food Making my own "Four Horseman Burger". (Lots of pics!)

OK, OK... this is not the real 4HB but my own recreation. I'm not flying across the country to beat my chest and eat some loony guy's $10 hamburger. But I'll try my hand at making one. I did my homework and think this should be a pretty close rendition of the 4HB.
:dance:

Here's some background info: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Man+vs+Food+%22Four+Horsemen%22

Upon recently finding a local shop that sold whole dried bhut jolokias, I knew I had to try this challenge. After watching man vs. Food and reading as much about the burger as I could I set out to recreate it. All in all, it seems pretty simple so my burger should be pretty close to the real thing. I got some regular burger rolls, 1lb of meat, and chili peppers. The Jolokias were dried, So that's one difference.

The "Habanero Sauce":
The only other difference is Chunky's "mystery habanero sauce" which they pour on top. Now... a habanero is only about ~300,000 scoville units and any sauces will be diluted even further. In fact, pictured below are (arguably) the two hottest all natural sauces which contain no extracts (and they are darn tasty too) clocking in around 200k-300k scoville units. Given the fashion in which this burger owns most chileheads, as reported on internet blogs, I believe Chunky's must use a much hotter sauce than either of these two. So I will made two burgers and used Quaker Steak & Lube's Triple Atomic (a habanero & caribbean 500k SHU sauce) and Blair's Mega Death (a smoky habanero 550k SHU sauce). Actually, some experienced bloggers who have eaten a genuine 4HB claim the IS Blair's Mega Death, if not tasting exactly like it.

As a prerequisite, if you plan on doing this... don't make these mistakes like I did:
1) Check to make sure your wife didn't drink the rest of the milk during breakfast. All I had was gingerale, water, or wine for relief
2) Open a window and do not stand over the sauted ultrahot chilies while cooking them. I imagine the steam is alot like mace.
I hacked/sneezed so hard for about 5 minutes that I actually got a nosebleed. The saute steam was intense, to say the least.

Pictures!
The main contenders. Sauce on the left is the QS&L Triple Atomic. The peppers and diced whole peppers are on the plate.
You can see perhaps the two hottest natural sauces on the right (Lethal Injestion & Pure Arson)... but they will sit this one out.



The nuclear steam that cleared the first floor of my house (not kidding). Toasting the buns in the background.
In all honesty, the peppers alone were delicious. They would be great with some onions and hash brown potatoes for breakfast.



Blanketing the fierce peppers in a layer of mozzarella.
George Forman helping me knock the fat out of my half-pound seasoned burgers.



I didn't have any lettuce tomato and onion so I just went with some mustard and mayo. Chiles usually go well with mustards.
As you can see, the first burger has it's helping of QS&L Triple Atomic. Time to go get some Blair's for the other burger. :hell:



The meal:
I decided to eat the Atomic topped burger first since it's my opinion that the Triple Atomic has less bite than the Blair's. I was right. While it was hot as hell and a bit uncomfortable, at no point was I considering it too hot to finish. I enjoyed it and required no rest or drink afterward probably took about 8 out of the 25 minutes alotted for the challenge. Surely this must be weaker than a true 4HB.
The burger with Blair's on it was a bit more sinister. 10mins into the challenge with about 1/3 of the burger left to eat I had to take a breather. I couldn't see straight and there were artifacts in my field of vision (ever been REALLY high... yeah). Sweat was pouring down my face and my nose and eyes were streaming like a preteen watching Titanic (I still can't believe she let him go after all that. Selfish b****). I took this time to snap the pic above. After regrouping I pounded down the last few bites and took my allowed "last drink" to wait out five minutes. I spent the next 5 minutes standing over the sink drooling and dripping (sweat/snot/tears). I made it... but I think that second burger got the better part of me.

All in all, the burgers tasted pretty good. I wouldn't recommend the sauce as far as adding great taste to the burgers - but sans sauce they would've made killer burgers. My guess is that Chunky's must use something like Blair's Mega Death or a tad hotter (Blairs 2AM or Ultra Death??). I recommend that people who like spicy food try this. The peppers aren't tough to find and it's an easy way to have some fun. I think if I'm ever in San Antonio I'll have to take on the real thing. :)
 
looks awesome JoeLokia! I've been addicted to MVF lately.. almost makes me want to visit the US just so i can taste all of the food he gets to eat ;) If I did that though, i'd have to reserve two plane seats on the way back just for me! :)

I'm not a huge fan of the blairs sauces.. you need to cook up one of your own!
 
welcome JoeLokia! Great job on that burger and your commentary with the pictures also.

Quick hint on the pictures- If you download them in Photobucket at a larger or original photo size, this forum will automatically re-size them smaller to fit into your post. You will have to re-download the original pictures to Photobucket at the larger size as Photobucket doesn't allow smaller photos to be re-sized larger (unless it's changed now, but that's the way it used to be on photobucket)

Thanks for posting.
 
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