Ingredients
- 1 1/2 pounds 80% lean 20% fat ground beef or ground chuck
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 1/2 teaspoons seasoning salt
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- Optional: 4 slices of cheese
- 4 hamburger buns
- Optional: hamburger toppings – lettuce tomato, onion, pickles, ketchup, mustard, mayo, etc.
Why I chose to make a homemade burger
This week I chose to make homemade burgers. It’s now hockey season and there is no better way to watch a game than eating a homemade burger. When I was growing up I traveled to many different small town rinks that all had their own unique burger. Burgers that are homemade almost always taste better than the burgers that are made at fast food restaurants. I wanted to see if I was capable of making my own burger that would allow me to somewhat relive my experiences growing up in small town rinks. Other than at hockey games I think of eating burgers at the lake right before starting a fire. This also gave me inspiration for making the burgers because it reminds me of times with family and friends that I had at the cabin.
What I learned
Before making the burgers, this website gave me a good tip for choosing the best beef for the burger. It says that the best beef for a burger is 80% lean and 20% fat. This isn’t something I knew before because usually when I make burgers the patty is already made and all the person making the burger needs to do is throw it on the barbeque. I also agree that a good burger doesn’t require a ton of ingredients like this website points out. Once I had all the materials the first step was to get a bowl and add the ground beef, the sauce, seasoning salt, garlic powder, and the pepper. Once I added all of these ingredients I mixed with my hands. This was all pretty simple, so there wasn’t too much to learn through these steps. Once I mixed all of these ingredients the recipe suggested I divide it into four even amounts. After this I made them into the shapes that a burger should be at about ¾ of an inch thick. The recipe suggested that I made an indent in the middle of the burger patties. I’m not too sure how important this step is but I followed along. If I had to guess this just allows the burger to cook more evenly. After this I cooked each side of the burger on medium high for about seven minutes. The recipe told me to only cook for about four minutes but this didn’t feel like enough for me personally. Once the burger was done now it was the easy part where I put onions, lettuce, cheese, ketchup and mayo on the burger with buns that I bought at the store.
Results
This burger was really good to eat. It wasn’t like the burgers that are made at the fast food restaurants which is what I was hoping for. I would suggest this recipe to everyone because of its simplicity. This burger had that small town rink feeling which was what I was hoping for. Still wasn’t my favourite burger I have ever had but I’ve had some amazing burgers in my day.