As we enter summer – burger season – I offer up the burger recipe I’ve made most this year: the Gravy Burger. It’s suitable come rain or shine. There’s nothing worse than a dry burger, and this recipe ensures the most saucy of patties. Thank you for being here!

There are multiple ‘wet’ burgers that exist in the world. There’s the Islak hamburger, a Turkish street food in which the patty is soaked in a tomato-based sauce. I’ve only eaten a version of this once, at Soho’s Yasmin, but it was all killer no filler (see below). Then there’s KFC’s gravy burger which gives me the creeps and always will. It involves gravy mayonnaise and a hashbrown that gets covered in gravy – if you’ve braved it I’d love your review...

If we extend our research into wet sandwich territory, we get a whole lot more to explore. There’s Chicago’s Italian beef, which can come “dipped”, “dunked” or “wet” all meaning various levels of soggy. Or the French dip from Los Angeles in which a roast beef roll is dipped in beef jus.

Then of course, there’s the bun-less Salisbury steak, which I have investigated here in this newsletter in the form of my Salisbury Steak Pie. My Gravy Burger takes its inspiration more from IKEA meatballs (which I also tackled) and Salisbury steak than from any of the above sandwiches. No dipping is required.

The onion gravy can be made with or without mushrooms, is enriched with cream and covers the cheese-topped patty. It’s indulgent and rich but cut through by a smattering of cranberry or lingonberry sauce and/or burger sauce which is spread on either side of the bun. The bun itself is not dipped or dunked but soaks up any gravy that naturally drips into it.