G. Harvest was a man who experienced more in one month than most men experience in one decade.  His adventures inspire the breads that we make.  Here’s the story behind our Jalapeno Cheddar Hamburger Buns.

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I bleed Vermilion Red and I’ve always loved Ragin’ Cajuns football.  My acquaintances and I have tailgated outside of The Swamp for years.  I use the word “acquaintances” quite deliberately… because of Jacques. 

Every year, for the first home game, our tailgating crew has a friendly cooking competition over who can make the best ______.  That blank has been filled with gumbo, hot dogs, fried chicken, buffalo wings, and many other dishes over the years.  Everyone has a blast trying to one-up each other… except for Jacques.  He goes overboard every single year and orders exotic, expensive ingredients just to ensure that he takes home bragging rights.  And brag he does.  A few seasons ago he was on the verge of ruining tailgating for us because things had gotten so out of hand with him. 

When we were getting ready to start the next tailgating season, our group decided that it was going to be hamburgers that were this year’s competition dish.  Jacques immediately started talking trash about how he would annihilate all of us.  Then and there I determined that I would beat that SOB.  Pardon my French, ladies, but this guy just gets under my skin.  There is a time and place for bragging: the time is never and I will let you figure out the place.  Jacques had clearly never heard of this rule.

I knew enough about him to know that he would focus on the meat.  He would blend a few different kinds together and make some exotic sauce to go along with it.  While I love meat and knew his sauces were pretty good, I also knew that his focus on this would be his weakness.  I had an opportunity to flank him by catering to my strength- the bun. 

For the month leading up to the cookoff, I tinkered in my kitchen.  I decided that the meat would be simple: 85% lean beef, seasoned with Tony’s, and cooked over mesquite.  The sauce would also be simple:  Creole mustard on the bottom bun and a Louisiana Lightning/Mayo blend on the top.  In-Season tomatoes, crisp baby greens, and a slice of Vidalia onion would be the only fixins’.  My bun would do the hard work.

The day of the game I set up my pit and let the fire do its thing with my meat.  Jacques, as expected, had blended beef, bacon, and rabbit.  His sauce had Turkish peppers, saffron, and Vietnamese mayo.  He made sure to let us all know that the peppers were overnighted from Istanbul.  Everyone deflated as soon as he started talking. 

I smirked.

At the last possible moment I whipped out my hamburger buns and threw them on the pit.  As soon as everyone saw them, they knew that something they had all dreamed of might happen that day.  My hamburger buns had huge chunks of aged cheddar and sliced jalapenos incorporated into the dough.  As they heated on the grill, the aroma of the garlic and onion that I had added to the dough began to fill the air.  At the last possible moment I pulled out my iced fixins’ and assembled my burgers.  I knew I had it right when I gave them a light press and heard the buns crunch from the toasting they had received on the grill.  

For the first time in years Jacques looked nervous.

The way that we judged the burgers was simple and non-scientific: we gave everyone a quarter of a burger.  They rated them 1-8 (there were eight of us that year) and Chad then tallied the points… the lowest points total was the winner.  There were lots of good burgers out there that year.  Jerome made a killer chicken burger, Chad had a decent bacon burger, and Steve did the Cosby Show classic “Bacon Burger Dog”.  I saved my and Jacques’ burgers for last.  His was stellar.  The meat flavor was complex and the sauce had an element of mystery to it… but the bun was so mundane and his cheese was simply a slice of American.  As expected, he had overlooked the entire burger in order to focus on a few pet ingredients.  I bit into mine.  My goodness, was it ever delicious.  The crunch on the outside of the bun gave way to its soft interior.  The meat flavor stood up to the cheddar chunks and the coolness of the tomato was perfect against the spiciness of the jalapeno.  I was too biased to judge fairly so I voted Jerome’s chicken burger #1, mine #2 and Jacques’ #3.  After that I basically just filled in numbers.

Everyone gave their slips to Chad and he started tabulating as, for the first time in years, Jacques sat silently waiting for the results.  I shook his hand and told him his sauce was brilliant, which seemed to comfort him some… he had forgotten that this was a friendly competition and I was glad to indirectly remind him of that.

To keep the story short, I won.  So did the Ragin’ Cajuns.  We beat Texas A&M that night.  David beat Goliath on and off the field.

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Jalapeno Cheddar buns are sold in 4 Packs and are available on Saturdays for tailgating this fall .