George Russell Loves A Proper, Greasy Burger
George Russell is now topping the running for best GPG dish of 2024 with burgers and ice cream
Welcome to Grand Prix Gastronomy! In 2024, this series is dedicated to cooking the favorite dishes of every driver on the grid.
The Foods That George Russell Loves
I tend to think of George Russell as being the most prototypical fancy British man to ever exist, so I assumed he'd name some fancy British dish as his favorite meal. Perhaps I shouldn't have made such sweeping assumptions, because George Russell has some very down-to-earth favorites: burgers and ice cream! And not just any burger, but a “proper greasy, dirty burger.” George, baby, you are speaking my language. Let's make some dirty burgers and ice cream!
There is no actual, legitimate, well-thought-out reason as to why I've decided to make George's dish during the Hungarian Grand Prix. The Hungaroring isn't a track he's ever done particularly well at, nor does it seem like one he's gunning to compete at. No, the bar for my decision is extremely low: when I hear “burgers and ice cream,” I get fucking hungry. I am so sorry if you expected something different.
This Week's Recipes
If you've ever been hesitant to make ice cream at home because it seems like too much work, then you and I are on the same page. I've always been convinced that it'd require a shitload of shaking or stirring, otherwise I'd have to buy an ice cream machine and dump money into something I'm never going to use.
Well, friends, never fear: I have found you the perfect recipes that don't require any extra tools — though you can get a really great result by using a blender. My recipe for both my ice cream base and my process come from Handle the Heat.
I've also pulled my burger recipe from Jamie Oliver, because honestly, I feel like George Russell would love a good Jamie Oliver burger. The only difference was that I whipped up my own special sauce.
Core Recipes:
Supplemental Recipes:
My favorite Everything Sauce, for which I have no actual recipe. Basically, start with a mayo base and mix in honey, Dijon mustard, and chipotle sauce until you think it tastes good, and then put it on everything you ever eat in your entire life, including this burger
Cooking Big Ol’ Greasy Burgers
The first step to whipping up your meal for the Hungarian Grand Prix is to prep your ice cream; if you want to eat it with your burgers, you'll have to get a fairly early start to allow everything to cool and freeze!
In the Recipe portion of this Substack, I included a link that details several different ways to make ice cream without a machine. I'll be walking through my experience making it via the blender method — but there are also three other options available if you don't have a blender! I can't vouch for the quality on those bad boys, but they should be fairly simple.
With the blender method, you can make any ice cream base you want, and then just skip the “put it in the machine” part. I stuck with a standard vanilla since it was my first try — and while making a custartdy-based ice cream isn't necessarily quick and easy, it's still way simpler than you probably think it is.
Here's what you'll do. You'll combine equal parts of whole milk and heavy cream, then toss in some sugar, salt, and vanilla. Warm the mixture on the stove until it's just starting to steam.
While you're waiting for the milk-and-cream mixture to warm up, turn to your eggs. You'll need to whisk some sugar into egg yolks quite briskly, making a mixture that's light in color and a little bit fluffy.
Bring your milk mixture over to your eggs, and stir in one ladle of hot cream at a time, whisking all the while. This is called “tempering” your eggs, and it's how you “cook” your eggs in a custard without anything curdling or turning into scrambled eggs. When you've whisked in about half of the cream/milk, return everything to your saucepan and then heat it slowly, until the custard nicely coats the back of your wooden spook. Make sure you're stirring this pretty constantly.
When you've reached the right consistency, transfer the hot custard to an ice bath (or: a small bowl nestled in a larger, ice-filled bowl. Stir it regularly, until it reaches room temperature. Then, chill the ice cream in the fridge overnight, and transfer it to a Ziplock bag that you stick in the freezer for a few hours.
When you're ready to enjoy your ice cream, transfer the frozen custard base to a blender, and blend until it's creamy. If you have any additions you want to include, mix them in by hand. Then, serve!
(I had leftover ice cream, which I transferred to some Tupperware and popped in the freezer. It keeps well for a few days, and it should retain a soft, scoopable consistency!)
Whew! Alright! Ice cream done! Let's get down to burger town.
I picked a base recipe from Jamie Oliver, since that seems like an extremely George Russell thing to do, and then kind of… modified it to my tastes. I'll walk you through what I did here.
My burger meat recipe was equal parts ground sirloin and ground chuck, which I seasoned with my favorite one-two duo, 21 Seasoning Salute and St. Elmo's Steak Seasoning. Mix everything up and then form it into equal-sized patties. Pop ‘em into the fridge to set up while you prep everything else.
Rather than take Jamie Oliver's advice by making vinegared onions, I chopped mine up to fry in the pan alongside the burgers, which imparts a tasty flavor into the meat itself. I also skipped Jamie Oliver's burger sauce, and made my own special sauce of mayo, Dijon mustard, chipotle sauce, and honey. I make this sauce literally at least once a week.
When your burgers have had about 15 minutes in the fridge, bring ‘em out. Heat up a little bit of oil to start frying your onions, then pop the burgers in your pan. Try to avoid touching them until they start to brown up around the edges so they get a nice sear. When you flip ‘em, let ‘em cook almost all the way through before you add your cheese (I chose pepper jack). You want the cheese to just start to form around the burger, then remove the burgers from the heat. As they rest, the cheese will melt itself perfectly.
To serve, toast your buns (I chose sesame brioche), then layer up the bottom with your burger sauce of choice. Stack on the burger, some more sauce, onions, pickles, bacon, and whatever else your heart desires, and serve with a healthy, heaping bowl of ice cream.
The Wine List
For this meal, I served everything up with a nice glass of Malbec. While you'd normally serve Malbec with dark poultry meat or leaner red meats, I thought it'd make a nice pairing with all the flavors going on in the burger. Basically, you just kind of want your food to be really well-flavored if you want to serve a Malbec with it.
I think the malbec is great because it can cut through the fat of the burger and bacon, but it's also a little fruity — and if you get it from a mountain climate like I did, it'll probably also be a little crisp.
I don't know if I'd totally recommend you pair the Malbec with your ice cream, but I'm gonna be honest: I didn't hate it! I think my biggest issue is that wine and ice cream are both things that I want to end on, if that makes sense; I want one of those two things to be the last thing I taste in my palate after a meal. It was weird swapping back and forth!
So, What's The Verdict?
I can't say that I was suuuuuuper confident in my ice cream making abilities when I started this endeavor, but I came out the other side pleasantly surprised! George Russell's favorite foods were both fairly simple to make, and they were delicious!
I'm seriously such a huge fan of the ice cream recipe and preparation here. Like I said, I've always stayed away from making homemade ice cream, because I don't have an ice cream machine, so it seemed like it’d be a hard-work endeavor with very little payoff. But, um, it ripped in the freezer-to-blender method. To the point where I'm going out to get the supplies to make it again.
My final at-home product wasn't quite of the quality I'd expect from a home-churned ice cream that I'd buy at an ice cream shop, but I think part of that came down to me not cooking my custard enough. I think if it'd had a little more time on the stove, it would have gotten a little thicker and feel more like something from a carton.
But that's not saying my final product was bad — because that was far from the case! It was frickin’ delicious — creamy and comforting and sweet. My only recommendation is that you opt for a nicer-quality vanilla here, since that's primarily what you'll be tasting. I used a vanilla paste; the recipe calls for a scraped vanilla bean pod. I'd pick one of those options as opposed to a vanilla extract.
As for the burgers… omg.
I'll be totally honest in saying that this was my first-ever attempt at making burgers! I've never formed the meat myself, but I've also never cooked a pre-formed burger.
Burgers are one of those omnipresent foods that, for some reason, I just never think to eat. I had some bad experiences with poorly cooked burgers in childhood, and carried that through into my adult years in the sense that I stopped being afraid of raw meat, and just assumed burgers weren't my thing. If I'm going to a fast food place, a fried chicken option almost always appeals to me more.
But then I started sampling my husband's burgers from McDonald's and Whataburger, and I realized they could be really good. And then he'd make them on the grill, and they'd come out great. The Hungarian Grand Prix edition of GPG became the perfect excuse to try making them myself.
George… thank you. Thank you for giving me a reason.
Ready… Set… COOK!
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