Burgers

[cumberland-sausage]

My personal recipe for burgers is just minced steak, some finely chopped raw onion, salt and pepper.

I either shape by hand or use an egg ring. Either way they never fall apart for me.

[Oddley]

I agree with you cumberland-sausage. I use spices in very small quantities to enhance the flavour of the beef.

You know what it's like some beef you buy is a bit tasteless. So you need to bring out the flavour. I don't think anyone would like it if you overpowered a burger with spices.

[Spuddy]

Given to me by an Aussie; the best burger recipe I've tried is this, it's unbelievable but it works.

1lb minced beef @25-30%fat (cheap supermarket beef mince)
3-4 large raw tiger prawns
1tsp cornflour
1 eggwhite
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper

Whizz up the prawns with the cornflour, egg white, salt and pepper in a blender or food processor to a paste. Mix in the beef thouroughly and form into burgers.

I know it sounds odd but it's one of them Aussie type "surf'n'turf" things. You end up never wanting a "normal" burger again. Good as a sausage filling too.
Try it and you'll see what I mean.

[Deer Man]

I often cheat and do this!

Venison minced 7lb
belly pork minced 3lb
1 packet of stuffing (flavour is up to you, sage & onion, rosemary etc)
Mix and press, easy and good!

[Spuddy]

All very well if you've got plenty of cheap venison knocking around.
It's deer round here though

Sorry, couldn't help that one

[cumberland-sausage]

Spuddy, with reference to your aussy sausage recipe. Aussies are big into their fusion food aren't they, ie mixing western food with asian etc. Thats probably where the prawns come into it. In Thailand, Malaysia etc they use a lot of fish sauce in meat dishes as a seasoning. So I was thinking, the above recipe could be adapted and just use fish sauce instead of prawns (as prawns are expensive in comparison)

If it bbq weather at the weekend I'll try both ways and let you know how they come out

[cumberland-sausage]

burger recipe i mean

[Spuddy]

Fish sauce is a great idea, I use it quite a lot at but have never thought of putting it in the burgers (I think it'll work well).

BTW I've just edited the recipe to point out that the prawns should be large ones. If you are using smaller ones then add a few more.

Let us know how they compare.

[Paul Kribs]

Well my Lakeland burger press duly arrived and I set to work with my new electric mincer and when I got home from work spent the afternoon seeing what I could come up with in the way of 3 hefty joints of topside and a small tray of pork belly.
I didn't follow any particular recipes but used some Oddleys suggestions.
Also, I failed to make any notes and just added ingredients as I went and then dropped a small bit in the pan to see what it was like.

I made 3 types of burger, 2 based on mainly beef with pork belly, finely chopped onions (raw), salt, black pepper, dried thyme, dried sage and some ground mace. The third was a bit special.

One was left as is.
One was given the addition of worcester sauce.
The last batch contained:- Finely chopped raw onions, finely chopped sun dried tomatoes, dried basil, salt, black pepper, finely chopped capers, tomato puree, tomato ketchup and finely chopped garlic.
These tasted beautiful and we had a couple for our dinner. Despite my wife's reservations at what I was putting in the mix ("I think you're overdoing that"), she confirmed that this was the best burger she had ever tasted. Maybe I should jot down method, ingredients etc as I go...

The Lakeland burger press worked pretty well. The only downside is that quite a bit of mix works its way down past the plunger and after doing about 85 big juicy burgers, found the whole body was full of mix. This then made a few more burgers, just a case of undoing the plunger and retrieving the mix. Waste not want not. It is also now believable that 500 wax disks will get used in no time at all, you use 2 per burger so that was the best part of 180 gone in 1 batch. That's 1 drawer of the new freezer full up, now what to do for the other 3

Thanks for the advice, regards Paul Kribs.

[markh]

Oddley, I know this is an oldish thread, but what type of smoked paprika do you use, Sweet or Hot?

I'm doing some burgers tonight using the hot, but I notice that the spice mix is the same for the jerky recipe on another thread - I have some mince beef curing in the fridge to try it tomorow - so I wanted to check.

[Oddley]

Hi Markh,

You are right.

[markh]

Oddley,

Just finished (eating) the burgers - brilliant! I will have to try with the sweet paprika.

I used the Onion Ring method for forming the burgers from another thread - worked a treat but maybe I need to be a little less heavy handed compressing the mix into the rings

Can I ask what people would advise with a really good starter meat ?

I have just minced a nice piece of matured beef rib with a good mix of fat and lean. I trimmed some of it lean for the jerky but still have a few pounds to experiment with!

[aris]

Oddley, are those parts by weight or volume?

[Oddley]

I use grams. I normally double or treble the quantities then keep it in a sealed plastic box. Ready for use.

Markh there are so many things you can do with minced beef. If it is really good beef I would try not to mask the flavour too much. I would make some of the old favourites.

Mincemeat and onion in gravy
Cottage pie
mince pie
meat balls
and of course sausages.

[markh]

So often when sausages are mentioned it seems to be either pork or lamb or a mix of the two - I am sure the recipes are there - the problem I find with such extensive forums is tracking them down.

Can anyone point me in the right direction for a good all beef sausage recipe?