Blue Cheese Bacon Burger

Blue cheese does not enter a burger quietly. It comes in smelling like it has strong opinions about local government, which is useful because a juicy beef patty and crisp bacon can handle it. This burger keeps the beef deliberately simple—ground beef, kosher salt, and black pepper—so the toppings have room to do what they came here to do. Bacon brings smoke and crunch; blue cheese brings salty, creamy funk; the browned beef holds the whole arrangement together.

Cook the bacon slowly over medium heat until it is deeply browned and crisp, then form the beef loosely into ¾-inch patties with a shallow center dimple. Sear them over medium-high heat without pressing, because squeezing hot fat onto the skillet is not a cooking technique so much as donating flavor to the pan. Once the burgers reach 160°F, add the crumbled blue cheese and let the residual heat soften it rather than trying to melt it into anonymity.

Give the patties two minutes to rest, pile on the bacon, and use toasted buns. Lettuce and tomato are welcome if you want them, but this is fundamentally a three-part argument—beef, blue cheese, bacon—and all three sides are making excellent points.