To me, the history of the Juicy Lucy hamburger comes from the “Grill” and coffee shop in New Brighton, MN, which has been closed now for well over 35 years! Many local folks passing through town, especially the locals who hung out there for most of their lives, remember the Famous Grill and the most wonderful woman Marge who was famous for her mouth-watering burgers. She was a treasure and permanent fixture in that town. Sadly she’s been gone a long time. I had the pleasure of working with her in the 70’s. Marge kept me on my toes at the New Brighton Municipal! Many try to copy her burger — few succeed! If my memory hasn’t failed me…here is how her recipe goes:
Ingredients:
- 3 lbs of extra lean burger
- American cheese
- Swiss cheese
- finely chopped onion
- salt/pepper to taste
Make a normal sized hamburger patty and place 2 slices of fresh American cheese and 1 slice of Swiss cheese and as much chopped onion as possible on top, then add another hamburger patty and carefully seal the cheeses/onion inside. In a large heavy skillet place each burger and cook. After turning once, poke burger with a toothpick to let out steam, taking care NOT to lose any cheese (this is the tricky part). Cooking a 1/3 pound burger without letting the juice, cheese and onions run out takes talent! Serve on a buttered bun with all the condiments! For me, that is a true Juicy Lucy!
A writer for Matt’s Bar has this on his blog: A recipe from John T. Edge’s book Hamburger & Fries. (The Juicy Loosey)
Ingredients:
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- Cheese
- 3/4 teaspoon garlic salt
- 4 buns
- Finally, add your favorite condiments and toppings
Procedure
- Place beef, Worcestershire sauce, garlic salt, and pepper in a bowl; mix well. Portion into eight even balls of meat. Shape each portion into a thin round patty that’s slightly larger than the cheese slice.
- Fold cheese slices in half twice, so you have a little stack of quartered cheese slices. Place a folded cheese stack on four individual patties, covering cheese with remaining four patties.
- Tightly crimp the edges of the patties together to form a tight seal.
- Did you make a tight seal? I hope so, because it needs to be TIGHT to avoid a blowout as the cheese melts and creates steam. The cheese will try to find its way out of its meaty prison!
- Preheat a cast-iron skillet or heavy-bottomed pan to medium heat (or fire up a medium-hot bed of coals on your backyard grill) and cook burgers over heat 3 to 4 minutes on first side. Burger may puff up due to steam from melting cheese. This is normal. Do not be alarmed.
- Flip, and using toothpick, prick top of burger to allow steam to escape. Allow burger to cook 3 to 4 minutes on this side.
- Remove patties from pan or grill. Bun those suckers, slap some condiments on, and dig in.
Other suggestions I may offer….If you have ground venison, go right ahead and give it a try. But, you better add ground pork, so those edges will pinch together and hold as you flip your burgers.
Meat tips: On refreezing meat, you can refreeze meat that has been thawed in a refrigerator, the problem is home freezers are slow to freeze, so make sure to put package well into the back of the freezer as you can. Ice crystals form in slow freezing, these crystals rupture cell walls of the meat, permitting juice to escape during cooking. 
FML Outdoors.com 
