Memphis BBQ Burger

I'm no longer in the land of Carl's Jr. And there isn't even a Hardees within 100 miles of me.

I haven't lost much sleep over those facts.

But when I read about their newest promotion, the Memphis BBQ Burger, I thought: Damn, it would be fun to try that and write about it. Even though I was almost certain it would not be good, it would be fun to, perhaps, share a Memphis memory or two (I've had some of the best times of my life in that city) and point out that the sauce the burger contains - Sweet Baby Ray's - is from Chicago and is closer to Kansas City-style sauce than Memphis.

But, whatever. I can walk 50 feet for a great bagel and three blocks for a great slice of pizza. I am doing all right without Carl's Jr.

Then something occurred to me: I could just make my own version of the burger.

I got a pork tenderloin from the market across the street. I didn't see the need to buy a whole shoulder just to add pulled pork to a burger. Now, tenderloins like this don't have as much fat as a shoulder, but I still wanted to cook it in the slow-cooker. So I added some extra onions and plenty of water to make sure it didn't dry out.

I cooked it for seven hours. It didn't fall apart quite as gloriously as a shoulder - sometimes I drop a slow-cooked shoulder onto the cutting board and it disintegrates - but with very little prodding it broke apart.

I took a handful of the pork and mixed it in a bowl with barbecue sauce.

I picked up a Kaizer roll from the bakery, as I often do when I am making a special burger.

I piled the sauce-soaked pork onto the bottom half of the roll.

Of course I wanted one of my beloved brisket-and-short-rib burger patties, which I cooked on the Foreman Grill.

The Carl's Jr. burger contains yellow American cheese, which I don't like. So I added white American cheese. (Nobody cares, right? It's still processed and it's still barely cheese.)

To complete the burger, I added some crispy onions and a drizzling of barbecue sauce.

It's certainly not the best burger I have ever made - I prefer mustards and other, spicy/tangy sauces to the sweetness of ketchup or barbecue sauce - but it was damn good.

Maybe even better than the Carl's Jr. burger. But I haven't tasted one, so I can't be sure.