The plus and minus of making your own burgers at home.

[Jdeere562]

When I was still hunting, we mixed 50/50 deer with cheap hamburger bought from the local grocery store, ahead of time with notice.
We had a rather large hunting group, so we normally got 300-350 LBS per year.

Went down to pick up 300 LBS one Saturday afternoon. Had a high school kid loading it for us in carts. On the way to check out, I mentioned that we were supposed to have buns to go with the burger. Look on his face was priceless!

 

[supton]

Burgers at home are cheaper, fer sure. Hard to screw up, and pretty cheap. I don't think it costs that much more to get the preformed patties at the store, as opposed to getting a pound of ground beef and attempting to make a patty? I like to make bacon and eggs on Sunday mornings, easy to keep a few pieces of bacon for the week to make bacon cheeseburgers during grilling season (keep it quiet, what my doctor doesn't know won't hurt me).

That said, I prefer to get steak not at home. Wife does most of the cooking, and neither of us can cook a steak. She has an opinion of what "cooked" means, and I can't cook, ergo... when I rarely eat out, steak is one of the things I like to get.

 

[SammyChevelleTypeS3]

Burgers at home are cheaper, fer sure. Hard to screw up, and pretty cheap. I don't think it costs that much more to get the preformed patties at the store, as opposed to getting a pound of ground beef and attempting to make a patty? I like to make bacon and eggs on Sunday mornings, easy to keep a few pieces of bacon for the week to make bacon cheeseburgers during grilling season (keep it quiet, what my doctor doesn't know won't hurt me).

That said, I prefer to get steak not at home. Wife does most of the cooking, and neither of us can cook a steak. She has an opinion of what "cooked" means, and I can't cook, ergo... when I rarely eat out, steak is one of the things I like to get.

You the rare or well done kind o guy? I do the medium in an attempt to avoid the too raw or burned beyond recognition. Wife and I both can and used to cook a lot of different things but steak we could not master at all.

 

[SammyChevelleTypeS3]

If it's anything like the Bison burgers they sold at Ted Turners, it will be a bit gamey. Wasn't terrible, wasn't great.

Figured it must be kinda strong / like the deer we used to kill and butcher to make into bugers for the freezer, we always had to cut the mix with some ground beef and even some tiny bit of pork at times. If not we got complaints it was too strong / wild.
When I used to cook deer meat for hunting/fishing club parties in my big #10 black iron pot, we would cube the meat into 1" squares. Then we would marinate it in milk for about 12 to 24 hours. When you drained it all of the blood left in it seemed to be pulled out from the soaking in cold milk. After rinse off and then cooked no one could even tell and some would not believe it was really deer meat it was so tender and clean tasting. None of that gamey taste. That is when we would use some of the meat to cook it in a stew , jambalaya or pastalaya dishes.

 

[supton]

You the rare or well done kind o guy? I do the medium in an attempt to avoid the too raw or burned beyond recognition. Wife and I both can and used to cook a lot of different things but steak we could not master at all.

Usually order medium at restaurants, bit of pink. Wife tends to think “well done” is properly done, eh… That’s for steak, I do well done for burgers, and can cook those.

I order less red meat when eating out though, usually get fish now.

 

[atikovi]

Decided to bring out the grill and pick up a steakhouse burger at the supermarket. Sprinkled some Montreal on both sides. Cooked about 15 minutes with the cover on and flipped half way through.

Turned out ok but a bit dry. Fast food burger is better. This is why I only use the grill a couple times a year.

 

[4WD]

There is not much time between red juice, clear juice, and dry burgers - can’t slow n low like brisket …

 

[Kira]

I don't think it costs that much more to get the preformed patties at the store, as opposed to getting a pound of ground beef and attempting to make a patty?

All my life I heard that you want any meat product to be in and out of the processing house as quickly as possible.
This came straight from our farmer relatives.

Ergo, whole chicken is better than buying any "cutlet" product.
The same would've gone for factory formed patties....but I sure do see their usefulness for big gatherings etc.

I'm not criticizing.

 

[spasm3]

Decided to bring out the grill and pick up a steakhouse burger at the supermarket. Sprinkled some Montreal on both sides. Cooked about 15 minutes with the cover on and flipped half way through.

View attachment 221257

Turned out ok but a bit dry. Fast food burger is better. This is why I only use the grill a couple times a year.

15 minutes is too long. That will dry it out.

Sounds like the grill is not hot enough.

Hot and fast, only flip it once!

 

[Pablo]

OK - why is this thread in the humor section?

 

[rekit]

I like to make them over coals. Never could control the flare-ups with gas grill. When I have to make em inside, my simple way is to get a 1lb chub of 96 0r 93%, cut in half, drop the 2 pcs in the hot pan w/ some bacon grease and mash them into 2 patties as they heat up. Put some Montreal on em. Flip em once. Done. One pan, one spatula, one knife to wash. We just eat em like steaks with veggies or salad.

 

[Allaneddie]

That's what a gas grill is for.

Pluses: We buy good ground beef on sale, make our own patties and freeze them with a vacuum thing.
Nobody else touches our food.
Being retired a little extra time doesn't matter.

Minuses: 0

Exactly! Living where we do (warm climate) the Weber gas grill gets much more use (at least 5 days per week year around) than the stove and oven in the house.

 

[spasm3]

Will be trying this, this weekend.


View attachment 221045View attachment 221046View attachment 221047

Grilled the bison burgers. They don't shrink, the flavor is great. I used smoked onion seasoning, salt and pepper.

I think I will make the next burger patties much thinner.

 

[1000MPH]

Wow, I’m sorry so many of you don’t have an In-n-Out nearby.

 

[D1sc]

I use onion soup dry mix and ground sirloin usually a half cup and my burger press,then either the grill or the large g Forman Can’t imagine eating someone else’s burgers,sirloin is the best.

 

[atikovi]

View attachment 221661

And I thought mine was overcooked.

 

[D1sc]

And I thought mine was overcooked.

Maybe but grilled sometimes does flame up.At least I know whose hands were on them and where the beef came from.My grinder.

 

[mr_boring]

positives:

• price - I can't even imagine how many times my grinder has paid for itself. Beef is up this year, but over the life of my grinder I'm willing to bet my price/lb of ground beef is under $4/lb - if I see it on clearance in a store and it's under 3.99/lb - I buy it and grind it. Up until about 2 months ago, I regularly got chuck roasts on sale for 3.99/lb and round roasts for 2.99/lb - buy a fattier chuck and a round and it comes out to just a real good percentage of fat. I bought a few rounds this weekend for 3.99/lb - just to top off the freezer.
• taste - I grind up beef. Good beef, 100% beef with no pink slime, no water added.
• If I want a burger made from ribeye, then I grind up a ribeye. 2 weeks ago I got quite a bit of ribeye for 6.99/lb. That 'prime rib burger' you buy at Sam's or the local grocer, it ain't no more ribeye than my left big toe is.

negatives:

• the price of whole muscle cuts is up right now. Up until this year, a whole muscle cut was cheaper/lb than pre-ground consistently.

Yes, price is a negative and a positive. 2 McDoubles can be had for about 3.29. Those aren't very tasty, but they are good enough for calories when I need calories and I am not able to cook right then. I won't buy a fast food burger OR a burger from a sit down unless someone else is paying or someone specifically asked if we could go to Sonic/Wendy's/etc..... - because I have quite a bit of ground beef in the freezer, and it's hard for me to eat cheap pre-ground beef. I refuse to eat it from a store. It stinks to high heaven and tastes like hog slop.