The crystal burger has a long history with my family, so I was excited to tackle it. Basically, the recipe was pretty easy - the hardest part was finding the correct bun. When all was said and done, I nailed the burger in the condiments, but not the bun.
There are loads of recipes online. I chose to go with a regular crystal and did not add cheese. After much debate, I ended up with a brioche roll. I've been debating a kings Hawaiian roll, but decided that it might be too sweet. Looking back, I think it would've had a better texture and that's really The biggest issue with this burger was the texture of the bun.
I knew my gluten free bun would not be anything at all like at the original Crystal so I do not base my rating on its texture.
Overall, the best part of the burger was the dehydrated, minced onions that I re-hydrated with beef broth. That was really what made this most like a actual crystal burger. I used a regenerative grown 80/20 ground beef and it always gives a top notch taste and texture. Some recipes called for using a food processor to blend up the meat with water but I did not go that route. I just formed into a large patty and cooked them on a baking sheet on top of the minced onions. A traditional Krystal would be cooked on a grill but I decided I'd get a better steam of the meat and onions in the oven.
The meat, onions, pickle and mustard get 5 stars but the bun really brought it down so my overall rating is 3.5. I'll try this again with a softer bun and work harder to steam it.
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