One case that people constantly refer to is the method of hamburger patty-making at Martin’s Kum-Bak Hamburgers (Dirty’s). What you often hear is that the burgers just aren’t the same since the health department forced the cooks to quit smashing the patties down on the grill with their spatulas to shape the burgers. Let me strongly emphasize that there was never a complaint that triggered this situation, but a casual observation by the inspector on site. The manager at Dirty’s told me that the health department “very strongly suggested that we change the way we did it. The problem was that the way they smashed the meat, it splattered too much, and it could get on something. I guess we could have put up a wall or something, but we learned a long time ago that the only way to get along with [the inspectors] is to just make them happy.” She did emphasize that Dirty’s uses the exact same meat it has always used, only now it’s in pre-formed patties.
When I talked to Mark Parsons at the health department, his recollections about the case were a little foggy. But Parsons did say that “if the cooks were smashing the meat that hard, it’s conceivable that raw burger could be propelled onto the lettuce or tomatoes. That could be a potential contamination problem. Now if they wanted to smash the meat with a little less ferocity, then the department would have had no problem with that.” My recollections were that for years the guys would grab a handful of meat, form it into a ball, then smash it down. Parsons said it was the handling of the meat that was more likely to be the problem. “To be safe, the cooks would have had to wash their hands before and after handling each patty, which just isn’t practical. The obvious, safe choice was to go to a preformed patty, and they could still be handmade, just made all at once.” My personal opinion is that I loved a Dirty’s burger then, and still love them today. Now they’re probably just a little bit safer. — M.V.
This article appears in June 4 • 1999 and June 4 • 1999 (Cover).