Recently I invited my coworkers to my place for a barbecue. I said that I would make burgers, and I was trying to think of ways to make them especially delicious, when I suddenly had a flash of inspiration. They turned out exactly how I wanted them to and they were super easy to make.

Note: My intention was to make eight hamburgers, but I accidentally made twelve. In this recipe, I halved the amount of ground beef and smoked meat that I used in the hopes that it will yield a more reasonable number of burgers.

Ingredients

1.5 lbs (0.68 kgs) ground beef

0.5 lbs (0.23 kgs) sliced Montreal style smoked meat*

Montreal steak spice

Aged cheddar cheese (optional)

Hamburger buns

Your favourite hamburger toppings

Instructions

1. Cut the smoked meat haphazardly into small-ish squares. Slice the cheese.

2. Mix the ground beef and smoked meat together. Form the mixture into (approximately 6?) patties. Season the patties with the Montreal steak spice. Put them in the fridge so you can give the spices time to settle in without giving anyone food poisoning.

3. Light the barbecue. When it is hot enough, place the burgers on the grill and cook uncovered, approximately 5 minutes per side. Put the cheese on the burger patties and put the barbecue lid on to melt the cheese, approximately 1 minute. Toast the buns on the barbecue for 30 seconds to 1 minute.

4. Assemble the burgers with your favourite toppings. Maybe you can try putting coleslaw on them from wherever you got the smoked meat. Enjoy!

*As an off-island resident, my favourite smoked meat is from Smoke Meat Pete in Île-Perrot. If you aren’t able to get Montreal style smoked meat, try using pastrami instead.