From the Ray Lampe’s Big Green Egg Cookbook
As I was going through Ray Lampe’s Big Green Egg Cookbook when I came across this recipe the word “Slider” spoke to me. You see, I spent most of my teenage years (and a few of my 20’s) eating White Castle burgers, aka “sliders”, during a late night (or early morning – think 2 am) food binge.
Since that time (we now call that the late 1980’s 🙂 ) I started noticing the word “sliders” assigned to any small burger on a menu. I even saw buffalo sliders at a wedding cocktail hour! This makes me laugh because White Castle burgers were called “sliders” as a joke since they were so greasy they’d slide right through you. I’ll give you a moment to let that image sink in… Anyway, these sliders will not slide right through you, because they’re scrum-dili-icious. That’s a word. Look it up!
Ingredients
- 2 pounds ground pork
- ⅓ cup finely chopped green bell pepper
- ⅓ cup finely chopped onion
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon fennel seeds
- 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- ½ teaspoon granulated garlic
- 1 teaspoon dried basil leaves
- 12 slices fresh mozzarella cheese
- 12 slices Roma tomato
- 12 slider buns, split
Directions
Prepare the Egg to cook direct at 500° F.
Using your hands, break up the pork into small pieces, capturing it in a large bowl.
Sprinkle pepper, onion, salt, fennel seeds, cayenne, garlic, and basil evenly over the meat.
With the exception of the fennel seeds and cayenne this was really close to how I make meatballs. Also, I added the onion to this recipe. When Italian Americans cook there are two things they add to pretty much everything, peppers, and onions. 😉 I felt the need. The onions were drawing me in!
Using your hands, mix the meat until everything is evenly distributed.
Now it even looks like my meatballs since I use the meatloaf mix (beef, pork, and veal) which has more of a pink than red look to it.
Divide the mixture into 12 even portions, form each portion into a ball, and then flatten each ball into a patty slightly larger than the slider buns.
Dividing it into 12 portions one portion at a time isn’t easy. Inevitably you’ll either run out of meat or have too much meat left over as you’re portioning it out. I broke the whole mixture in half (2 portions), then broke those portions in half (4 portions), and again with those portions (8 portions), and one more time (16 portions), from there I broke 4 portions in half and added each of those portions to the rest of the portions that weren’t split. Whew!
Place the sausage patties on the Big Green Egg cooking grid and cook for 3 to 4 minutes, until the bottom is golden brown.
The flame was pretty strong in the middle so I tried to lay the patties out along the edge for even cooking.
Flip the patties and top each with a slice of the cheese.
I made the mistake of not typing fresh mozzarella on my shopping list and bought the “hard” mozzarella. The sliders were still great, but the fresh mozzarella would have brought it HNL.
Cook for another 3 to 4 minutes, until the bottom is golden brown and the meat reaches an internal temperature of 160° F.
Remove the patties to a plate and tent loosely with foil.
Quickly grill the cut sides of the buns for about 15 seconds until golden brown.
Once the first bun hit the grill I did the “one-Mississippi” thing to keep track of how long the buns were on while I added more buns. I got to “ten-Mississippi” when I noticed the browning on the first bun. I started collecting the buns I put on the grid in the order that I placed them. This ensured, more or less, that they were all on for “ten-Mississippi” (who figured out that it takes about a second to say “Mississippi”?) I ended up doing my buns in two batches.
Second side note: The buns at my local supermarket didn’t have “Slider Buns”, but they did have “Hawaiian Buns”. At first glance, they looked like they would be ok, but after seeing “Slider Buns” at another supermarket I realized that slider buns are a little smaller than Hawaiian Buns. The Hawaiian Buns worked in a pinch, but I’m going to seek out slider buns next time.
Remove to a plate. Top each slider bun bottom with a sausage patty and top each patty with a slice of tomato. Close with the bun top and serve.
Sliders with Homemade Italian Sausage
Ingredients
- 2 pounds ground pork
- 1/3 cup finely chopped green bell pepper
- 1/3 cup finely chopped onion
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon fennel seeds
- 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- ½ teaspoon granulated garlic
- 1 teaspoon dried basil leaves
- 12 slices fresh mozzarella cheese
- 12 slices Roma tomato
- 12 slider buns, split
Instructions
Prepare the Egg to cook direct at 500 F.
Using your hands, break up the pork into small pieces, capturing it in a large bowl.
Sprinkle pepper, onion, salt, fennel seeds, cayenne, garlic, and basil evenly over the meat.
Using your hands, mix the meat until everything is evenly distributed.
Divide the mixture into 12 even portions, form each portion into a ball, and then flatten each ball into a patty slightly larger than the slider buns.
Place the sausage patties on the Big Green Egg cooking grid and cook for 3 to 4 minutes, until the bottom is golden brown.
Flip the patties and top each with a slice of the cheese.
Cook for another 3 to 4 minutes, until the bottom is golden brown and the meat reaches an internal temperature of 160 F.
Remove the patties to a plate and tent loosely with foil.
Quickly grill the cut sides of the buns for about 15 seconds until golden brown.
Remove to a plate. Top each slider bun bottom with a sausage patty and top each patty with a slice of tomato. Close with the bun top and serve.
Notes
From EggingMyHouse.com
