The other night I happened to flip over to the Food Network.. just as Julia appeared on Emeril, making her burgers from Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home. It was great. She seriously raised her arm in the air and did a little woot woot at one point.

And fortuitous, since I had been planning on making those exact same burgers. Jeff had asked for a repeat of the Julia burgers (Sept. 17 entry) and I was loathe to use that much butter with ground beef again, so I was planning on her J&J method. You only use a teaspoon of butter to brown your shallots. Then you mix the shallots in with ground beef, salt, and pepper, and shape into thin patties and pan fry. My estimation of 1/4 inch was closer to 1 inch, though. I need a kitchen ruler. The patties were excellent, though. Almost charred on the outside by the time they cooked through (and Julia and Jacques' finger test for meat- pressing on it to see how done it is- works really, really well) but still tasty.

Topped with caramelized onion (some may say shallot in the burger and onion on top is too much, but I don't know who those some would be), barbeque sauce, and mayo, it was filling and delicious and tasty. And practically butter-free.