TacoCat (kinda) Cooks! #49: First time making Beef Burgers! 🍔

Hey Steemit!

We're back with more of our home cooking! If you're unfamiliar with this series, it's where I showcase some of the food we've been making at home since we've been cooking a lot nowadays! Both because it's cheaper and also healthier to cook for yourself compared to eating out. While I usually stick to the usual recipes I do like to try new ones once in a while and figured I'd share the new ones I've tried.

I've shared about a few different burger places we've tried outside and they've been really delicious but can be quite pricey so we don't eat burgers that often. But a few months ago, I found this recipe for hamburger patties and thought I'd give it a try! I've never made burgers myself before so I was a little nervous and I've never used ground meat before either so it was going to be a real learning experience.

Anyway, here's the link for the recipe. There were quite a few burger recipes I saw online but this seemed to be one of the easiest and most well-reviewed. The ingredients were also pretty easy to get and I had most of them so I figured I'd try this one and see how it goes.

So this was my plan for the burgers, I wanted a beef patty with some sauteed mushrooms and onions, a slice of cheese and some nice toasted hamburger buns.

These were the ingredients I used:

• 4 hamburger buns
• 4 slices of cheese
• 1 egg (I did consider adding a fried egg as well but changed my mind after)
• lettuce
• mixed mushrooms
• 1 onion
• ground beef
• butter

These were the ingredients for the beef patty:

• 400g ground beef
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs
• 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tbsp soy milk
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp black pepper

I changed a little from the original recipe since I could only work with what I had and I had to finish that soy milk. I was also curious to see how it would work out.

Step 1: Prepare the mushrooms and onions. Since they were going into the burger I didn't want to slice them too small.

Step 2: As sides to the burger, I also made some soup and roasted potatoes, so I prepared that first. I cut up potatoes into cubes and air fried them with some carrot sticks.

Step 3: I also added some carrots, enoki mushrooms and broccoli to the canned corn soup we had and boiled them all together for the soup.

Step 4: I read that caramelizing onions can take a while so I sauteed the onions first.

After the onions got a little brown, I added in the mushrooms and some salt and pepper.

Step 5: For the patty, I followed the recipe and added the panko breadcrumbs, egg, worcestershire sauce, milk, salt, garlic powder and pepper to the ground beef in a big mixing bowl.

Step 6: Mix by hand until the meat mixture is smooth, but stop once the mixture looks even. The recipe said overmixing can create a dense heavy texture so I tried my best to mix it just the right amount.

Step 7: The recipe said to press the meat down in the bowl and divide the mixture into even patties. I tried my best to make it as even as possible and we wound up with 4 patties, which was perfect since we had 4 buns. They were a little small though, since I shaped them with my hands and I have small hands.

Step 8: Preheat a grill or pan on medium heat, and I recommend using a little butter to oil it.

Once the pan is heated up, it's time to grill the patties! For thick patties like mine, grill for 3-4 minutes per side, or if you like patties on the thinner side, just cook them for 2 minutes per side.

I kept a close eye on my stopwatch and once I flipped the patties they looked pretty good!

I did flip them on the side to cook them a little bit on the last minute, so just take note for those with thicker patties.

Step 9: Once the patties are done, it's time to toast the buns! I toasted the buns on both side for about a minute per side with some butter on the pan and they turned out great.

Then it was time to assemble! Unfortunately I don't have a picture of the actual assembly line but this is the burger we ended up with:

From the bottom up, it's bun, lettuce, sauce, onions and mushrooms, patty, cheese and top bun. This was our first time so I acknowledge it's not the best setup but we've seen made a few more burgers and have a better system now.

Once the burger was assembled, it was time to plate! This was our complete meal, the full burger with a side of roasted potatoes and corn soup with vegetables.

The burger itself was actually really good! I was so surprised with how well it turned out, and the beef patty was perfect! It wasn't dry or overdone like I feared but was just right had a good amount of flavour to it as well.

The soup was also a good accompaniment since it was a nice fluid to wash the burger down with. Sean loved the burger so much he finished his in less than 5 minutes! After we made our second burger we found we still had lots of lettuce leftover that we had prepared so we ended up having extra for salad.

Before this we weren't big fans of salads but since then we've gotten around to it especially with the right dressing and some crunchy bacon bits!

Altogether this was such a great meal and very filling indeed! I think I might've overdone it with the soup because while it was very delicious it was way too much with 2 burgers. I was stuffed! The roasted veggies and salad was good enough for sides I think.

But I think my first attempt at making burgers was such a success and I was so proud of it! I didn't think it would go so well and I'm super glad and relieved it did. I was calculating how much this burger actually cost to make and this was my cost breakdown:

It's insane how much money we saved from from making this burger compared to eating a burger at a restaurant, which would probably cost at least $12. Now that I know how to make my own I probably won't buy burgers outside much anymore. Granted, it does take a little bit of time but since you can also make it in bulk and freeze it, it's a relatively easy meal if you can get ground beef in bulk. Unfortunately we don't have that here so I guess I'll just make them whenever I have a craving for burgers.

All in all though, this was a very yummy meal and I have made burgers more since then, with some improvements. I've learned that pork burgers are easier and cheaper to make, and I've since learned that the patties are better if shaped into balls and smushed on the pan itself when grilling. So I'll try that next and see how it goes. If you have any more tips on making burgers I'd love to know more!

Thanks so much for reading!

To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!

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Check out my previous post in this series!
TacoCat (kinda) Cooks! #48: Crispy Panko Fish and Chips! 🐟