How to Make Ernest Hemingway’s Favorite Hamburger

Whether you’re talking real or fictional, there are few characters throughout history as iconic as Ernest “Papa” Hemingway. During his time off and on in Cuba from 1939 to 1960, Hemingway would write two of his most celebrated novels For Whom the Bell Tolls and The Old Man and the Sea, along with an enormous collection of personal documents that ran the gamut from notes on automobile insurance and bills to recipes that his staff would use to prepare his meals exactly how he liked them. The last part is where this gets interesting because Papa himself wrote one of the greatest burger recipes of all time more than five decades ago. The recipe calls for beef, garlic, green onions, India relish, capers, Spice Islands Sage, Beau Monde Seasoning and Mei Yen Powder, an egg, dry red wine and cooking oil that are meticulously combined and prepared “so the edges are crispy but the center red and juicy.” Art of Manliness recreated the burger–with a few helpful substitutions because some of the items are discontinued–and based on the pictures and reactions, it’s one of the best burgers around despite its lack of condiments, cheese or other accouterments.