Recipe time: Silas's Easy Makeyourowndamn Burgers.
Guaranteed to be tastier and better for you than ready-made burgers you might buy, or your money back*!
What you need:
An integer multiple of the following ingredients:
1 pound ground (minced, if you're British) meat.
1 medium-to-large egg.
2 slices of bread (from a sliced loaf, anyway. If you slice your own, then it's up to you to figure it out)
A couple of shallots, or a small onion. Something onionish, anyway.
Seasonings and herbs to taste.
Turn the bread into breadcrumbs by any suitable method (if you have a blender, a quick zizz in there is a good way of doing it; if not, wad it up and use a coarse grater) and dump them in a larger bowl than you think you'll need. Add the dry seasonings (I use paprika, basil flakes, parsley flakes, garlic powder and freshly ground black pepper; you can use whatever you want) and the finely chopped onionish thing (if you want to add, say, chillies, now is a good time to do it). If you like, and have a blender, the onionish thing can easily be chopped very fine in there. Now take your meat (beef is canonical, but you can use just about any meat), cut it up so as to truncate the long "strings" it comes in, and add that. Now crack and beat the egg (I like to add a little Worcestershire sauce, but that's optional), and start getting your hands dirty. You need to reach into the bowl and squish this stuff together, then add the egg once it feels disgusting. Keep squishing it until it all looks the same or you're completely nauseated, and then squish it some more. If you puke, wash up before going back to the kitchen. What you should finish up with is a big rounded lump of meat that looks nothing like a burger. Now you need to pull it out of the bowl (if it falls apart, it's either a very large batch or you need to squish it more; you should be able to pick up a pound of meat's worth of this stuff in one lump) and divide it into burgers. I tend to do it as 4*number of pounds of meat I started with, but it's your call. Take each lump and roll it into a ball, then squish it between the palms of your hands so you finish up with a patty. If you're feeling ritzy, you can use some kind of burger press, but I just go for hand-shaped ones. Get it reasonably thin, so it'll cook through without you needing to burn the outside, and then store it until it's wanted (freezing is fine; wrap them separately, though, or you'll have trouble getting them apart).
If you want to barbecue these, I recommend quickly sealing them on each side before putting them on the grill, as they might not otherwise be able to cope with the load.
And please, if you refine this recipe, let me know. I'm always willing to improve my cooking.
*Money back refers to the money spent on the recipe, not on any putative burgers. Void in the contiguous United States, Alaska and Hawaii. Not valid in Canada. Not valid in the United Kingdom. Not valid anywhere in the world, in fact. But the burgers should be good.
What you need:
An integer multiple of the following ingredients:
1 pound ground (minced, if you're British) meat.
1 medium-to-large egg.
2 slices of bread (from a sliced loaf, anyway. If you slice your own, then it's up to you to figure it out)
A couple of shallots, or a small onion. Something onionish, anyway.
Seasonings and herbs to taste.
Turn the bread into breadcrumbs by any suitable method (if you have a blender, a quick zizz in there is a good way of doing it; if not, wad it up and use a coarse grater) and dump them in a larger bowl than you think you'll need. Add the dry seasonings (I use paprika, basil flakes, parsley flakes, garlic powder and freshly ground black pepper; you can use whatever you want) and the finely chopped onionish thing (if you want to add, say, chillies, now is a good time to do it). If you like, and have a blender, the onionish thing can easily be chopped very fine in there. Now take your meat (beef is canonical, but you can use just about any meat), cut it up so as to truncate the long "strings" it comes in, and add that. Now crack and beat the egg (I like to add a little Worcestershire sauce, but that's optional), and start getting your hands dirty. You need to reach into the bowl and squish this stuff together, then add the egg once it feels disgusting. Keep squishing it until it all looks the same or you're completely nauseated, and then squish it some more. If you puke, wash up before going back to the kitchen. What you should finish up with is a big rounded lump of meat that looks nothing like a burger. Now you need to pull it out of the bowl (if it falls apart, it's either a very large batch or you need to squish it more; you should be able to pick up a pound of meat's worth of this stuff in one lump) and divide it into burgers. I tend to do it as 4*number of pounds of meat I started with, but it's your call. Take each lump and roll it into a ball, then squish it between the palms of your hands so you finish up with a patty. If you're feeling ritzy, you can use some kind of burger press, but I just go for hand-shaped ones. Get it reasonably thin, so it'll cook through without you needing to burn the outside, and then store it until it's wanted (freezing is fine; wrap them separately, though, or you'll have trouble getting them apart).
If you want to barbecue these, I recommend quickly sealing them on each side before putting them on the grill, as they might not otherwise be able to cope with the load.
And please, if you refine this recipe, let me know. I'm always willing to improve my cooking.
*Money back refers to the money spent on the recipe, not on any putative burgers. Void in the contiguous United States, Alaska and Hawaii. Not valid in Canada. Not valid in the United Kingdom. Not valid anywhere in the world, in fact. But the burgers should be good.