(gentle music) - Today on Cook's Country, Bridget makes Julia a Midwestern
Classic, Tater Tot Hotdish. I tell the backstory of Hotdish, Adam explores the wacky
world of corn strippers, and Ashley makes Wisconsin butter burgers. That's all right here on Cook's Country. (upbeat music) - Tater Tot Hotdish is a classic casserole loved throughout Minnesota, and other Midwestern and mountain states. It's served at large family
gatherings and church suppers, and Bridget, I know you've talked to me about this dish before. You love Tater Tot Hotdish. - I love this casserole with all my heart. I love casseroles in general. This one does feature a
very special ingredient, as you mentioned, tater tots. What's not to love, they're
crispy, they're seasoned. Gotta love them. And I think this is kind of like a shepherd's pie with tater tots. - Oh, that's a good way
to put it, there we go. - Now I'm in. - We are gonna breathe some
life into this casserole. Now, we're not reaching
for a can of cream of soup. - Oh, do a lot of recipes call for that? - Absolutely, and there's no shame there because it's full of flavor, but we're going to create our own cream of mushroom soup base. All right, so I have a pound
of white button mushrooms. I've already prepared most of them, but I have three left to do here, and we're just gonna cut
these into 1/4 inch slices. - So, already that's way more mushrooms than you'd find in several
cans of mushroom soup. - Who knows how many
mushrooms are in there? But again, no shame, and you know, think about
the cream of mushroom soups, they were often used as gravies and sauce bases anyway, so makes sense. All right, so this is gonna go directly into my Dutch oven here. Again, it was a pound of mushrooms, and I'll go ahead and
pull up the rest of these. I'm going to load this up
with tons of savory flavors, so another fresh ingredient, I have one onion that I've chopped. - Now I wanna point out,
there was no fat in that pan, that was an empty pan. - Yeah, the fat's gonna
come here in a minute. Don't you worry. A tablespoon of fresh minced thyme, 4 cloves of garlic that I've minced. I've got 1 1/2 teaspoons of table salt, and 1 1/2 teaspoons of black pepper. All right, you mentioned no fat. We've got the fat right over there. - Aha.
- Yes. So, this is 1 1/2 pounds
of 85% lean ground beef. I'm going to add this right in here. Now, we're not looking
for, isn't that gorgeous? - That's unusual. I've never seen a pot just loaded up, when the pot is absolutely, straight from the pantry cold. - That's exactly right. The beef is going to start
to render some of its fat, and cook the other vegetables, but we're not looking for
any kind of browning here. What we're looking for, and I am gonna turn this to medium high, and I'm gonna go in there and break up the meat a
little bit here with my spoon, while this is is happening, but we're gonna cook this until the water that's given off by the beef and the mushrooms is
pretty much evaporated. Now, that's gonna take about 25 minutes. - Well, it looks like you're breaking all the rules right now, so I'm very interested. - Oh yeah, I'm a rule breaker. But again, 25 minutes. (upbeat music) - Hotdish is a humble one-dish meal you'll find at church suppers and family get-togethers
throughout the upper Midwest. It's a combination of protein, starch, canned vegetables and
cream of mushroom soup, topped with tater tots or chips. It may not look or sound like much, but to those who grew up eating it, Hotdish is not a food, but a memory. The Great Depression made
Hotdish a staple in the Midwest. It was a simple and tasty way to stretch ingredients
and feed a big family. The word Hotdish first
appeared in a cookbook published by the Grace
Lutheran Ladies Aid in 1930. Hotdish has become such an iconic meal that Minnesota politicians
hold an annual competition to see who can make the best version. In 2019, the state's
rich immigrant culture was represented in the entries. First place went to a
Hmong inspired Hotdish, and second place honors went
to a Somali-influenced Hotdish. (upbeat music) - [Julia] Wow, that went from looking very weird to absolutely delicious. - 25 minutes, you can see what happens. All of that liquid is driven off. You can see there's pretty
much nothing in the bottom. So, we're gonna add
the thickener for this, 3 tablespoons of all-purpose flour. Just sprinkle it over the mixture here, and I'll stir this in, and we're gonna cook this
flour just for a minute, partially so that it can be absorbed by the liquid that's still
in there, and the fat, but also so that it loses
any of that raw flavor. - So, essentially the flour's just mixing with the fat and making a roux. - Exactly, so now we
need to deglaze the pot, turn this all into a creamy, lovely sauce. and to do that, we're using 1 1/2 cups of chicken broth here for
some savory flavor, of course, and an equal amount of whole milk, so 1 1/2 cups of whole milk. That's the "cream of". So, I just wanna use my wooden spoon to kind of gather up all that fond that was starting to develop
in the bottom of the pot, and we wanna bring this up to a simmer. We're gonna let it cook
for about three minutes. Mixture's gonna thicken
just ever so slightly. - So it's gonna look
less soupy, more saucy. - That's exactly right, you saucy minx. - [Julia] That's looking better, now that's looking like gravy. - Yeah, it does. It looks like a mushroom
or a beef gravy, oh. And it's just starting
to thicken a little bit. We're not looking for this to be super thickened from the flour, but I'm gonna turn off the heat here, and I'm going to add 1 1/2
cups of grated Parmesan cheese, and it's also going to help to tighten up this mixture just a bit. - [Julia] So, that's what
makes the cheesy part of this casserole, I like it. - [Bridget] Look at that, all right, and that is all that we want
to do with the stove top. - That's nice and easy. - Very easy. Now, I am gonna need your help. - Sure.
- If you could be the guide. - You got it. - I need to pour this into
a 9x13 inch baking dish. - [Julia] Okay. - [Bridget] If you could guide
it right into the pot there. - [Julia] Got it. - So, just like shepherd's pie, it's not a looker as you're making it, so. - [Julia] It smells delicious though. - Yes, it does, but hey, it's not a Tater Tot Hotdish. I'm gonna fix that right now. I've gotta head to the freezer. - Okay. - You like this? - What else you got in there? - I did not bring popsicles. Maybe next time, but look, it's color, and these are called vegetables. - Vegetables. - That's right, got it. All right, so I've got a
cup of frozen peas here, and we wanna leave them frozen, and I'm just gonna sprinkle these on top, and like you said that just looked like cream of mushroom soup now, and we're adding a
little bit of freshness, wink wink, but color. - [Julia] Well again, I like
the convenience factor here. - Yeah, it's very easy to put together. Now, you don't wanna use other vegetables that have a higher water content because they will make the base of this just a little too soupy, and this is all about
concentrating the flavors. All right, and a cup of frozen corn. Same thing, leave it
frozen to the last minute. Look how pretty that is. All right, and the very best from both Oregon and Idaho, tater tots. All right. - The crowning glory of this casserole. - That's exactly right. So, we are going to
just place these on top, but you don't want to push
them down into the mixture, and I'm gonna get us going here. So, we just wanna arrange
them right on top, and again, just like the
peas and the carrots, these are still frozen. All right, so if you
wouldn't mind helping me, we're going with nine
across and nine down. - All right. It's like doing a puzzle with someone. Do you like to puzzle with people? - [Bridget] A hundred percent yes. - Do you?
- Yeah. - [Julia] Oh, I like this. - You win, you got it, Jenga. That looks tot-tastic. This is going to go into the oven, and a very hot one at that. This is going in 450 degrees, so big blast of heat, because, of course we want all
the mixture to bubble, but we want some serious browning on the top of the tater tots. Nobody wants blonde, soggy tater tots. - No, you want 'em good and crisp. - So again, 450, and we're gonna put this on the upper middle rack, and that way some of that heat is gonna bounce off
the ceiling of the oven and get right on top of the tater tots. It's gonna bake for about
35 minutes, maybe up to 38. (upbeat music) Do you mind getting the door for me? - [Julia] Sure thing. - Can we take a moment here? - [Julia] That looks really good. - I mean, look at it
bubbling in there, ooh. Yeah, and it's all nice and crispy brown. It was just about 35 minutes. This is done. I'm guarding these hot handles here because this has to cool off, obviously, before we eat it. Because I like you, I'm not going to tuck in there right away. - Thank you. - [Bridget] That's gonna take
probably about 15 minutes. - [Julia] That's not bad. (upbeat music) - [Bridget] 15 minutes. - [Julia] I love it. - [Bridget] I think you
deserve, some Tater Tot Hotdish. - I can't wait to try it. You've talked about this
several times with such love. - [Bridget] And this, I'm giving you the coveted corner piece. - [Julia] Ooh. - [Bridget] Gets all the
crispiest bits of the tater tots. - [Julia] You really do like me. - [Bridget] I really do like you. Oh, bring in a couple more of these here. - [Julia] I can't wait to try this. All right, I'm gonna dig down in there. I wanna get the filling. - [Bridget] Make sure you get some of that meaty mushroom goodness. - Mm, that's delicious. - Looks like beef and mushroom gravy. - Yes.
- Yes. - It has a very stewy flavor. - It does. Now, you gotta get it with a tot. - [Julia] Oh, yeah. - [Bridget] Oh, you're going for it girl. - [Julia] The whole thing. I got half a tot, mmh. - I love tater tots. - It's such a nice crispy topping but it tastes like potatoes obviously. Bridget, this is delicious. - You sold? You a Hotdish girl? - I'm a fan of this. Thank you for making this for me. - It was my complete tot pleasure. - So if you wanna make
this classic casserole, switch out the canned
soup for fresh mushrooms, onion, and thyme. Add parmesan for a deep, savory flavor and cook the casserole
on the upper-middle rack to brown and crisp the tots. From Cook's Country,
Minnesota's favorite casserole, Tater Tot Hotdish. (energetic music) - Corn strippers have just one job, to remove corn kernels
efficiently from the cub, but the question is,
Adam, do they really work? - Well, Julia, that is
an interesting question. You know, cutting the kernels off of a corn cob can be messy 'cause they fly everywhere. It's also a bit of a guessing game. You never know quite how deep to go in with the knife. Sometimes you get some of that fibrous stuff at the bottom or just the tips of the kernels. So, these corn strippers
are meant to make it easier and hopefully a little bit neater. We tested seven models. The price range was $7.50 to $23, and guess what we did with them? (both laughing) We took the kernels off of corn cobs, both raw and cooked. Let's start with this wooden one here. - [Julia] That looks familiar. I grew up with these around. - You know, get rid of it. This joins the motley crew of items tested at Cook's Country over the years that earned zero stars. - There's not many. - In any category. Yeah, testers said that this was inefficient, messy, and dangerous. It's outta here. Get rid of it. The second type is this group of four. You can see this is shaped a bit like a y-shaped vegetable peeler, and it's got a curved blade
that you're supposed to run down the cob to cut off the kernels. - I've never used one of these. I'm kind of excited. Oh. Oh, okay. Oh, you know what? Some are a little deep,
some are a little shallow. - [Adam] Testers found
exactly the same thing. - [Julia] Oh, okay. - The blade was sharp,
it was fairly efficient. Obviously it does nothing
about the mess factor, and it also doesn't make
it any more foolproof 'cause you just don't know how deep to go. - Right. - Another type was this one. You can see this has a circular blade inside of a circular plastic housing, and the idea is that you
hold the corn in one hand, hold this in the other hand, rotate them in opposite directions, work the stripper down the cob. - That looks like a wrist workout. - And that is exactly
what the testers felt, after three or four cobs
of corn, their wrists hurt. This one did fine on cobs
that were consistently sized but if they were too
narrow, it tended to slide over the ends of the
kernels, left too much of the kernel attached to the cob. That leaves this guy here, and you have one of those right there. Why don't you give that a try? - [Julia] All right. - [Adam] There you go, that's the. - [Julia] That's the cutting edge. - That's the blade. - All right. Oh, that's pretty easy. It's pretty intuitive, too. - Not hard to use. - No. - So, that's it. The stripped cob is in that metal part. You put in the yellow
plunger to push it out, and look at how clean it is. That did a really nice
job removing the kernels. - Well, I do appreciate how tidy this is. I mean, there's not
corn all over the place and it was pretty easy, if you had a lot of corn to do, I could see myself liking that. - This is the winner, Julia. This is the RSVP International
Deluxe Corn Stripper. It's $23. You know, it does a good job. It contains the mess. All of the kernels are
inside this cylinder. It gets most of the
kernels off of the cob, nice and clean. You can, once you get used to it, you can really whip through
a lot of corn in this. The disadvantage is that there are a lot of parts to clean, but as
I said, if you're going through a lot of corn,
this can save you time. - All right, thanks Adam. - You're welcome.
- There you have it. If you're in the market
for a corn stripper that actually works, check out the RSVP International
Deluxe Corn Stripper at $23. (upbeat music) - Today I'm making Buckeye candies. Start with creamy peanut butter, but don't use the natural kind, softened unsalted butter and salt, and mix it on medium
speed in your stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Mix until it's nearly combined with some visible pieces
of butter remaining. Now, I'm going to reduce the speed to low and slowly add confectioner sugar. Mix it until it's just combined and scrape down the bowl if you need to. I'm going to refrigerate this
mixture, so it's easy to roll. Use a tablespoon measure
to scoop out 32 portions. I'm going to use my hands to
roll the portions into balls, and I'll put them on a
parchment lined plate. Insert a toothpick about 3/4
of the way into each ball. Now, I'm going to put
these into the freezer for an hour to firm up. Stir some chopped chocolate
into already melted chocolate until it's melted and smooth. Tempering the chocolate like this will keep the candies shiny. Working with one plate
of candies at a time, use the toothpick to dip
the balls into the chocolate until they're covered by 2/3. I'll pop these in the fridge to set while I dip the other batch. Remove the toothpicks and
enjoy your Buckeye candies. (upbeat music) - Well, you really know that you're in the middle of dairy country when you see a butter
burger's on the menu, and the folks at Solly's
Grill have been serving up these beautiful burgers since 1936. Lucky for us, Ashley's here to show us how to make them at home. - Now, I was lucky enough
to go to Solly's Grill when a couple friends of ours got married, and it was amazing. So, we brought the recipe here, and I'm gonna show you
what we came up with. - Lovely. - So, I did get a little bit of shade when I started to develop this recipe, and people would walk by, and say, "Are you really
putting butter on a burger?" Because I admit it is a different thing, but once you try this, you're
not gonna wanna go back. - I'm firmly in pro-butter camp, so you don't get no pushback from me. - Okay.
- Absolutely. - I have a pound of 90% lean ground beef. I'm gonna form these into
4 1/2 inch wide patties and they'll be about 1/2 inch thick. Now, they have this flat top at Solly's, it's like the flat top of my dreams, and it's just so well seasoned because it's been there
for years and years. So naturally, in order
to get as much seasoning as they get on theirs from
their seasoned flat top, I'm gonna mimic that by adding 3/4 of a teaspoon of salt and 3/4 of a teaspoon of pepper. First I'm gonna combine them, and season both sides of the patties. - All right. So seasoning goes on the outside? - Yes.
- Gotcha. - All right, I'm gonna
finish seasoning the patties, and then transfer them to the refrigerator for about 30 minutes. - Okay. (upbeat music) - Now, we're gonna move on to the onions. I'm gonna start by melting 1
tablespoon of salted butter, and salted is important because again, we want as much of that
seasoning as possible. While I'm doing that, I'm
going to chop 1 onion. - [Bridget] Okay. - Now, the onion is just as important here as the butter is to the burger. We're not chopping this fine. - [Bridget] Okay. - And using a bench
scraper, which is just one of the best, most helpful
tools in the kitchen, gonna transfer the
onions to the sauce pan, and then again, we are stewing the onions, so in order to get the proper texture like they do get at Solly's, we had to add a little bit of water, so I'm gonna add 1 tablespoon of water, with a 1/4 teaspoon of salt. I'm gonna cook these over
medium heat for about five minutes until the
onions are translucent, and I'm going to cover the pan with a lid. Okay, five minutes is up,
let's take a look-see. - [Bridget] Oh, I'm starting
to smell the onions. - Yep, but as you can
see, they are translucent, there isn't a ton of browning on them. So now, what I'm gonna do is
continue to cook the onions over medium heat until
just beginning to brown for about three minutes. - Okay, so we've got some burger buns and they are waiting for
their moment to shine, but I need to toast them first, so I have a oven rack that
I adjusted to six inches from the broiler element, 'cause we're gonna be broiling these until lightly toasted. Okay, now that is what I am talking about. So, I'm gonna turn the heat off and put the lid back on, just to cover, to keep 'em warm, and now let's go get the buns. - Okay. - Oh yeah. So before I cook the beef patties, I wanna get this step done ahead of time because it just makes
everything go quicker, once the beef is cooked, and you're gonna put a couple tablespoons on each bun. - 2 tablespoons on each bun?
- Mmh-hm. - I would like to point out that you're not buttering these buns, you're frosting them with butter. - (laughing) Trust me,
I was a skeptic, too. - [Bridget] I'm speechless. - [Ashley] Let's move on. - [Bridget] All right. - Now got our 12 inch skillet here, I'm gonna heat this over high heat with half a teaspoon of vegetable oil. Butter's got no place here. - Right. - It would have a tendency to burn - To scorch, yes, absolutely. - All right, we're just smoking, I'm gonna add the patties and cook these without moving them for three minutes on the first side. Now, that is the sound you wanna hear. - [Bridget] That's a good sound. - And the reason we're
not going to move them is because at this stage, they're gonna get really
nice and crisp and brown, and if we were to move them around, it's just gonna make
all that stuff fall off. - Right, okay. - So, three minutes and
I'm gonna wash my hands. - Sounds good. - [Ashley] All right, I'm
gonna give these a flip. - It sounds like we're
at Solly's right now. - [Ashley] I know. - [Bridget] Oh, nice char! - [Ashley] But not that dark char. - No.
- It's the good char. Okay, I'm gonna cook
these for one more minute. - [Bridget] Sounds good. - Okay, let's add the cheese. One of my favorites, American cheese. - Exactly. - Soft spot in my heart for it. All right, so I'm gonna put these on here and just let the cheese
melt for 30 seconds or so. - [Bridget] Okay. - And then once they come off, Bun City. - Yes, Bun City. - [Ashley] Oh my goodness. - Wow.
- Yep. Okay, onion time, oh yeah. - [Bridget] Yes, please. Oh, yes. - [Ashley] Okay, let's
just watch what happens in the next few seconds. - [Bridget] I need a
moment, I'm tearing up. I'm going in for this beautiful one. Can I get an amen right here? That is beautiful. - Okay, how am I gonna do this? - Yes, is there, is there a methodology? Is it the crane reach? - Well just, yeah, I
think we just crane it. (both laughing) - All right, folks, lights out. Let's all just head out. That's as good as it gets. - Pack it up. - Pack it up. - We are going home. - But the burgers are still juicy. The onions though, super soft, the butter is both a
textural/flavor edition. It's kind of a sauce, it
blends in with those onions. - How's post butter Burger Bridget doing - P B B B, I'm gonna be fine. As long as these keep
coming in a steady stream. Absolutely, fantastic. - Thank you. - Thank you, Ashley. We all thank you. To make these great burgers at home, stew onions until they're
soft and lightly browned, slather toasted buns with tons of butter, and cook thin beef patties hard and fast to create a great crust. So, from Cook's Country via Wisconsin, the almighty Wisconsin Butter Burgers, and you can get this
recipe and all the recipes from this season along
with product reviews and select episodes,
they're all on our website. That's cookscountry.com/tv. Thanks for watching Cook's Country from America's Test Kitchen. So, what'd you think? - Leave a comment and let us know which recipes
you're excited to make, or just say hi. - Now, you can find links to today's recipes and reviews
in the video description. - And don't forget to
subscribe to our channel. - See you later. - Alligator.
