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After seeing this episode I started cooking bacon in my Panini press - and it's been awesome! I could never get quite the appropriate crunchy-chewy texture doing it in my oven, and my burners have hot spots, invariably leaving the center of the bacon thoroughly cooked and the ends partly raw. But the panini maker is perfect -- everything is cooked evenly, the grease is trapped for later use, and cleanup isn't too bad. I can cook 4 complete strips on my panini press, the perfect amount for breakfast for myself and the fiancee. And it cooks quicker than in the oven or on a skillet, so while it may require a bit of watching you could turn out a few 4-strip batches pretty quickly. Alton Brown is full of innovative tips.

Finally, someone who shares my dislike of ketchup on a burger. I definitely agree that ketchup is too sugary and flavorful for a burger. It's great on fries, though.

@dmcavanagh: 4 posts down from this one we have a burger that has "tomato, lettuce, onion, fried egg, beet, bacon, pineapple, and cheese" on it. While lettuce and tomato might be too much for you, I think very few people would classify it as "tons of shit on a bun."

I use Juniper berries when I make my bastardized carnitas in the crock-pot. They add a delicious, fresh flavor that no one can ever identify. This simple addition really elevates the flavor.

This looks delicious! To make it a little simpler and quicker, could you use store-bought phyllo dough or puff pastry? I hate rolling out dough, I always fail. :-(

I have a small 2qt electric fryer, and it definitely has trouble keeping the temp up after dumping in the food. I'd have to imagine a 1 qt version would be even worse. I really want to upgrade to a 4 qt model for the better temp control and to fry larger batches, but don't have the space for it currently.

Sweet Baby Ray's Hot n' Spicy is my favorite BBQ sauce. It's really not all that spicy, so I sometimes add a dash of cayenne pepper, but the flavor really can't be beat. That is, of course, if you are looking for a sweet, KC-style sauce.

I've been trying to make my own BBQ sauce, and after trying a half-dozen recipes I've just about given up. The Sweet Baby Ray's is just too good!

I'm in the "hate fruit salsa" camp. I love regular salsa, I love fruit, but mix them up and they are nasty. This extends to "hot fruit" as well -- my fruit should be chilled or at room temperature. No canadian bacon & pineapple pizza for me!

I agree that they should have both been voted off. Now Teddy is just a lame duck, as there's no way he'll be on the show for another episode or two. Could have used that early vote-off as way to keep all the contestants on for some week when they all do pretty well.

I don't remember there being this much in-fighting, lying, and personality clashes in previous seasons of NFNS. Guess it all depends on the mix of personalities you get.

Omit the mayo and mustard, and this looks like my kind of burger.

@Blork, if you think a 1/2 pound (8oz) is too much, this burger would destroy you at over 3/4 pound (13oz).

I personally, like 1/2 pound burgers as the upper edge of my size. 1/4 - 1/2 is perfect. And I agree with many others, this burger looks way too rare for my tastes.

Just an FYI -- the Freezer link goes to an article about beer, which was quite interesting in its own right.

When I was in college (2000-2003) the local Papa Johns had a deal that was 2 large 2-topping pizzas for $12. Add on a few bucks for delivery/tip/tax and you've just fed 4 hungry college guys for $15 in the comfort of their own home.

As a value/taste equation for broke college kids who aren't that picky about quality food, it's damn near impossible to beat pizza.

Jamie, thanks for the info. I just saw this today, and it's nice to hear some more background. It makes sense that the "good bacteria" and high salt content would limit the growth of bad bacteria. Maybe I'll have to hunt down some raw milk cheeses at my local grocer and see what I've been missing.

@danirose87, I'm going to have to call BS on a significant portion of your post. The pasteurization of milk has long been (and still is) considered a major triumph of public health policy, and is responsible for one of the largest reductions in infectious disease transmission in history.

Your comparison to eggs and chicken is totally invalid and illogical -- eggs and chicken are cooked before eating, which kills off salmonella. Raw milk is obviously not cooked. There is essentially no comparison possible between cooked products and raw milk -- the vast majority of salmonella poisoning cases stem from undercooked chicken or raw egg consumption. The effective comparison would be to "cooked milk" -- aka pasteurized milk -- where salmonella poisoning is equally rare.

I also have not seen any data to indicate that pasteurized milk consumption is "one of the leading causes of health problems." Overeating, the vast abundance of cheap food, and a lack of exercise are the leading causes behind obesity. I'm about three-quarters of the way towards receiving my Master's in Public Health -- which is a significant part of the reason I'm interested in this topic -- and I've never heard a professor, seen a text, or read an article that referred to pasteurization of milk as anything but a resounding success.

I'd like to see some legitimate peer-reviewed articles backing up your points. A quick search of PubMed did not lead me to any articles with a positive view of raw milk, yet I found many, many articles detailing the pathogen-transmission capabilities of raw milk. In fact, here is a couple of direct quotes from the first relevant article in my search for "unpasteurized milk:"
"Despite concerns to the contrary, pasteurization does not change the nutritional value of milk."
"The consumption of milk that is not pasteurized increases the risk of contracting disease from a foodstuff that is otherwise very nutritious and healthy."
(Food safety: unpasteurized milk: a continued public health threat. Lejeune JT, Rajala-Schultz PJ. Clin Infect Dis. 2009 Jan 1;48(1):93-100. Review.)

There were very few papers available addressing raw-milk cheeses, either positively or negatively.