primitives discuss cooking hamburger

[franksolich]

What the cuss, I just noticed this was from last year.

Its resurrection was inspired by the chili thread, which is trying to catch up with it, in views and comments.

[Chris_]

What the cuss, I just noticed this was from last year.

[Chris_]

That's not a burger, that's meatloaf!

BTW the burger will be juicier if you use 75/25, but I usually buy 85/15 chop-meat.

ETA: I very rarely make a real burger, we just use the chop meat for other things, I buy the 85/15 frozen burgers.

I think the health Nazis have invaded my grocery store.  I can't find 85/15 anymore and have to get the 75/25.

[Ballygrl]

I think the health Nazis have invaded my grocery store.  I can't find 85/15 anymore and have to get the 75/25.

I can usually just get 85/15 or 80/20 chop-meat, rarely 75/25 but some places do still sell them, although I do have a choice of 75/25 for the frozen burgers, but I just get the 85/15 frozen burgers.

[franksolich]

I could put this whole thread in the Short Bus so fast....

Well, here's what gets me.

We all have our preferences about hamburgers, and we all privately sneer at the preferences of others with their own minds about hamburgers.

Or some of us do, only privately sneering.

If you, sir, were a guest here and hamburgers from the grill were on the menu, you'd get them any way you wanted to have them, no editorial comment from these lips.

But the same courtesy--the kindness to not editorially comment upon one's taste--isn't extended to that small minuscule minority of us who want our food grease-free.  Sure, one gives it to us that way so as to please us.....but there's always editorial comments about "You don't know what you're missing."

(I do know what I'm missing, and I'd just as soon miss it.)

It's sort of this vegetarian-non-vegetarian thing all over again.  Vegeterians feel utterly free to criticize the tastes of non-vegetarians, but God help non-vegetarians if they dare sneer at the tastes of vegetarians.

That's my beef, and extremely well-done.

[Bodadh]

I think the health Nazis have invaded my grocery store.  I can't find 85/15 anymore and have to get the 75/25.

I got some 80/20 hamburger patties last night. Best burgers I ever cooked with bacon chedder and bacon stips with mayo, mustard, and just a touch of tobasco for a little kick.

[debk]

Well, here's what gets me.

We all have our preferences about hamburgers, and we all privately sneer at the preferences of others with their own minds about hamburgers.

Or some of us do, only privately sneering.

If you, sir, were a guest here and hamburgers from the grill were on the menu, you'd get them any way you wanted to have them, no editorial comment from these lips.

But the same courtesy--the kindness to not editorially comment upon one's taste--isn't extended to that small minuscule minority of us who want our food grease-free.  Sure, one gives it to us that way so as to please us.....but there's always editorial comments about "You don't know what you're missing."

(I do know what I'm missing, and I'd just as soon miss it.)

It's sort of this vegetarian-non-vegetarian thing all over again.  Vegeterians feel utterly free to criticize the tastes of non-vegetarians, but God help non-vegetarians if they dare sneer at the tastes of vegetarians.

That's my beef, and extremely well-done.

I cook whole beef tenderloins for our Christmas Eve fest. I cook them to just between rare and medium rare. The ends are medium to well, just because they are so much thinner.
 
I have guests who want theirs medium to well done. I have no problem with them wanting their meat that welldone and there is a microwave available to zap it until it is to their taste.

But I am not going to cook 10-15 lbs of beef tenderloin @ $9.99/pound (if I'm lucky!) to well done to please 2 or 3 people, and have 10-15 unhappy. Meat can always be cooked more well done, it cannot be uncooked.

[franksolich]

I cook whole beef tenderloins for our Christmas Eve fest. I cook them to just between rare and medium rare. The ends are medium to well, just because they are so much thinner.
 
I have guests who want theirs medium to well done. I have no problem with them wanting their meat that welldone and there is a microwave available to zap it until it is to their taste.

But I am not going to cook 10-15 lbs of beef tenderloin @ $9.99/pound (if I'm lucky!) to well done to please 2 or 3 people, and have 10-15 unhappy. Meat can always be cooked more well done, it cannot be uncooked.

Well now, I didn't say we in the minuscule minority "demand" special treatment.

The only thing I've ever asked for is that the hamburger stay on the grill 15-20 more minutes after everybody else's is done.  The rest of the hamburgers can be served; they don't have to stay on the grill too.

[thundley4]

Well now, I didn't say we in the minuscule minority "demand" special treatment.

The only thing I've ever asked for is that the hamburger stay on the grill 15-20 more minutes after everybody else's is done.  The rest of the hamburgers can be served; they don't have to stay on the grill too.

I've always preferred to have burgers pressed flat and well done. When I make them , I start by flattening the patty before it ever gets on the grill or in the pan.

[franksolich]

I've always preferred to have burgers pressed flat and well done. When I make them , I start by flattening the patty before it ever gets on the grill or in the pan.

Actually, I get a somewhat sadistic glee when standing there pressing down hard on the hamburger, watching the squeezed-out grease drip down into the charcoal, thinking to myself, "well, this isn't going to clog these arteries, expand this waist--die, grease, die!"

The more grease that drips down there, the happier I am.

[delilahmused]

Me too H5

Yep, me too. Steaks I like to practically be able to walk off the plate.

Cindie

[franksolich]

Yep, me too. Steaks I like to practically be able to walk off the plate.

Me, on the other hand, I'm always looking for two things that apparently don't exist.

99% fat-free beef (1% because one does need a microscopic bit of it), and eggs that are 99% yolk, only 1% egg-whites (because one does need a little tiny microscopic bit of that too).

[Ballygrl]

I cook whole beef tenderloins for our Christmas Eve fest. I cook them to just between rare and medium rare. The ends are medium to well, just because they are so much thinner.
 
I have guests who want theirs medium to well done. I have no problem with them wanting their meat that welldone and there is a microwave available to zap it until it is to their taste.

But I am not going to cook 10-15 lbs of beef tenderloin @ $9.99/pound (if I'm lucky!) to well done to please 2 or 3 people, and have 10-15 unhappy. Meat can always be cooked more well done, it cannot be uncooked.

Tenderloin doesn't have to be cooked well done? I'll be darned, I never knew you could cook it medium rare, not that I would, I like my burgers and meat very well done.

[Ballygrl]

Me, on the other hand, I'm always looking for two things that apparently don't exist.

99% fat-free beef (1% because one does need a microscopic bit of it), and eggs that are 99% yolk, only 1% egg-whites (because one does need a little tiny microscopic bit of that too).

OK, this is getting too weird, frank and I don't like fish, we like our meat well done to the point where it's probably burnt, and now he says something like this about eggs. I would love it if there was an egg that was 100% yolk, I can't eat the whites of the egg, not that I'm allergic to it, but I just can't eat the white part of the egg, when I eat deviled eggs I just eat the yolk, I can only eat a fried egg if the egg is so well cooked that I just pop the yolk out and put it on toast or an over easy egg where I can dip the toast into the yol but not go near the white part, if it's runny I can't even look at it, and I can't eat scrambled eggs at all or egg salad because of the whites. I don't have a problem though when eggs are added foods like cake mix etc.

[Karin]

Tenderloin doesn't have to be cooked well done?

What?   

I'm with you on egg whites, though.  Yuck.  Remember when egg white omelets were all the rage?  I had friends sanctimoniously eating those.  Vile. 

Frank, I'll sneer at the vegetarians all day long.  I don't see how they get enough protein to remain upright.  So, God help me I guess. 

[Paul Heinzman]

That is how my mom made roast.  Our electric carving knife BROKE while she was trying to cut one one time. 

Wow, I had no idea so many other people had moms that couldn't cook. My mom would buy a thin peice of steak and cook it to death in the electric skillet. If we didn't happen to have Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup on hand, you couldn't swallow it.

[Carl]

Yep, me too. Steaks I like to practically be able to walk off the plate.

Cindie

I want to hear it moo when I stick a fork into it.

[Mike B the Cajun]

I want to hear it moo when I stick a fork into it.

If it don't moo when you poke it, it's overcooked... no matter' steak or burger!   

[BlueStateSaint]

I want to hear it moo when I stick a fork into it.

Gotta agree, neighbor.  H5.

[debk]

If it don't moo when you poke it, it's overcooked... no matter' steak or burger!   

I totally agree!!!

The egg issue though....some of you should be at my house when over-easy eggs are on the menu. I will only eat the white part. I hate the yolk. I will eat the yolk if it's all scrambled in, and the eggs are cooked to dry. I don't eat hardboiled egg yolks and will only eat deviled eggs or egg salad with about half the yolks thrown in, and there has to be lots of seasonings.

[Celtic Rose]

I totally agree!!!

The egg issue though....some of you should be at my house when over-easy eggs are on the menu. I will only eat the white part. I hate the yolk. I will eat the yolk if it's all scrambled in, and the eggs are cooked to dry. I don't eat hardboiled egg yolks and will only eat deviled eggs or egg salad with about half the yolks thrown in, and there has to be lots of seasonings.

I like my yolk runny in fried eggs or poached eggs, but the whites should be fully cooked.  I will only eat the whites of hard boiled eggs, unless they are deviled, and I will only eat scrambled eggs if they are smothered in salsa.  I cannot eat them plain.  I'm weird about my eggs.

[thundley4]

Funny how a thread about burgers got talking about eggs.   I like eggs and will eat them  cooked just about any way, but I do not like them if the white is not fully cooked.

[NHSparky]

Yep, me too. Steaks I like to practically be able to walk off the plate.

Cindie

If you're ever eaten at Delmonico's in Vegas or any Ruth's Chris and see what a medium-rare steak looks like in those places, that's my idea of the perfect steak.  Nice little char on the outside, warm red center on the inside.

Ditto with prime rib.  There's just no sense cooking it until it has lost all juice and flavor.

Besides, there are studies linking overcooked meat to colon cancer.  Might be bullshit, but why take a chance?

[Ballygrl]

To my Husbands horror, I love my burgers and steaks charred LOL!

[IassaFTots]

Wow, I had no idea so many other people had moms that couldn't cook. My mom would buy a thin peice of steak and cook it to death in the electric skillet. If we didn't happen to have Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup on hand, you couldn't swallow it.

Ketchup.  I o'd on the stuff.  To the point where I don't even have any in my house.  But, if you want a cookie, pie or cake from scratch, she was/is the one.