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Article posted on Dec 23

Chef fo0bar presents: Combo cheeseburger, Kroll's style

• Posted by Ryan Finnie on December 23, 2008, 12:14 am

Wisconsin is not necessarily known for its health food. I have a hard enough time explaining cheese curds to people, not to mention why they must be breaded and deep fried. But today's recipe I blame on the Germans -- namely German influence on Northeast Wisconsin cuisine.

Down the road from Lambeau Field is Kroll's, a small-town diner. You seat yourself in any of the booths, browse the menu, and when you are ready to order, you press a button next to the table to summon a waiter. Kroll's has a wide menu, but is particularly known for its burgers. You can order hamburgers, or bratburgers from the menu. And while not on the menu, you can ask for a combo burger, which is a hamburger patty and a bratburger patty. And what makes Kroll's burgers unique is that each burger is served with a pat of butter between the bun and the meat. No, the bun isn't buttered per se, but a pat of butter is put directly on the underside of the top roll, along with the other condiments. The butter is mostly melted by the time you eat the burger.

Now, let's step back a minute: bratwurst. Bratwurst is a staple of Wisconsin grilling. Brats are usually in link form, and are often boiled (usually in lager), grilled, or both (boiled in beer, then seared at the end). Brats are also often made in patty form, and cooked as you would a hamburger (with a few limitations, as I will get to in the recipe itself).

Now, when I moved from Wisconsin to California in 2000, I simply could not find bratwurst in local stores. Nobody carried it. Same deal when I moved from California to Nevada in 2002. However, over the years, grocery stores started carrying brat links, usually Johnsonville brand (a company based in Sheboygan, WI). Today you can find both raw and cooked links in many grocery stores, so I'm assuming the brand has gone national.

Combo cheeseburger, Kroll's style

Calorie count: you don't want to know

Ingredients:

* 1 lb lean ground hamburger
* 1.25 lb bratwurst (5 quarter-pound links), raw, not pre-cooked
* 8 hamburger buns
* 16 slices American cheese
* Butter
* Toppings: Yellow mustard, sauerkraut, onions

Recipe:

Toast a hamburger bun. While the bun is toasting...

Take a bratwurst link and remove the casing. Start at the top and cut down the side of the link, then the casing should be able to be pulled off in a single, sticky piece. Cut the link into two, and take one of the 2 oz halves and form it into a thin patty. Take 2 oz of hamburger and also form it into a thin patty. (See pictures below.)

Grill both patties. This should take no longer than a few short minutes, since the patties should be "fast food" thickness.

When bun is toasted, add a pat of butter and condiments. The bratwurst is the star of this burger, and Northeast Wisconsin tradition dictates that only 3 condiments are acceptable for bratwurst: onions, yellow mustard and sauerkraut. You may subtract from this list, but you may NOT add. ESPECIALLY not ketchup. I personally go with just the mustard.

Layer hamburger, cheese, bratburger, cheese. Serve with fries and/or a pickle.

Makes 8 burgers, plus a leftover bratwurst link to do with as you please. Since you're only left with one, I'd skip the beer bath and go straight to the grill.

(By the way, the malt vinegar is decidedly a [New] England thing, and not a Wisconsin thing. Most of my extended family is from New England, so I'm allowed to cross cultures a bit.)

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Article posted on Dec 12

Video cards freak me out.

• Posted by Ryan Finnie on December 12, 2008, 11:36 am

OK, this is how computer components work: you buy Expensive Component Model 150, and it rocks. Time passes, Expensive Component Model 250 comes out, and Expensive Component Model 150 becomes Formerly Expensive Component Model 150. Expensive Component Model 350 comes out, Expensive Component Model 250 becomes Formerly Expensive Component Model 250, and Formerly Expensive Component Model 150 becomes Trashheap Component Model 150. And so on.

Now, add some idea of budget releases into the mix: when Expensive Component Model 150 is released, they also released Moderately Priced Component Model 100, which is like Expensive Component Model 150, but fewer widgets. When Expensive Component Model 150 becomes Formerly Expensive Component Model 150, Moderately Priced Component Model 100 becomes Dirt Cheap Component Model 100. Etc.

Now, skip ahead a few generations. Expensive Component Model 350 may be the bee's knees right now, but Moderately Priced Component Model 300 will always outperform Dirt Cheap Component Model 200, and will usually outperform Formerly Expensive Component Model 250. And of course, anything in the 300 range will pretty much be guaranteed to outperform anything in the 100 range.

But none of this has happened with my video card.

About 3 years ago, I bought an ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 512MB. IIRC, I spent just over $200 on it, so it wasn't top-of-the-line at the time, but was certainly a fine card. I bought a new computer Wednesday (and subsequently returned it, more on that in a future post), and it included a Radeon 3450 HD 512MB. (Sidenode: The generation is expressed in the thousands, so the 3000 series is newer than the 1000 series, and a 1900 would beat the pants off, say, a 1200.) Still, I figured the rules I set forth above were still in effect, and that a new "mid-range" 3450 would perform better than me 3-year-old 1950.

Boy was I wrong. I loaded up Left 4 Dead, set it to native monitor resolution (1680x1050), high-ish quality settings, and started a game... and watched the game fall to its knees. Even backing down to 1024x768 with medium-ish settings was noticeably slow. So I threw the X1950 into the box, and it was great.

I later found this benchmark site, and while it's not always complete to condense a component's performance into a simple number, it's a nice easy comparison. The Radeon X1950 Pro scores an 857, and ranks #25 out of all video cards tested (again, 3 year old video card!). The Radeon HD 3450 scores a 137, and ranks #272.

So what gives, computer industry? Your crap is supposed to depreciate quickly and painfully, and here I am with a 3-year-old piece of technology that is still useful. I demand an explanation.

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