Howdy friends and neighbors! Well shit, just look at that! It’s another season of Sunday Gravy!

Hope everyone had a nice NFL season. For the new folks out there, Sunday Gravy is one of the regular offseason features here at Door Flies Open that helps guide you weary football fans through the long, cold, interminable, offseason. This feature is where I offer up real food recipes along with original food photography, food tips, suggestions and all sorts of general food-centric frivolity.

Got a food related question? Ask in the comment section and I’ll do my best to get an answer for you.

I think this is technically Season 4 of Sunday Gravy since I began this feature shortly after the very birth of DFO back in 2015. So fuck it, Season 4 it is.

Should I use the NFL concept of using the Roman numerals “IV?”

Fuck off. I will not. You’ll get “4” and like it!

Again, if you’re new, feel free to take a stroll through the Sunday Gravy Archives.

That should help get you in the spirit of things.

For those of you keeping score, today’s menu will be my 72nd menu that I’ve given you since the start of this endeavor.

Seventy fucking two menus.

I say menus rather than recipes because many of the menus contain more than 1 recipe. Today for instance I’m giving you 3 separate foods.

Holy cat shit that’s a lot of goddamn cooking.

The photo just above from the old Mary Tyler Moore show is indeed appropriate for today’s feature since I will be bringing you the Twin Cities version of a stuffed burger called the “Jucy Lucy.”

I will also give you a quick look at some cheesy bacon tots and another look at some deviled eggs. Basically you get the recipes for what the right household consumed for the Superb Owl. Bookmark for next football season if you like.

Inspiration for today’s meal was from my trip to Minnesota last October where I visited the Twin Cities and saw the Vikings unceremoniously beat the crap out of the Baltimore Ravens. During the visit we did indeed sample a version of the Jucy Lucy.

This was called the Jucy Lucifer and had habanero jack cheese instead of American cheese. This burger came from a very cool underground restaurant and bar in Minneapolis called Hell’s Kitchen. Their home page will also show you the goddamn insane fucking shit they do to a bloody Mary. That shit still freaks me out.

“Don’t you want your beefstick?”

The origin of the Jucy Lucy is under debate to this day. Matt’s Bar in Minneapolis has an origin story going back to 1954. The other originator claimant is the 5-8 Club. They offer no origin story but they mention being a speakeasy dating back to the Prohibition Era of the 1920’s. It’s one of those odd local food disputes similar to the origin of the Italian Beef sandwich in Chicago or the origin of the French Dip here in L.A. That would be Philippe’s by the way. 

The Jucy Lucy is a burger that is stuffed with cheese rather than the cheese being on top. That’s all. It was quite tasty and there were no shortages of restaurants and bars in the Twin Cities offering their own version of one. Basically you go to Minnesota, eat a Jucy Lucy, have some cheese curds, drink a Surly craft beer and basically freeze your ass off.

Look a full itinerary!

While at the Mall of America – yes, like a goddamn tourist – we came across this gadget:

It’s a Jucy Lucy maker. Basically it’s a three piece plastic mold that allows you to press, fill and make a stuffed burger at home. Here’s a better look.

image via

You press down the meat with the lid creating an indentation. Fill the indentation with cheese and then put a burger lid on it. Simple!

The only issue is if you use the press it ends up making a burger that is at least 3/4 of a pound BEFORE adding in the weight of the cheese. Since I was hosting the game and wanted my guests to not have a fucking coronary while watching the game we built ours by hand. Thirteen bucks down the drain!

The Jucy Lucy!

Some buns.

Some hamburger meat.

A binding agent if preferred

Some cheese.

Salt and pepper to taste.

Various burger condiments and toppings.

Yes, I usually give a more formal recipe than this but the amounts will vary on the number of people you are feeding. We found that the optimum pre-cook burger size is about 1/3 of a pound per burger.

We also pan fried these for a couple of reasons; one: we were watching the goddamn game and I didn’t want to fuck with the grill and 2: if you grill these and the burger springs a cheese leak then all of that cheese will just drip down on top of the coals and you will have fucked your Lucy good! If you cook on the stove top you can use a pair of tongs to grab the leaky burger and place it on it’s edge effectively cauterizing the cheese wound.

Fuck it! Let’s build one!

Combine the hamburger with some seasonings of choice. I used salt, pepper, onion powder and garlic powder. I also added a splash of milk and some crumbled tortilla chips to act as a binding agent. Mix this together with your hands.

Form the hamburger into a concave shape making room for the cheese. Daughter eldest right called this “making a meat boat” which is just all kinds of fucking awesome. After making your meat boat, add in the cheese.

Make a flat layer of hamburger to act as the “lid” for the burger and press the edges to seal in the cheese. Use caution and get a good seal because we are trying to avoid the cheese leak. We still had about a 33% amount of leakage that we mitigated with the tongs and the “cauterizing” thing.

Form all of your burgers and get ready to cook.

Using a skillet over medium heat it’s time to get busy.

Season with a little more salt and pepper. The medium heat thing is pretty critical since we want to make sure the burger is cooked through and that the interior cheese gets melted. I also used a lid to cover, both before flipping the burgers as well as after flipping. I gave this about 4 minutes for the first side. Here’s the first flip.

Add a little more salt and pepper. Cover with the lid again and cook for about 4 minutes more.

When cooked, place the burger on a bun, add some condiments or toppings – I used a little mustard and a dab of ketchup –  and wait. Wait a couple of minutes more. WAIT!

Now go!

Obviously chomping down on one of these bastards right out of the pan would melt your entire face and throat with fire and molten cheese. DON’T DO THAT! See? I even sliced mine in half before eating. Granted some of that was for a sexy melty cheese photo but still.

By the way my food photos are still catching up from the offseason. I’ll get better.

These things are really fucking tasty and super easy to make. I used Velveeta cheese for these and that will change. I wanted to be sure of a good melt for a sexy photo. Next time I will use something else. Plain American, white American cheese or more than likely some pepper jack. Delicious burger and a cool effect. Make these!

Since we were hosting the Superb Owl party we needed a little more sustenance. So we also made these:

Cheesy Bacon Tots!

I don’t have to give a recipe for these do I?

Seriously?

Fuck it, cook some frozen tater tots to the package’s specification. At the same time that the tots are in the oven, cook some bacon until crispy. When the tots are done, leave the oven on, add the crumbled bacon over the top of the tots and then sprinkle on some cheese over the top. I used cheddar. Place the pan back into the oven for about 5 minutes until the cheese melts.

Serve with your Jucy Lucy.

That covers the meal but didn’t we have some type of appetizer before the game?

Fucking A right, man!

Let’s make some deviled eggs.

Some eggs! I used 10.

Boiling water.

Salt and pepper to taste.

1/3 cup of mayonnaise.

1/4 cup of mustard – I used this stuff

it’s a spicy brown mustard with a little horseradish kick and a tiny bit of sweetness from maple syrup. It works great for these.

1 teaspoon of minced fresh dill.

Some essence for a garnish.

Put the eggs into a pot for cooking and cover with enough water to cover the eggs by about an inch. Bring to a boil.

As soon as the eggs reach a boil, remove from heat, cover the pot with a lid, set a kitchen timer to 12 minutes and leave them alone.

Next get a large bowl and fill with some ice water. Once the eggs have sat for the allotted 12 minutes, drain the water from the pot of eggs and dump the eggs into the ice bath to stop the cooking process. Let the eggs sit in the ice bath for about 5 minutes.

If you want to simply make a batch of hard boiled eggs that’s your motherfucker right there. Know what’s cool? A batch of hardboiled eggs will last for a week in your refrigerator before spoiling. Make some hardboiled eggs on Sunday and you have an easy as fuck breakfast for the week. Make a piece of whole grain toast, crack open a hardboiled egg, add a little salt and pepper. Boom Motherfucker! Breakfast and a solid source of protein.

We’re going to remove all of the health benefits though and fatten these babies up!

Slice the eggs lengthwise and scoop out the yolks. Place the yolks in their own bowl and put the egg white halves on a plate.

If you’ll notice I batted 1.000 with these goddamn egg whites! A perfect slice and nary a fucked up egg white. I fucking rule!

Next take the yolks and add in the mayo, the mustard and the dill along with a small dash of salt and a few grinds of black pepper.

Use a spoon or even a fork and mix this well. If you want to do a bunch of these and use the “plastic bag for piping trick” put all the ingredients into a 1 gallon zip top bag and squish all this shit together until mixed. Next snip off a corner of the bag and pipe the egg yolk filling mixture directly into the egg white, garnish with “Essence” chill for a few minutes and serve.

Or you can just use a tablespoon and your hands to fill the eggs. Your call. When done and dusted with a garnish and chilled you have have a plate of loveliness something like this.

Now all you need are about 87 beers, a few bottles of wine and shots of your favorite hard liquor to host an unforgettable Superb Owl party.

You may notice that I paid homage to the host city of the game and not to either team?

Goddamn right I did.

Well folks, thanks as always for reading and it’s going to be a fun filled and magical season of Sunday Gravy.

As long as someone else does the dishes I’ve got this motherfucker.

See you next week!

PEACE!