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7 A THE LAND, JUNE 29, 2012
Sound off! The Land wants to hear from you.
Dick Hagen
Gary Vinsand checks how his 240-pound pork burger is doing on the grill at the 2012 World Pork Expo in Des Moines.
cially when it comes to pork production and promotion. World Pork Expo 2012 was his second effort. Sponsoring this rather gargantuan task was Hog Slats, a Humboldt builder of concrete hog equipment, plus the National Pork Producers Council which decided having such a burger cooked and served at Expo was a natural. A burger that big needs a big griddle and a big sheet of aluminum foil. The 48-inch griddle weighed about 40 pounds. The 260 pounds of pork trimming were processed and provided by Hy-Vee food stores, which delivered the super burger already intact in the griddle directly to Vinsand’s gas-fired grill. That 300-pound package (burger and griddle) took four guys to “manhandle” onto his grill. Hy-Vee purchases much of their pork products through Hormel Meats in Austin, Minn. Hy-Vee even added some of Vinsand’s special seasoning as the pork trimmings were being processed into the giant patty. “Once you have the right equipment it’s really pretty easy to do,” Vinsand said. About 200 people at a Des Moinesarea homeless shelter also got on the receiving end of this special pork barbeque event. Vinsand can be reached at (515) 3322046 or garyv@goldfieldaccess.net. ❖
“Where Farm and Family Meet”
By DICK HAGEN The Land Staff Writer DES MOINES — Even though “innovation” seemed much of the focus at the 2012 World Pork Expo, so too was enjoying the many delicious pork products offered at every food vendor. Perhaps the biggest excitement came from munching on the World’s Largest Pork Burger, prepared by Gary Vinsand, proprietor of Vinny’s BBQ Restaurant of Dakota City, Iowa. At 8 a.m. June 7, just outside the Varied Industries Building at the Iowa State Fairgrounds, Vinsand fired up his 8- by 6-foot wide grill, which for the next eight hours was baking a 260pound pork burger. That’s right, 260 pounds of pork trimmings fabricated into a burger measuring nearly 4 feet in diameter and about 10-inches thick at its center. By 5 p.m. this giant burger had “shrunk” to about 240 pounds because of the lard rendered (dripped out) during the 325 F cooking process. Before serving, a 40-pound bun was wrapped around the burger. When the eating began, about 700 folks had the privilege of a pork sandwich from the world’s largest pork burger. Vinsand is no rookie when it comes to grilling big. He did his first super burger two years ago as a promo for the Humboldt, Iowa, Fourth of July celebration. Humboldt isn’t bashful, espe-
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World’s largest pork burger grilled at Pork Expo