Making Our Own Burgers

We've still got a few more great grilling experiences to share before summer comes to a close again.  Lately we've been a bit worried about what exactly goes on during the process of making ground beef and what they may be putting in there to extend the product, so we decided to try making our own ground beef. 

What was amazing is how incredibly easy this process really is. I had an image in my head of needing some industrial machine that glops the beef out in those noodle like strings, but honestly all you need is a food processor and a big chuck steak.  If you normally use a pound of ground beef for a meal, get a steak that's slightly bigger or up to a pound and a half.

To get things started Megan trimmed off the largest pieces of fat and then cut the steak into large chunks.

The meat goes into the food processor and is pulsed until it reaches the right consistency, and we discovered we didn't even need to add in egg or oil or anything to get it to stick together.  It's literally as simple as meat + mixing = ground beef.

The end result was pretty similar in consistency and color to ground beef you'd buy in a package, although the texture is noticeably different (read: better).  Our own home made ground beef formed into patties just as well as anything we've ever bought at the store.

We wanted to make our burger patties unique and have more flavor than just what comes from the beef, so we also ground up two kinds of mushrooms and white onion.

The two ground mixtures were mixed together, and then we added in a host of seasonings like garlic powder, spicy pepper seasoning, and of course salt and pepper. We were out of Worcestershire sauce, so a few dabs of A1 steak sauce went in its place.

Here are the finished patties, which stuck together easily and didn't require any extra work to put together.  The extra vegetables and seasonings make these smell great!

That same day we found a new grill on clearance, as the grilling season is ending and all the grocery stores are trying to get rid of them. We actually paid less for this nice one than we did for the our other rickety, tiny grill.

The end result was amazingly juicy burgers as good or better than what we would have made with store bought ground beef, and we'll definitely be going this route again in the future. We may try different types of steak in the future, as well as possibly other methods of seasoning, such as marinating the steaks ahead of time.

Here's our finished meal, complete with side salad. It's not really clear from the picture, but we like a lot of fruits and veggies on our salads.  This one has peach, nectarine, tomatoes, onions, carrots, and more.  For my burger I threw on avocado, tomato, cheddar, onion, ketchup, and steak sauce.

That's it for now, and we'll be back soon with the end of our grilling adventures and the start of the fall season. Coming up this fall will be whole chicken with lemon baked in dough, chili made in a pumpkin, and more!