of the bacon really made the Luther quite a good combination. Happy Stomach didn't get the allure on her first bite absent the bacon. When she tried it again with bacon, then it all came together.

There was a lovely thought we should return next year for Corn dog and Luther Day celebrations. Someone joked there needed to be a corporate sponsor for the Luther, which many then responded in unison, "Krispy Kreme!"

A wonderful spur of the moment celebration of what makes LTH such a fun community to be part of.

Regards,

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Cathy2

"You'll be remembered long after you're dead if you make good gravy, mashed potatoes and biscuits." -- Nathalie Dupree
Facebook, Twitter, Greater Midwest Foodways, Road Food 2012: Podcast

((wince))

Oww...my teeth hurt!

The things you all do for LTH...!

I have to say, I admire your courage ;>

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I can't believe I ate the whole thing!

Kicking myself that I didn't see this posting before now and that I missed RoninHobbit's email.

The inventor of the "Luther" and the "hamdog" is a guy named Chandler Goff, the owner of Mulligan's restaurant in Atlanta. He was on "The Tonight Show" with Jay Leno a couple of years ago showing off his creations. As I recall, the donut was split and grilled with the sweet side facing in on the burger. There was no fried egg except for on the hamdog.

Chandler and I both grew up in Birmingham, AL and our families attended the same church. In the '80s, he was a skinny guy who went through several hair colors and trendy fashion choices that would have put him very much at home on MTV at the time. He doesn't exactly look like that now, but I wouldn't just come right out and blame the Luther or the hamdog

Next time there's an outing, I'm there - and you had better be there too, Ronin.

So beautiful, so odd.











And there were horn dogs…





That'd be me.

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“We all have to stand before the kitchen gods.” Chef Jacob Sahaya Kumar Aruni

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There's something gloriously nasty about a Luther Burger, not unlike dating someone from the wrong side of the tracks, briefly enjoyable, but disastrous in the long term.

Luther Burger


Gus, of Wiener and Still Champion, applied his considerable grill skills to the venture, and sticky sweet Krispy Kreme donuts with crunchy salty bacon hit a high note, but, still, Luther Burgers are a vice best left to small doses.



It being National Corn Dog Day we went for rounds of W & SC's Dipping Dogs, hand dipped in Gus's house-made batter and one of the best I had the pleasure of eating.

Dipping Dog


W & SC's Chimichuri Steak Sandwich, which jygach kindly shared with the group, was terrific. Lively chimichuri enhancing med rare beef.

Chimichuri Steak Sandwich


As if enough wasn't too much we went into bonus rounds of tempura fried bacon and deep fried pickle chips. Bacon was tasty, but the fried pickle chips were terrific, crisp, perfectly fried with just a hint of kosher dill sour coming through. The Violet Hour should take a page from Gus's book and use a thinner pickle chip.

Tempura Fried Bacon


There was a nice turnout for the Luther Burger and National Corn Dog festivities, good idea Cathy2 and thanks Gus, including ChgoMike's sons and MHays son Sparky.

ChgoMike's Sons


Sparky


It being close to Easter a few of us went into bunny mode.

CCCB


A good time was had by all, looking forward to next years National Corn Dog Day festivities.

Enjoy,
Gary

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Sauce on the side, always, implied, axiomatic..........never a doubt, BBQ sauce without.

Low & Slow

I'd like to second the praise for Gus' fried pickles. My guess is that they were eaten too quickly to permit good photos (though perhaps someone got a snap in before they were consumed). Sliced thin, these pickles had good crunch and the breading was very light and quite crispy, really the best fried pickles I've had the pleasure to scarf down.

[GWiv, I believe the bacon was "country-fried" rather than tempura]

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“We all have to stand before the kitchen gods.” Chef Jacob Sahaya Kumar Aruni

W & SC Fried Pickles



Hammond, Carolyn



Right you are, thanks for the correction.

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Sauce on the side, always, implied, axiomatic..........never a doubt, BBQ sauce without.

Low & Slow

Hi,

This meal really had quite an interesting response from us. While we tried the Luther and generally liked it. We were also afraid of liking it as in a regular rotation on the lunch circuit. People were sharing Luthers with not one person eating a whole one.

The tempura fried bacon was also another element where 1-2 pieces were more than enough. The fried pickles could easily be eaten like fries. Corn dogs were eaten in their entirety.

There were even some thoughts on a more expanded Luther. I have no idea why exactly, but every time I say Luther my mind prefers to substitute Lucifer. I think there is a bit of the devil in that sandwich, which somehow intuitively we are drawn to and at the same time it is risky approaching what attacts us.

It was a great time!

Regards,

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Cathy2

"You'll be remembered long after you're dead if you make good gravy, mashed potatoes and biscuits." -- Nathalie Dupree
Facebook, Twitter, Greater Midwest Foodways, Road Food 2012: Podcast

Speak for yourself. I did not like the Luther at all. I felt it was a waste of one of Gus' great burgers to put it on something other than the excellent egg buns he normally uses. The Luther was an interesting novelty and I'm glad I got a chance to experience it, but I doubt I will ever crave one again. I was very happy and somewhat relieved when my two bites were gone.

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Steve Z.
Photographer/Pseudojournalist

"The only time to eat diet food is while you’re waiting for the steak to cook." - Julia Child

HI,

I think I used the word 'generally' to suggest it wasn't exactly universal.

However would you agree people were approaching this novelty very carefully? It wasn't the usual robust approach, but of course I am speaking from my observations.

Regards,

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Cathy2

"You'll be remembered long after you're dead if you make good gravy, mashed potatoes and biscuits." -- Nathalie Dupree
Facebook, Twitter, Greater Midwest Foodways, Road Food 2012: Podcast

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Speaking of Steve Z, he had a wild idea. A Wiener and Still Champion one, or is it two, pound Undisputed Burger with a pound of bacon, cheese and, instead of wimpy ol' donuts, Apple Fritters from Old Fashioned Donuts.

Oh my!

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Sauce on the side, always, implied, axiomatic..........never a doubt, BBQ sauce without.

Low & Slow

Like human cloning, this is one experiment that is probably possible, but hopefully will never see the light of day.

P.S. The design of this Frankenburger had no cheese, but mayo instead.

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Steve Z.
Photographer/Pseudojournalist

"The only time to eat diet food is while you’re waiting for the steak to cook." - Julia Child

Thanks, Gus and Cathy et al for putting this one together! Have to say, I was one of the ones a bit afraid of enjoying the Luther burger, and found my first bite (sans bacon) just plain disgusting. The second - with bacon - had the appeal of a delicious full breakfast with waffles and meats and eggs and cheese in one bite, sort of like the fabled "three-course-meal" Willy Wonka gum.

I have to say, though, while I eschewed more than those two bites, I more than made up for the calories in fried bacon, Gus's excellent french fries, and fried pickles...

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No guts, no glory.
http://www.chicagonow.com/quips-travails-braised-oxtails
http://quipstravailsandbraisedoxtails.blogspot.com/

I think the fact that Gus could pull together a Lutherburger on such short notice is a real testament to his product development skills. He has a real passion for it. I've talked to him many times, and frequently sampled, interesting product concepts that tasted great, but for various reasons never made it to the menu. Just today he told me about two new concepts he's researching.

And for the record, the Undisputed is a pound of meat - three of his 1/3 lb. hamburger patties (a double Undisputed is six) unless he's changed the formulation recently, which I doubt. Still, two pounds of ground beef between two apple fritters would be a hellava meal.

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Chicago Craft Beer Week!

It might make an interesting appetizer for the picnic. Everybody could see it in the flesh, then take a small enough bite to claim to have tried it.

Regards,

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Cathy2

"You'll be remembered long after you're dead if you make good gravy, mashed potatoes and biscuits." -- Nathalie Dupree
Facebook, Twitter, Greater Midwest Foodways, Road Food 2012: Podcast

I think I may have come close to a whole one. I ate at least 3/4 of one. By the time I arrived, there seemed to be a few remaining quarters of sampled Luther burgers floating around. I'm not sure why I felt compelled to take all of them especially since my original plan was to avoid the Luther burgers altogether. I guess they didn't look as horrible as I imagined. As Cathy2 noted, the first few bites I had were mainly sans bacon which made them just OK. But then... jygach offered to share this beautiful Luther Burger with me:



What a difference with more substantial pieces of bacon! The bacon made for a well-rounded experience of sweet and savory. I think Mhays got it exactly right:



The key also to enjoying Luther burgers I found was that it be freshly assembled. The donuts don't "bounce back" like bread buns when compressed for a bite. Once you squeeze down on a fresh Luther Burger, the Krispy Kreme soaks up a lot of the grease from the burger and gets soggy immediately.* It gets pretty messy, which is OK, but the texture of the burger gets pretty undesirable once the donut gets too wet. Hammond caught me near my 1/2 burger point peeling off a layer of donut. I didn't do it to better the experience nutritionally. I only removed one side of donut to make it less slippery. Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by the Luther Burger. I wish I could have tried one with egg -- I didn't see any of those bites floating around -- but I don't think I would have liked it as much. I felt like the sweet of the Luther burger lingered longer than the savory, but I remedied that imbalance by consuming a basket of Gus's fries with that wonderful Argentinian herb (?) mayo, which is just too easy to do.

Thank you everyone -- but especially Jyoti -- for sharing your food with me.

*Maybe a solution for this would be to make Luther burger sliders? Then of course mini donuts would have to be constructed, and I don't know how bacon pieces would fare at that scale, but that way the donut would only be compressed once and would be fresh for each bite?

I think this is an interesting idea for a cocktail party. A long-ish toothpick with a donut hole, a meatball and a small piece of bacon. A Lutherette? A Lutherito?

Anyhow, nice seeing all. The boys lurved their hotdogs, fries, and the company. Oh, and so did I.

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Did you know there is an LTHforum Flickr group? I just found it...

Just want to add my thanks to Gus and to Cathy for really getting the ball rolling. Along with a few others, I agree that tasting the bacon and the sweetness of the donut in the same bite are essential; if you just taste the donut it's too oddly sweet. Of course, I only had about three bites because I had started with two corn dogs. I agree with Cathy that the fried pickles could replace potato chips. You can't eat just one.

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Have another. It's 9:30, for God's sake. ~Roger Sterling

This was, in my opinion, an extraordinary event. While my arteries and physician may be gasping in disbelief, I am reveling in belonging to such a delightful group. We not only think about arcane foods and those that (per Cathy 2) have a devilish component, we have people who will bring them to reality for us - Thanks Cathy and Gus!

I was one of the last to arrive and it was felt that Gus had, by this time, perfected his Krispy Creme grilling techniques. My burger "bun" had great grill marks and married surprisingly well with the other ingredients. The end result was a very rich burger (do I really need to say this) which was meant to be shared. As a once a year treat, I would give the Luther burger a thumbs-up.

Thanks everyone for sharing your other dishes - deep fried bacon, fried pickles, french fries, corn dogs.

Jyoti

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Jyoti
A meal, with bread and wine, shared with friends and family is among the most essential and important of all human rituals.
Ruhlman

gus, i must say that your food looks excellent... i am craving the steak sandwich with fries and several of the dipping sauces... also a dipping dog. the fried bacon looks delicious!!! perhaps, an undisputed with bacon? it all looks so good; i'll def stop in one of these days

Here is another photo that appears in a link in another thread on LTH:

Photo from [url=http://www.texasburgerguy.com/2005/05/luther-burger-and-hamdog-pictures.html[/url]

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LTHForum Kansas City

Hi,

I got this in an email today as an illustration of excessiveness. What can I say to this? Been there, done that!

Illinois team counts on calories to draw attention

_________________
Cathy2

"You'll be remembered long after you're dead if you make good gravy, mashed potatoes and biscuits." -- Nathalie Dupree
Facebook, Twitter, Greater Midwest Foodways, Road Food 2012: Podcast

Thanks all that came. It was a fun event.

Now for the bad news. Taking a Krispy Kreme doughnut, splitting it in half, makes it a Luther Burger. Using 2 whole Krispy Kremes turns it into a Fat Kreme...invented 2 years prior.

oh well.

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http://www.wienerandstillchampion.com/


How fast can you eat a 3lb burger?

Wow.......... How high did your cholesterol level go after you guys at that?

when you're experimenting with, say...a luther burger these are questions that no one asks because no one wants to know the answer to.

I looked at this endeavour like a battle - when the troops come home, congratulate them and don't pry too far into the bad shit.

Nice job, guys. I wouldn't have eaten one for money, but i appreciate and respect your dedication.

Um... Paula Deen, well - er, Paula Deen... or, well...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zv8yEMRDe_w

Hmm...