Frank Sinatra's 3-Step Burger Recipe Included Dean Martin, Bourbon, And The F-Word

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At the height of their Rat Pack days, Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin were the best of friends and they often showed it through merciless insults and teasing. One example of this back-and-forth dynamic happened when Martin had a recipe published in "The Celebrity Cookbook" in 1966, titled "Martin Burgers." Not to be outdone, Frankie supposedly penned a burger recipe of his own in response which took direct shots at Martin's version.

While it isn't exactly a unique recipe that will satisfy restless grillers, Martin's burger instructions were simple and clear. All it called for was a pound of ground beef and chilled bourbon. The instructions read: "Pre-heat a frying pan and sprinkle bottom lightly with table salt. Mix meat, handling lightly, just enough to form into four patties. Grill over medium-high heat about 4 minutes on each side. Pour chilled bourbon in chilled shot glass and serve meat and bourbon on a TV tray." We can guess the meat was placed on buns, but hamburger steaks were popular at the time as well so this recipe may actually be for those.

Sinatra was often a man of simple tastes who had no patience for nouvelle cuisine and was accustomed to other people cooking for him. In the case of burgers, he seemed reluctant to do it himself as well, evidenced by his response to Martin's recipe. As per an image regularly passed around the Internet, his burger recipe had three straightforward instructions: "1. Call for Deano. 2. Tell him to make you a f***in' burger. 3. Drink his bourbon." You can probably figure out what the censored word in the original recipe said.

Although Frank Sinatra was a big fan of eating at popular restaurants and was picky with his home cooking, that doesn't mean he himself was averse to getting in front of a stove. He had Campbell's soup stocked in his dressing room with a crock pot so he could do a little cooking for his visitors after shows. His daughter recalls that meals at his place were perpetually a treat, with him always trying to be involved in the kitchen.

We don't have any specific versions of how Ol' Blue Eyes would make a burger, but other recipes of his have survived. For example, you can make Sinatra the chairman of your kitchen with his classic spaghetti and meatballs recipe which he learned from his mother. He regularly saved recipes he enjoyed and passed them along, such as an artichoke recipe from his beloved Patsy's Restaurant. You can find many more of his recipes (and those of his closest friends) in his cookbook, "The Sinatra Celebrity Cookbook," published in 1996. One thing you won't find in it, though, is his comical burger recipe.

It's worth acknowledging that there's some reasonable debate as to whether Sinatra's burger recipe is real or just photoshopped for Internet laughs. The signature is suspicious, Dino's nickname was spelled "Deano," and we have no actual proof the satiric recipe is authentic. Martin's recipe is real. It was published in "The Dead Celebrity Cookbook." But there is some doubt about Sinatra's. However, given the kind of relationship that Martin and Sinatra had throughout their lives, it's certainly believable this is something he'd do.