Internet Shaquille has been making cooking videos for dang near half a decade. He makes cooking feel really accessible and, frankly, possible. He’s got a very pragmatic way of tackling all sorts of kitchen issues, from washing dishes to making breakfast.
It’s always fun to go back to a creator’s earlier content to see how they’ve evolved and changed over the years. There’s usually a big jump in production quality as they acquire new gear, but also as they improve at editing, filming, lighting, sound, and all of the other skills that YouTubers tend to pick up as they go.
Internet Shaquille’s YouTube channel has grown to over 500,000 subscribers, but back in 2017 he only had a few hundred people. That’s when he uploaded the video for the Fat Elvis burger, a two-part series that has gone on to stack hundreds of thousands of views. His channel only had a few hundred subscribers when this duo of videos was first released, so some of the newer fans may have missed them altogether.
Some may say that The Beatles did their best work after Bob Dylan introduced them to LSD. I’m not sure who first introduced Internet Shaquille to alcohol, but there’s something to be said about filming back-to-back burger videos while buzzed and starving.
This recipe is going to feel like it’s way over the top, but that’s part of the fun. He’s filming this on his bedroom dresser, he’s running on fumes, he’s desperately trying to get through the video quickly, and you can tell how incredible those first few bites are.
“I swear, if it wasn’t for the bacon, you could eat this thing without teeth.”
Fat Elvis Burger Recipe – Part 1
Here’s the first part of the recipe, where Shaq makes the beef patty for this burger. This isn’t a regular beef patty, it’s going to take some social interaction – but Internet Shaquille assures us it’s worth it.
I don’t think Internet Shaquille invented the concept of the Fat Elvis burger (correct me if I’m wrong, please) but I think it’s safe to say that he popularized it because any other video or variation I’ve come across after a quick Google search was posted *after* the above video. None the less, I think it’s safe to say he put his own spin on it, at the very least.
The first key ingredient is 80/20 ground beef that’s been ground in a very specific way, then assembled into a “fiber optic cable of cow”. It has to do with the grain of the meat, which is something that you can also custom-request from your butcher.
You turn the beef into, essentially, a log, where all the “noodles” or strands of ground beef are painting in the same direction. Then, it goes into the sous vide, before you take it out and slice patties off the burger-log to fry and finish cooking for a nice crust on the outside. Having the grain facing the same way makes the beef incredibly tender, the bites will just fall off in your mouth.
“This is an exercise in textural experimentation first and foremost, so I Want to make sure I get full contact with a cast iron surface so I get that deep mahogany crust.”
– Internet Shaquille, who sure has a way with words.
Fat Elvis Burger Recipe – Part 2
In the second part, he works on the bun and the burger toppings. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I got to this second video, but it definitely wasn’t this.
In hindsight, I probably could have ventured a semi-decent guess based on the name of the burger, since I grew up eating “Elvis sandwiches” (toast with peanut butter and bananas on it).
Part one was already a big departure from how most of us typically make burgers at home. Most people aren’t going to bother forming their patties into a log and then cooking them sous vide before frying them.
Most “homemade” hamburgers, frankly, probably consist of store-bought frozen patties tossed on a bun with some ketchup and mustard – and you’re probably better off grabbing a Big Mac (a pinnacle of culinary success, but that’s for another day). Anything up from there, like forming your own patties, or getting a little creative with the toppings, is a big W.
And if you really want to go H.A.M in the paint, you can get cute and start mixing your beef with pork, or going for special cuts of beef like chuck (which is always nice for burgs), or – as demonstrated in part one – you can get wild with it and get beef that’s been ground to all face the same direction, then turn that into a log, then slice off cuts.
Is It Worth the Effort?
Is it really worth the effort to go with tryhard, over the top recipes like the Internet Shaquille Fat Elvis burger?
Sometimes!
A lot of the work here is the prep, you could leave the log of beef in your fridge overnight and fry it up the next day while you have company over. You could also get a lot of the toppings ready ahead of time, too. That makes it a lot more manageable.
Would you enjoy making a recipe for some guests, or even just for yourself, that you’re still thinking about 5 years later? That they tell their friends about when they’re out for burgers at a restaurant, lauding how much better yours was? Do you find it rewarding to put a lot of effort into making something better, even if you’re only enjoying it for a few fleeting minutes?
If the answer is yes, then the effort is worth it.
Still hungry? Check out Rihanna’s Mac ‘n Cheese.
