Patties, in their preparation, are a very elemental food. You chop, smush, fold and flatten—almost no tools required. Then, with a little heat and a sear on both sides, you've got yourself a charred and ready-to-go meal. Patties may call to mind burgers and barbecues, juicy meat mounds with browned and crispy grill marks, but there's more to them that.
Instead, I'm here to give you a twist on a classic. Patties deserve a widening of scope, a broadening of definition, a divorce from the beef-filled burger. I combed our site for similarly delicious patty recipes; as it turns out, we’ve got quite a few. Think about patties as appetizers, or as a meal themselves. You can dip them into the sauce of your choice or wrap them in buns for something a bit more filling. And of course, for something sweet, there's always the classic and enduring peppermint patty.
This dish quite literally, has patty in the name. The patty melt, aside from the burger, might be the most famous patty there is. This no-recipe takes you from start to finish without any finnicky instructions—melt, sear, and stack to your heart's content.
Back away from the beef: both these recipes rethink the patty at its most conventional. Serve lamb merguez for breakfast or at dinner with a yogurty, herby dipping sauce. Salmon burgers are a fresh option for a weeknight dinner or a handy way to repurpose leftovers.
These variations on a veggie burger are creative and unexpected. Make a few and freeze them for eating throughout the week.
These patty varietals eschew the bun. And why not? Without that bread, you've got space to eat a lot more. Think of these as edible, vegetable medallions. Dip them, share them, put them in a plastic bag and snack on them as you go. What if you made a bunch and threw a patty party? Just an idea...
As it turns out, the definition of a patty is vague. But thank goodness it is! Get into the patty game with any of the above recipes.
Do you have a favorite patty preparation? Let us know about it in the comments below.
A New Way to Dinner, co-authored by Food52's founders Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs, is an indispensable playbook for stress-free meal-planning (hint: cook foundational dishes on the weekend and mix and match ‘em through the week).
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Written by: Valerio Farris
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