White Castle: How to Make the Hamburgers from 'Harold & Kumar'

White Castle is a legendary fast-food chain from the United States, and it's exclusive to that country. Similar, if you like, to McDonald's, but with far fewer locations and no global reach. What makes it so special, they say, is that the locations don't necessarily operate as franchises; instead, all of them are owned by a single family that demands consistent quality at every single one. Its hamburgers, called 'sliders,' were the main goal (the MacGuffin, if you will) of the adventures of the protagonists of "Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle".

"Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle" is a stoner movie, and a very good one, that might be in my Top 5 of marijuana movies (alongside some 'Cheech and Chong'). It's a film to watch under the influence, leaving sobriety for another day. Its premise is simple: two stoner friends, each with their own problems, after smoking a few joints, decide to go to White Castle, the classic American fast-food chain. In the end (SPOILER!), after a bunch of crazy misadventures, the friends reach the restaurant. This is what happens...

And there I was, equally crazy and hungry, drooling on the floor, fascinated by the look of those White Castle mini-burgers (called sliders). On that occasion, I had to settle for a McDonald's hamburger, ordered at home, but I swore on my grave that someday I would try White Castle's hamburgers.

So, given the impossibility of visiting a White Castle in my country, since they're exclusive to the US, I decided to search for the recipe online. To my surprise, I discovered I wasn't the only one obsessed with these hamburgers. Even in the United States, the number of locations is extremely limited, so many people in that country have tried to hack the particular flavor of sliders, through tastings and lots of trial and error.

In my 'research,' the first problem I encountered was that the dozens and dozens of recipes I found were not exactly the same. They were very similar, but never identical. So I took it upon myself to look at the repeated elements and techniques in each recipe, separate the wheat from the chaff, and draw my own conclusions based on the predominant flavors. I also had to adapt some ingredients, like the dried onion soup, which is used to season the meat. But in the end, I think I captured the spirit of these coveted sliders quite well.

And since these hamburgers have become one of our favorite dishes at home, and given the amount of contradictory information on the web, I decided to share the process with all those interested. Ladies and gentlemen: the recipe for White Castle hamburgers.

White Castle Burger Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 kg of ground meat
• 30 grams of dried onion
• 2 large onions
• 1/2 beef bouillon cube
• Pickles
• 12 hamburger buns
• 1/2 cup milk
• Cheddar cheese slices
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 20 g of butter
• Parchment paper
• Ketchup and mustard

Procedure

• The original recipe calls for a type of dried onion soup that is sprinkled over the ground meat for flavor. Since I couldn't find anything like it, I bought dried onion and turned it into powder with half a beef bouillon cube, using a mortar. So, unless you can find powdered onion soup, that's the first step: pulverize the dried onion with half a beef bouillon cube using a mortar. If you don't have a mortar, chop the onion with the bouillon as finely as you can.
• Melt the butter in the microwave or on the stove.
• Add the onion powder, melted butter, a pinch of salt, a pinch of pepper, and 1/2 cup of milk to the ground meat. Mix until everything is well integrated.

• Cover a baking tray with parchment paper and spread the meat mixture into a kind of 'meat bed'. White Castle hamburgers are very thin. Try to keep the bed no more than five millimeters thick, more or less.
• With a sharp knife, as shown in the image, cut the 'meat bed' so that the patties are already shaped (they should be square, if you want to respect the original recipe). In my case, with three vertical and two horizontal cuts, I got twelve patties.
• Then use your finger (wash it first!) to make four small holes in each patty, just as shown in the image. This will allow them to cook very quickly and evenly.

• Next, put the tray in the freezer for at least 30 minutes. This is done so that you can separate and handle the hamburger patties without them falling apart.
• While you wait for the patties to freeze, chop the onions into small cubes. And, while you're at it, slice the pickles too.

• After about 30 minutes, take the patties out of the freezer. If all goes well, they will look like the ones in the image and will separate without problems. If you have trouble separating them, leave them a little longer, no big deal.

• Cover the same tray with the chopped onions, so that it is almost completely covered. Add a little water, not much.

• Place the hamburger patties on the onions and put the whole preparation in a preheated oven at medium temperature for about ten minutes (more or less). Stay vigilant so they don't overcook.

• The idea is that the patties cook not only from the oven heat but also from the steam of the water. In contact with the onions, the steam not only cooks the patties but also gives them more onion flavor.

• When the patties are cooked but still juicy (as you can see in the photo above), take them out of the oven and place one or two slices of cheddar cheese on each.

• Cut the hamburger buns and put them in the tray too, so they get warm. And back to the oven for about four minutes! (more or less)

• Now you just have to assemble the sandwich. Bun, patty with cheese, a handful of the cooked onion, pickles to taste, and bun.

• If you want to season it with a sauce, some of the recipes I consulted indicated that the originals come with a mixture of one measure of ketchup to two of mustard.

• And done! Since I had some leftover patties for the number of buns I had bought, some came out with "double meat, double cheese". The original sliders only have one, but what the hell.

The flavor, as you might imagine, is quite different from the hamburgers we usually make at home. The onion makes itself felt, but just enough; it never covers the other flavors of the sandwich, but rather complements them. They really taste like an "American fast food" hamburger, though they are much better than McDonald's or Burger King.

Well, that's it. It's good to scratch where it itches. And since I was itching, almost to the point of obsession, with this business of impossible-to-get hamburgers that Harold and Kumar had enjoyed so much, I got to work. I hope you make the recipe and enjoy it as much as I did. Thank you very much for your visit!