Hamburger buns
"It requires a certain kind of mind to see beauty in a hamburger bun." Ray Kroc, founder of the McDonald's chain
As I was driving back from my Italian lesson today I happened to see one of those little white vans with 'Morgan's Hamburger Buns' written on the side. Which made me think that this was a common, nay ordinary everyday product, and how on earth would a little company survive in competition with no doubt huge organisations who make the same thing? I often wonder about little vans I see travelling around and how some of these little businesses survive. Some of them seem very specialist which I guess is how they survive. I have huge admiration for them.
So I thought this might be something to investigate.
It seems that 'Morgan's Hamburger Buns' is not quite the correct title - it's actually a company called Morgan's Bakery, who are in West Melbourne. And they actually don't have a website - which is a little bit unusual in this day and age you would think. But then they have an entry in the online Yellow Pages which I was interested to discover is almost as good as having their own website. It even has a FAQ section. There are pictures of their products and promotional ones of happy people making the bread (see below). So I learnt something there - if you don't want a proper website you can have something close in Yellow Pages - the way of the future for such directories perhaps. There were lots of other directory type of sites with a listing, but none as comprehensive as the Yellow Pages one.
When I looked into the company I found that they actually make bread and all sorts of buns and rolls of course, not just hamburger buns. Although they seem to be specialists in the hamburger buns - that and pita bread (for souvlaki - another kind of sandwich) and hot dog rolls. They have country and interstate customers as well and have been going for 50 years. Which is all beginning to sound like it's not such a small company after all. So who are their customers?
Well not McDonalds, Hungry Jacks and the like I'm guessing. Or the supermarkets. I would think they have their own factories or massive suppliers like the major bread companies. I'm guessing that bakeries such as this are actually experiencing boom times, because gourmet things in buns (and fancy bread) are all the rage - see my article on sliders for one aspect. An admittedly old (2012) article in the Herald Sun maintains that:
"Melbourne is on a roll. Forget knives and forks. Right now we're wrapping our fingers around anything and everything that comes in a bun.
Burger buns, brioche buns, slider buns ... any kind of buns, really. As long as they contain what we want to eat - beef, brisket, prawns, pork belly, paté and even chocolate ice cream - we're on board."
I think that you would find that a huge number of established restaurants, even posh ones such as Neil Perry's Rockpool, may well have something in a bun or a roll on their menu. And then there are all the thousands (well hundreds) of places that actually specialise in such things. Not to mention the pop-ups - another Melbourne trend. So it's a big market out there.
So what constitutes the perfect hamburger bun? Well the same article in the Herald Sun said there is a battle going on between 'old-school white buns and the on-trend sweet brioche buns.' The latter are more commonly used in the Asian versions of hamburgers I think. I would argue that there is now the sour-dough bun as well to contend with. According to another article i found your perfect hamburger bun must have the following qualities:
Freshly baked
Not so strong as to outshine or dull the flavor of the beef
Firm enough to hold together when wetness attacks it
Soft enough that you don't squeeze out the juices when you bite
Large enough to overhang the edges of the patty, usually 4 1/2"
Squishy enough to form fit around its payload so things don't fall out
A sentiment reiterated by Felicity Cloake of the Guardian, who concurs that there is a fashion for the sweet brioche type of bun, but thinks this is a mistake:
"the bun du jour in the burger afficionado world seems to be the soft, rich brioche style... This, in my opinion, is the choice of someone who hasn't thought through the practicalities in sufficient detail. A deftly cooked burger, dripping with greasy juices, and topped with piquant sauces, will see off such a bun in minutes, leading to its inevitable sad, soggy abandonment – how many times have you had to pick up a knife and fork to finish things off?"
And you should toast your bun too - at least on the inside. (Personally I prefer my hamburger buns untoasted and, I confess, soft.
So next time you want to have a hamburger think about the type of bun you will put it in. On my trip to Coles this morning, shortly after seeing that van, I had a look at what they had to offer and they had a very large range of options. Lots of different shapes, damper style (and soft), traditional, crusty, large, small, although I confess I didn't notice a brioche type of bun - but then I didn't know about these at the time so wasn't looking.
Amazing how such a simple thing as a hamburger bun can get you thinking isn't it? And I quite look forward to the next time I can eat (Friday) and maybe we will have a hamburger - now should there be beetroot in it?
By the way, Eltham has a very trendy hamburger café - or lounge as they call it, which, amazingly, is owned by Muslims and therefore has no bacon in its burgers. Doesn't seem to stop people going there though. And they are quite tasty. Maybe the van was going there - I saw it at the Eltham roundabout.
POSTSCRIPT
Aldi have brioche hamburger buns - they look terribly unappetising to me. Dry and squashy looking - and sort of yellow. Coles doesn't have buns but they do have a brioche loaf. Didn't look in Woolworths.
Whilst waiting for David at the opticians I flicked through a couple of Taste magazines and there was a recipe from Zumbo - he of dessert fame - for a meat pie with a hamburger bun on top! That is - the 'lid' of the pie was the top half of a hamburger bun. Interesting, weird or just plain awful?
POSTSCRIPT NO.2
McDonalds have been advertising a new hamburger on a brioche bun! I shall keep a lookout for more brioche hamburger buns in the supermarket. Don't think I fancy them though. I prefer the damper kind I think.
