I made hamburgers for dinner last night. A pound of 85/15 ground beef, a small diced onion, some finely diced herbs like rosemary and parsley, some of my favorite smoky paprika mix, salt, pepper, maybe a little steak sauce … and here’s where I may lose you. Trader Joes sells canned roasted beef in beef broth, straight from Brazil. It’s a lot like canned tuna, but with beef. I don’t think I’d eat it straight, but I’ve seen them have cans of it open for sampling at TJ’s, and it’s perfectly edible. I used to buy the premade pot roast in the boil bags that they have near to packaged mac & cheese in the grocery store for this purpose, but this canned beef is just as good, and costs a half as much ($3?), with no left overs. Adding it adds a beefy flavor and stretches a pound of hamburger to 6 good sized burgers easily. I chop up the beef chunks even more than they are in the can, and add it to the ground beef, and mix well.
Another thing I do is avoid the thick, meatball-like burgers. I make mine thin, thin, thin. One or two minutes on a side, and then let them rest for a few minutes while I prepare the condiments. Usually in a pita with spring salad mix, and a few drops of mayo or ketchup. Jarred fried italian sweet peppers are really good on burgers, too, especially if you’ve put some provolone on to melt.
What do you like to put on your burger?
I like cream cheese, mango and hot sauce.
Putting Trader Joe’s roast beef into burgers is a great idea. For me, its hands down blue cheese. My husband mashes Lipton soup mix into the patties and calls them perfect burgers.