Few things I appreciate more than some family out slinging ‘hash’ at small town festivals, county fairs, and the like.  Today’s occasion was a ginormous flea market in Elkhorn, Wisconsin, held several times over the course of the summer. (dates).  Reminded me of one Mrs. Burgerdogboy and I stopped at in Central Washington a couple years back, on the return trip from a weekend at Washington wineries.  That was a hoot. (Check the link, it’s coming up Memorial Day!)

In any case, catering today was managed by a number of local charitable organizations, like the FFA and such, and I sampled the Bison burger from a trailer called “Buffalo Bills”, as well as Italian beef/sausage and fresh cut fries from Annie’s Burger Town.  Both were thoroughly enjoyed.

The exhibition itself was a lot of fun, in addition to pricey antiques, there was a lot of “junk” as well as memorabilia, which I’m fond of.

Buffalo Burger with Cheese

Italian Sausage with peppers and onions

Bistro Italiano

Buffalo Bill’s

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Whoa, that’s a long name.  Saw these the other day for the first time, when I was in the hunt for my usual brands, premium casing dogs like Usingers or Vienna Beef.

These were $3.99, for a 14 oz, 8 frank package;  they are bun length, and a bit redder in color than most grocery store dogs.

Ingredient list, and what a relief not to see “mechanically separated turkey and chicken” as one runs into so often lately:  Angus beef, water, dextrose, cultured celery juice, vinegar, sodium phosphates, cherry powder, lemon juice solids, flavors, extractives of paprika.

That’s pretty normal stuff.   Dextrose is a simple sugar found in plants, generally used in the curing process of meats, but these are uncured, so it is most likely a flavor enhancer.  Sodium phosphate is used as a preservative instead of nitrates. Dextrose contributes to fermentation which creates some portions of flavor.  All the rest is what it is!

As to putting “Angus Beef” on a label?  80% of beef cattle in the US are Angus, so that’s not a premium point.  I understand that “Certified Angus” is a big deal, if you see that on labels.

Point?  They’re tasty.  And for being a skinless dog, I’d put them on my ‘regular’ list.  With all beef franks, I usually get Nathan’s or Hebrew, but now I have a third choice.

And moms?  Remember to dice the dogs if feeding them to toddlers.

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Not much more I can say about Sammy’s, the small regional chain in the Upper Midwest, I’ve written about them a couple times.   Here’s the point:  I’ve had pizza all over the world, from Naples, Florida, to Naples, Italy;  from Boise to Beijing.  And Sammy’s is still my favorite, and worth a couple day drive on occasion to reacquaint myself with the cracker crust, savory sauce, and quality toppings.

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I’ve  reviewed a lot of these frozen patties, and to date, I’ve liked Ball Park brand the most, even though they are a ‘heat and eat’ product, not a raw patty.

Extra Value is an economy brand, manufactured by the Holten Meat Company, outside of St. Louis.

I bought a package of a dozen quarter pounders, and out of the box, they look like the pictures on the left.

They require a medium  heat cook, for a few minutes on each side.  Usually the instructions for frozen patties say to cook on one side, until ‘blood’ runs from the top of the patty, and then flip for a couple minutes.

I followed a similar regimen with this product.

The ingredient list reads:  beef, beef hearts, water, textured vegetable protein, seasoning, MSG, sugar, salt.

I wasn’t put off by the hearts, but I was curious about  the vegetable protein.  Vegetable protein is a “meat analogue”, which according to Wikipedia, is  also called a meat substitute, mock meat, faux meat or imitation meat, approximates certain aesthetic qualities (primarily texture, flavor and appearance) and/or chemical characteristics of specific types of meat. Many analogues are soy-based.

And it’s that textured vegetable protein where the Extra Value patties fall apart, both literally and figuratively.

While the general “flavor” of a beef patty is present, the expected texture of cooked ground meat is completely lacking.

The texture while cutting, chewing, is more akin to the vegetarian patties I’ve had.  It doesn’t really ‘cut’, it crumbles.

And for me, that’s a deal killer.  Here’s what the end product looks like:

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Nice to pop into one of these recently in suburban Chicago.  I had no idea the company had sprouted so many locations in the past few years.

I first became acquainted with the chain in New Orleans, Mrs. Burgerdogboy and I were having kind of a funky / downlow Thanksgiving, and we wandered into the store and bought literally ‘handful-sized’ portions of things that interested us from the deli counters.   It was a ‘tapas’ Thanksgiving as it were, and it’s a great memory.

I like Fresh Market better than Whole Foods, as it is small and easier to navigate.  If I want gourmet offerings in a grand venue, my favorite is Central Market, with a half-dozen locations in Texas, and is part of the HEB chain.

In Minnesota, it’s Byerly’s.   Here in Portland, we have several great local chains, like Zupan’s, and New Seasons.

I used to work with a lot of people from overseas, and they’d come over for business meetings, and always wanted to visit a grocery, amazed at the choices.  Of course, there are hypermarkets everywhere today – I was at the grand opening of the first Sam’s Club in China years ago.  I love these upscale markets, even though they are spendy. I’d rather have a few quality items from a store like this, than a basket full of groceries from a discount mart.

That’s a good memory – that Thanksgiving with Mrs Burgerdogboy.  I hope we’ll get to share another one someday.

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We used to call it “soup town” tho I have no knowledge as to why.  My best memories of Superior is that it was a bridge away from my home town, and for a period, had a legal drinking age of 18.  We used to frequent one particular bar, and a glass of beer was 15 cents, and a mixed drink was 45 cents.  Yes, you read that right.

The bar was called Tommy Byrnes, and it’s long gone, and so are those kind of prices in these days of fancy pants infused spirits and microbrew beers.  I don’t drink much, so it doesn’t really bother me that there are $16 cocktails in an awful lot of places.

Kawika and I hit the Thirsty Pagan after a drive out in the country to catch another set of Todd Eckart, crooner extraordinare.

We ordered a pizza with the works on it, sausage, pepperoni, onions, mushroom, peppers, which was a wide variation off the pizza path for us.

It’s a thicker crust, with a buttery flavor, quality toppings, and premium priced.

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We used to drive down US 53 out of Superior Wisconsin, for winter family ski trips to Telemark, or some jaunts to various Wisconsin lakes.   At the time, Minong, about 30 miles south, was a one horse town with a car dealer, grocery, and gas station, and a small butcher shop and cattle pen called “Link Brothers”.

Today Jack Link, still headquartered in Minong, is undisputeably the world champion for jerky and related snacks.  I’ve traveled all over the world and seldom see a place where Jack Link’s products are missing from the shelf.

I like ‘em.

So imagine my delight when I saw the billboard for the “factory outlet store”, which can be found inside the town’s only grocery.   You’ll be in jerky and beefstick heaven, and save a bundle to boot.  Too bad Mrs. Burgerdogboy wasn’t along, except for she would have dropped a small fortune here and been in a jerky comma the rest of the trip!   She do love herself some jerky!

I scored these two, 2 pound bags of beef stick bits for $5.

If you don’t anticipate driving through Northern Wisconsin this year,  the store does ship, and here’s the dope on that.

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Winding our way through the backwoods of Wisconsin, back and around my old stomping ground of LaCrosse, where I had my first job after college.  Cruising up US 53 north out of LaCrosse, and feeling a might puckish as the noon hour was approaching.   We had passed through Sparta, WI, earlier, home of F.A.S.T. Enterprises, manufacturers of huge fiberglass ‘things’, like the muffler man, and chickens, and you name it.  Always a joy for me to see that field.

On to Arcadia, Wisconsin, home of a factory for Ashley Furniture, and  Arcadia Fryers (now part of Gold N Plump) and not much else.  Founded in 1855 along the banks of the Trempealeau River, an 80 mile tributary of the Mississippi.

Wandered into the Detox Bar and Grill, expecting your usual assortment of bar food, which they had, and a whole lot more.  I had a hankering for smelt bites, as it was the season, but fell for the Detox burger when I read that the bun was garlic/cheese French bread.  Ah, overdose, material.

And you know what?  This was one of the best burgers I have had in the past year or so.  Hand made patty, nicely seasoned and cooked, and the garlic/cheese bread added to the flavor layer.  I liked it.   I’d do it again.

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Prime BurgerHouse is one of the restaurants inside the Grand Victoria Casino in Elgin, IL. It’s my recollection the Grand Vic was one of the original casinos in Illinois, back when they were limited to being on water and having to take small cruises multiple times a day, during which time gamblers could play. Those days are long gone, with boats permanently anchored, or used as foundations to build land-based facilities. The Grand Vic is a fifty-fifty partnership between a subsidiary of Hyatt, and MGM.

The Prime was born from an idea of the casino GM to offer the best burger in Chicagoland, and in most cases, they succeed, with a plethora of specialty burgers as well as a ‘build your own’ option, offering a wide variety of add-ons, condiments, and buns.  The full menu is here.   Top of the line is a lobster tail topped beef patty.

Prime also offers microbrews, cocktails, and alcohol enhanced milkshakes, currently a rage at upscale burger joints across the country.   Some additional appetizers are offered, including the ubiquitous Las Vegas style shrimp cocktail, which we used to find our Sin City for a buck –  clocks in at $14 here.

I was the guest of my pal Tom, operator of a Chicago company that specializes in fun DVDs for kids of all ages.  Want to delight your kids?  Buy a dozen or so of Tom’s DVDs.

My burger, the Juicy Lucy, an homage to the Minneapolis creation of the same name, was superb.  Beef patty cored out and loaded with melted American cheese, perched on onion straws, betwixt a very high quality pretzel bun.

White Cheddar truffle fries are available, for some reason, I opted to get them without the cheese and I think it was a good choice.   Although it took years for my palate to cotton up to truffle enhanced food, now I can’t get enough of it.

Don’t let the fact Prime is in a casino put you off, it’s right inside the door and there is easy valet parking.

Highly recommended.

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If the frozen pizza industry has “class” or “segment” descriptions (like ‘value line’, ‘premium line’, ‘gourmet’), I’m not aware of it.  Of course there are all manners of self-descriptive phrases used for marketing, whether it’s “pizzeria style” or “rising crust”.  “Classic” has come to mean, by and large, I believe, the look, shape, feel, and taste of a company’s original product line (i.e., “Classic Coke”, which of course, is now “regular” Coke, but not labeled as such, as “New Coke” vanished shortly after its introduction.

I digress.

Today we are talking about “Classic” frozen pizza from Palermo’s, a Milwaukee-based manufacturer which was spawned out of an eatery and bakery  started by Italian immigrants Gaspare “Jack” and Zina Fallucca in 1964.  They sold the restaurant in 1979 to focus their business acumen on the frozen pizza business, and now sell millions of frozen pies from a 250,000 sf manufacturing facility in Milwaukee.

According to a Milwaukee Journal article, the company cranks out frozen pies utilizing over 300 recipes, and generating revenue in excess of $150 million annually.  In addition to product under its own brand name, the majority of those recipes are utilized by Palermo to make private label pizzas; that is, pies manufactured, branded, and sold by grocery companies. Other articles seem to indicate Palermo invented the self-rising crust style of frozen pizza.

If the designations I started talking about in the beginning of the article existed, Palermo’s “Classics” would fall into the ‘value’ segment, or the very low end of the price scale.   Competitors, in my opinion, would be brands like Totino’s, Jeno’s, and generics of the same ilk.   Frozen pizzas the you can get for less than $2 each make up this category.

The Palermo’s in this tasting round were on sale  at six for $10, averaged 12.5 ounces, resulting in a per ounce price of around 12 cents.  That’s very inexpensive.   The pies in this line come in a variety of configurations,  plain cheese, pepperoni, sausage, combination, deluxe, sausage/mushroom, supreme, and bacon cheeseburger.

The latter style, I’ve never partaken of in any form or fashion, so that’s the first one I opened.  Instructions call for 9-11 minutes at 450, and I found that time range to be more than adequate, for these pies are sporting a very thin crust.

The ingredient list is fairly straight forward, and one finds the usual ingredients (and their additives) listed on the package, with one curious note:   one ingredient is dried potatoes, which clocks in after the ‘cooked beef hamburger topping’ and before the corn and soy proteins on the list.   Another curiosity?  “Grill Flavor”, which is listed before the bacon topping in the ingredient order, so that must mean that the bacon is merely a whisper of an ingredient.

Last on the list is “may contain smoke flavoring” as a component of the bacon topping, and to me, that’s no surprise, as to my palate, the smoke flavor was the most prominent feature of the Bacon Cheeseburger pizza.

Of course, at this price point, the amount of toppings and cheese are scant.   Would I buy them again?  At this price, probably, but I’d be more inclined to use them as a “base” and load them up with my own toppings and cheese.

And although they can’t be microwaved, they would provide an expensive, quick hot snack for your kids, providing you also served them healthier options from time to time.

Locator.

Bacon Cheeseburger Pie

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