Hamburger
This is officially my first post. I love hamburgers….especially homemade ones. Add a BBQ you you have an instant winner. Although these can also be fried in a pan. I usually do this when the weather is to bad. It has to be a bad day out to fry these as I BBQ all year round. Even when it is 40 below zero. Rain, shine, snow..it doesn’t matter…the only thing that stops me is high winds as it has a tendency to blow out the flame.
This is a recipe that has been passed on from my dad and his parents. It is a German recipe known as gehacktes. There is also raw gehacktes known in English as tartar. Not to worry though…this is the cooked version. The only twist I put on this recipe is that I am using a patty maker. I bought this at Walmart for $10 a few months ago. Before this I use to hand make the patties. You will also notice that with most of my cooking recipes I do not use exact measurements. This makes my wife crazy. She needs to measure everything. A pinch of this and a handful of that does not usually work for her. I flavor food to taste. Everyone has different tastes and you should spice to what appeals to you. Cooking is not an exact science like baking…..put to much yeast or not enough sugar or flour in a recipe for baking and the chemistry will not be right to make your cake rise.
Here is what you will need to get started for yummy homemade hamburgers. Feel free to use less hamburger or pork. I tend to cook for a small army so feel free to adjust the number of pounds of meat that you will need. This recipe makes about 10 1/2 pound patties.
Ingredients:
- 3 pounds hamburger
- 1 pound pork
- 1 onion
- 3 eggs
- salt
- pepper
- parsley
- garlic salt or powder
Utensils:
- Large mixing bowl
- pampered chef mix in chop
- pampered chef cutting edge food chopper
- knife
- cutting board
- hamburger patty maker
Slice onion and dice in the chopper. Put hamburger, pork, eggs, onion in the bowl. Add diced onion. Add parsley, garlic salt, pepper to taste. Mix well. You will be amazed how well the mix’n’chop works. My 5 year old son loves mixing so this job is left to him.
Once mixed I use the hamburger maker to make nice uniform patties.
Next I put the hamburger in the patty maker. Notice the 1/4 and 1/3 pound markings. These are just a suggestions as well. I like making the burgers a little thicker. Almost 1/2 pound. They tend to stay together and are easier to cook when they are thicker. You can also freeze the burgers at this stage and cook them later if you wish.
Now for the best part. BBQ time…..usually means some quality time spent with family and friends enjoying a few refreshments on nice summer evening. I preheat on high and turn the temperature back to medium when cooking. Unlike in the United States we can not order our burgers medium in Canada. All burgers in Canada have to be cooked well by law. I was in the US last month for work and enjoyed ordering burgers just a little pink in the middle. They are so juicy.
Once cooked it is time to build your burger. I like lots of garnishes on my burger. Tomato, onion, cheese, bacon, lettuce or spinach, mustard, ketchup,relish and mayo.
Here is my homemade hamburger with a side of poutine. This is a Canadian dish that I will cover in another post.
Enjoy!!!