Notes on Making Burgers
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Ground Meats Are Perishable!
Cook your burgers, meat balls, loaves, and casseroles within twenty-four hours of purchasing ground beef or other fresh ground meats-or freeze it.
Seasoners for Ground Meats
Nowadays there's a wide choice. You might like to experiment with such ready blends as salad-dressing mixes and dip mixes, as well as with herb and spice blends and the seasoned salts. Instant onion comes in three forms: as instant onion, instant green onion, and instant toasted onion. Powdered mushrooms are available to use as a seasoner. Onion-soup mix and, of course, the many kinds of canned soups are ready to use as seasoning or sauce, perhaps both. So many good bottled barbecue sauces are available that I have included only one of these recipes in this collection.
Monosodium glutamate is suggested in some of the recipes. Many cooks use it with all meats, to accentuate flavor. Tabasco sauce may be used with a light or heavy hand if you have a taste for hot pepper. It is included in most barbecue sauces.
What Kind of Meat Shall I Buy?
"Hamburger" is the most economical, being ground from meat trimmings. It shrinks a good deal in the cooking because of the rather high proportion of fat. But the fat keeps it moist and gives good flavor. I usually buy ground chuck meat, which is leaner, but juicy and flavorful. Ground round steak is leanest of all, and comparatively expensive. It often is necessary to add a little ground suet, other fat, or cream to produce juicy patties from round steak. Occasionally sirloin tip is used, something of an extravagance.
How Many Burgers to the Pound?
A pound of ground beef makes four average hamburgers, six skinny ones, or two king size.
How Can I Keep the Burgers Juicy?
Don't mix them too much, or shape them too firmly, if you want juicy, tender hamburgers. And don't use the highest temperature to cook them, or cook them too long, or they'll become hard and dry. The juiciest hamburger is slightly pink inside.
A Freezer Full of Burgers
There'll always be food in the house if you fill the corners of your freezer with individual foil-wrapped burgers. They may be cooked from the frozen state, but it takes longer, of course. Keep buns in the freezer, too. Foil-wrapped burgers may be cooked on a grill without unwrapping.
How to Shape Burgers, Meat Balls, and Meat Loaves
You can develop skill shaping the meat by hand, but I like to press the meat mixture into an English muffin ring and smooth it off, to obtain round patties of even thickness. There are hamburger-shaping gadgets on the market, too-a good idea if you make them by the dozen. But remember, don't squeeze the meat. Pack it lightly.
No-squeezing applies to meat balls and meat loaves, as well as to hamburgers. Roll meat mixture lightly between your palms for meat balls. If you are working with a quantity of meat, shape long rolls on your counter top, slice off pieces of even size, then round these quickly into balls. This is an efficient method of shaping meat balls uniformly.
Meat loaf mixtures should be patted into the pan. No actual pressing, but be fairly firm about it for the sake of a sliceable loaf. Too firm a texture is not pleasing in a meat loaf, so don't go kneading the meat as you would bread!
To Turn Out a Meat Loaf
Let the hot loaf sit in its pan for a good 10 minutes to reabsorb some of the juices, after which it will slice more readily. Loosen meat around the rim of the pan with a knife, place the warmed serving platter over the loaf, and flip loaf and platter together. If there is an exceptional amount of liquid around the loaf, you'll want to drain it off before doing this flipping, of course. The drained juices may be chilled (then the fat can be removed from the top) and used to make a sauce for the loaf when you reheat it.
Cold Leftover Meat Loaf, Cold Burgers and Meat Balls
Most meat loaves are almost as good cold as hot; some are even better. Many of them may be sliced almost paper-thin when they are cold, and these are especially nice on a buffet table.
Leftover hamburgers may be sliced crosswise to make sandwich fillings, or to be reheated in barbecue sauce.
If you want to reheat just a few slices of meat loaf, wrap them in foil and heat them in the oven or on a grill. Heating may be done in a sauce, if you wish.
Cold meat balls seldom have the appeal of hot ones. I have sliced them for sandwiches on occasion, however. If they lack sauce or gravy for the reheating, add chicken broth, consomme, or bouillon-or barbecue sauce, if it seems fitting.
It's very good planning to make more of any of these good things than you need, to freeze and store the extra amount for a later meal.
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