Homemade Hamburger Recipe

Hamburger recipes are in most cases a closely guarded secret usually for good reason, they taste great! But what is the best homemade hamburger recipe out there?

If you are looking for the the ultimate burger recipe see our Worlds Best Hamburger Recipe which uses ground chuck and spices to create a stunning yet simple to make beef burger. There are of course many variations to choose from and below is another really tasty homemade burger recipe which is made from 100% ground mince beef and spices, plus a few secret ingredients. Handle the burger meat carefully and use your hands briefly given we do not want to heat up the fat content within the ground beef.

Homemade Hamburger Recipe Ingredients

1lb of ground mince beef
2 x Cloves of garlic, minced/crushed
1 tsp tomato ketchup
1 x Teaspoon of Worchestershire sauce
1 x teaspoon of mustard
1 x medium egg beaten
1 x small onion, chopped as small as you can
1 x Teaspoon dried basil or fresh chopped preferably
1 x Tablespoon of Red wine (the rest  of bottle can be consumed over dinner!)

Method

1. Simply add all the ingedients to a large bowl and mix throughly, form into hamburger pattties around 4 burgers and fry over a medium heat on a heavy based frying pan for 4-5 minutes each side. If you wish to grill the burgers do so with a medium to high heat setting for 4-5 minutes each side, be careful when turning!

Serve up with a fresh crisp green salad and some lovely homemade chips! A simple homemade hamburger recipe you will treasure.

Components Of Hamburger Meat

Hamburgers have been in existence some say for over 150 years having been sold in American restaurants as early as 1885 but what exactly are the components of hamburger meat?

This is a difficult question to answer given there are so many types of hamburgers in the modern society ranging from the most common beef burger to ostrich and bison burgers. Each manufacturer will use different products in the making of hamburger meat very much depending upon the base meat which is used for the burger patty. However, the most common of hamburgers, the beef burger is made of two distinct categories of ingredients.

1. All Meat (100% ground beef) burger

This hamburger meat is made of nothing but 100% ground beef which usually originates from the flank area of the cow. Off cuts of beef taken from various other parts of the animal are also used with the primary objective to ensure that nothing other than beef is used. Seasonings will accompany these types of hamburgers but they should not contain any other filling ingredients other than simply ground beef and seasoning.

2. Hamburgers/Beef Burgers

As the title lacks any coherent objectives in terms of ingredients these burgers will contain a certain amount of fillings (breadcrumbs, rusk etc) to bulk out the meat and will commonly contain a higher degree of fat content and more seasonings to add additional flavourings. Preservatives are also usually added to prolong shelf life and generally are significantly more expensive than All Meat burgers for obvious cost reasons.

Thankfully, in today’s observant society most manufactures of food products around the world are obliged to clearly display the ingredients used in either of these two burgers. Hamburgers do not require preservatives or indeed any additional ingredients other than 100% pure beef and some seasoning and good value hamburgers will display only these ingredients. These can also be frozen on the day of purchase (removing the need for preservatives) and bought out and defrosted when required.

The only consideration in terms of components of hamburger meat really comes down to price. If you are on a budget and cannot justify the small increase in purchasing all beef burgers then simply buy yourself some ground beef and follow our How Do You Season A Hamburger page for ideas to spice up your burger meat. This will make several hamburgers some of which you can package up and put in the freezer for another day all the while saving you some money.

How To Make A Hamburger Pattie

Just how do you make a Hamburger pattie? Well, the first step is to create the best beefburgers using our Worlds Best Hamburger Recipe and once you have completed these steps we are now ready to shape your amazingly tasty hamburgers into patties.

Just to make you jealous, I have the added advantage of owing a genuine Buthers hamburger press which is an outstanding piece of equipment and makes amazing shaped hamburgers. However, to make up for my gloating you can also own one simular to mine. The Johnson-Rose 5 Inch Cast Aluminum Hamburger Press is a great little manual burger press which makes no fuss, just gives you perfectly round patties and is made from cast aluminum meaning it will last you a life time.

You simply form a small ball of hamburger meat and place a Hamburger Patty Paper – Box of 1000 sheet on the top and bottom and squeeze the two halfs together. You end up with a perfectly formed hamburger pattie ready for grilling or frying. Buying ready made beefburgers is really expensive and unessasary if you consider buying yourself the above equipment combined with the worlds best hamburger recipe and a couple of pounds of ground beef. You can freeze them and use them when required saving yourself lots of your hard earned money whilst eating much heathier too!

It seems to be a win win situation, have fun making your hamburger Patties and enjoy your cooking!

Worlds Best Hamburger Recipe

It is a claim I have made for many years but ultimately the worlds best hamburger recipe is down to your personal tastes. That said, in my humble opinion this is the simplest but without a shadow of doubt the best hamburger recipe in the world! To be fair a degree of help with this recipe came from my favourite hamburger cookbook the Recipe of the Week: Burgers: 52 Easy Recipes for Year-round Cooking although I think I can take most of the credit!

To achive perfection you will require some ground minced beef of extraordinary proportions this being 1 to 1.5 pounds of minced chuck steak. This was easy for me being a Master butcher of course, but you will need to ask your local butcher nicely and I am sure he will be only too happy to oblige. The reason we are looking for ground mince using only the chuck meat is due to the fat content. The ultimate hamburger requires around a 20% fat content to flavour the meat whilst cooking and the beef fat marbled within the chuck meat is perfect for this.

You will need to be careful when handling the mince and mixing, use your hands but do not over mix the ground beef, again, for perfection purposes the heat of your hands will start to break down some of the fat content and we want this to occur once it is cooking.

Worlds Best Hamburger Recipe Ingredients

1 to 1.5lbs of minced ground chuck

1 x small onion finley chopped (as small as you can)

1 x Tablespoon tomatoe ketchup

1 x Tablespoon of Soy Sauce

1/2 Teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce

1/2 Teaspoon of thyme (fresh is best but dried will do)

Half a teaspoon of salt and a touch of freshly ground black pepper

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and form patties around half an inch in thickness. You should get around 4 burger patties from this.

Get you grill ready on a medium to high heat and bring up to temperature. Gently place under the grill for around 4 minutes one side and 3 minutes the other being careful not to disrupt your patties as you turn them. Check after this time with a skewer in the centre to ensure they are cooked to your liking. To achieve the best hamburgers in the world you are now going to have to leave the burgers ‘resting’ on a warm plate with some foil covering for about 3 minutes. This will allow the amazing juices to reabsorb back into the meat ready to fill your mouth with succulence and delight!

Once 3 minutes has passed (it will seem like 3 days!) serve them up with some crisp salad and home made chips – the worlds best hamburgers are now ready for you to eat!

Can Hamburger Patties Be Broiled

Hamburger patties are so versatile that they can be cooked in a variety of ways be that using the grill, oven, BBQ and even open fire. But can we cook hamburgers by broiling? The simple answer is yes, hamburger patties can be broiled successfully in the oven and here are the best instructions for broiling hamburgers to achieve excellent results from Broiling in the oven.

How long you cook your hamburger will depend on how thick the beef burgers actually are however, given the most common sizes are quarter pounders the below instructions relate to this size, if you need to check the cooking of your hamburger simply give it a press, if it is firm to the touch then it is well done, any movement but no depression from your finger will be around the ‘medium’ mark and if you finger leaves a depression it is rare inside and needs further cooking.

You can also skewer the burger and check the resulting juices to ensure they are running clear.

To broil hamburger patties in the oven you will need to set your broiler to the highest temperature ensuring your tray is about 3-4 inches from the heating element

1. Cook for 3 minutes.

Rotate the burger 90 degrees.

2. Cook for a further 3 minutes.

3. Now turn the burger over and cook for another 3 minutes.

Rotate the burger 90 degrees.

4. Cook another 3 minutes.

This should give you a fully cooked through burger but you can reduce the cooking times by 1 minute each cycle for a medium burger. If you are in doubt then simply perform the aforementioned check or give the hamburger a skewer and check the juices. Serve with homemade chips and peas and enjoy!

Casseroles With Hamburger Meat

If you have some left over hamburger meat and you are thinking about what can I make with ground beef and rice then this casserole dish using up your surplus burger meat will fit the bill perfectly.

The ingredients have a distinctive Texan influence and produce the most amazing flavours during cooking. The great part about this casserole is in it’s simplicity, you simply cook all the ingredients together including the rice which absorbs all the cooking juices and flavours resulting in a truly scrumptious beef mince casserole.

Texan Casseroles With Hamburger Meat Ingredients

* 1 – 1.5 pounds of hamburger meat (you can also use just ground mince beef)

* 3 large finely sliced onions

* 1 Green pepper

* 1 large clove of garlic crushed

* 1 teaspoon of chili powder (reduce if you do not like it too spicy)

* 1 400g can of chopped tomatoes

* Half a cup of rice (long grain or basmati)

* 1 Teaspoon of salt

* Half teaspoon of pepper

Firstly, smear a decent sized casserole dish with oil ready for the meat mixture.

Brown off the hamburger meat and onions in a frying pan or skillet on a medium heat until the onions reach transparency and then add the garlic and peppers and continue cooking until the pepper is soft. Now remove the pan/skillet from the heat and stir in the tomatoes and the remaining ingredients.

Now transfer the mixture into the pre oiled casserole dish cover either with a lid or some tightly fitting tin foil and cook for 50 minutes at 350 degrees. Once cooking time has elapsed remove the lid or foil and cook for a further 10 minutes. Your casserole with hamburger meat is now ready, serve with some grated cheese and soured cream, something quite special and once tried with no doubt become a family favourite dish!

How Do You Season A Hamburger

Without a doubt the key successful Hamburger recipes are the seasoning ingredients and in some quarters is a closely guarded secret being the key element of flavour and distinctive branding. But just how do you start to season a Hamburger?

Seasonings are many and varied and in truth it is down to your own personal preferences as to what type of spices and/or seasonings you like. However, below is a list of hamburger seasonings which to give you an idea of some of the typical spices used.

* Garlic powder or granules (fresh garlic is even better)

* Salt

* Pepper

* Cayenne pepper (red pepper is especially effective in Hamburgers)

* Lemon Salt

* Dill, Thyme, Parsley, Oregano and Tarragon (fresh is best although dried are also effective)

* Bouillion Cubes (these make for good prepared seasonings)

* Cumin

* Allspice (yes, strange I know but try a small dash of it in your ground mince beef mixture it really works!)

A top Hamburger seasoning tip if you are rushed for time and like Mexican flavors is to mix your ground beef mince and chopped onions (chop them as small as possible) with a packet of taco seasoning. This makes for a great tasting Hamburger with the distinctive Mexican taste and is quick and really simple to make.

How Long is Hamburger Meat Good For

Hamburger meat is usually purchased in a polythene packaging which retains the burger mince along with trapped oxygen. This air is treated to prolong the life of the mince if kept inside the packaging. If you purchased fresh ground mince (the principle ingredient of Hamburger meat), how long will this hamburger meat be good for? Well, this will keep fresh for around 3-4 days.

Top tips around keeping beefburger meat are to be aware of when the product is passed its best. The shelf life of raw hamburger mince will be passed it’s best when it has a wet, slimy feel which is indicative of the proteins of the meat breaking down due to composition, the mince meat can still retain its colour when stored in the packaging it was purchased but can at the same time go off so you need to be aware of these signs. The other obvious sign of course relates to the smell of the hamburger meat once opened from the packaging.

But how do you know if a raw hamburger has passed it’s shelf life? Meat stored in this way usually omits a smell once opened which is perfectly normal even with fresh meat, simply give the burger mince a few minutes to air and return to it with your nose, does it continue to smell distinctively off? does it have a top coat of slightly wet and in some cases slimy feel to it? to be safe if it continues to smell or feels wet ans slimy, dispose of it.

The best ways to store burger mince are to place it in the coldest part of your refrigerator and to consume within 3-4 days of purchasing. If you are looking to keep it for longer, your best option is to place the packet into the freezer and defrost in the fridge for 24 hours before using.

Cooking Hamburgers

Hamburgers are a firm favourite in our house and quite frankly there is no need to buy prepacked hamburgers or beefburgers given they are so easy and simple to make anyone can make and cook hamburgers.

Beefburgers are principally made from minced ground beef with added seasonings and sometimes a binding agent usually in the form of an egg along with generous amounts of chopped onions. Choosing the right ground minced beef will have an effect on the end result, you are looking for a relatively lean mince beef with not too much fat content otherwise they do tend to get somewhat greasy and more liable to falling apart if you use the higher fat content ground mince beef.

Once you have made your hamburger patty from the simple ingredients (check out our hamburger section for some amazing hamburger recipes) you can then have some fun shaping and forming the mixture into perfect hamburger rounds with your hands (the kids love this bit – get them involved!).

So, what are the instructions for grilling hamburgers and best way to cook a hamburger? There are several methods to cooking burgers the most common of which is probably the stove top method using a heavy frying pan and a little oil to season the pan. A good tip to cooking on the hob is to ensure that the heat setting is not too high, you are looking to cook through the burger meat all the way through without burning the outside and having the middle still raw (a favourite BBQ pitfall).

The best way to cook on the stove-top is to use a low to medium heat giving the burgers a good 8 minutes on each side (for about a 1″ thick burger). If you are unsure whether the hamburger is cooked through then simply skewer the middle whilst still in the pan and watch the colour of the juices – you are looking for clear juices no pink and definitely not red.

Other methods to cook hamburgers include broiling in the oven under a broiling pan. Broiling in the oven by it’s nature provides a very high heat source and it is common to cook the outside without fully cooking the middle. So the best method is to ensure that you use the middle oven shelf and ensure that you check the burgers by skewering the centres before serving – you will need about 5-10 minutes per side for a 1″ burger. The variance in time is due to the type of oven you have – some are hotter than others.

Finally, the last method to cooking hamburgers is of course grilling but how long do you grill hamburgers for? Well, again this will depend on the thickness of the hamburger but you will still need to ensure that your heat setting is not too high and give the meat about 5 minutes each side following which it is a good idea to check the centres to ensure they are cooked all the way through.