Aussie burger patties....anyone have any secrets?

[Kenny202]

We make beef burgers at home sometimes and use 100% beef, apart from a little seasoning and herbs....no binder or anything. I had a beef burger last night was superb, just like a burger back home from a good old fashioned Chinese / Greek take away place. It was the texture of the meat that was so good....really well binded. I suspect maybe they use some pork, maybe 50/50 and something else. Seemed like it had some coating on the outside also, make it a brown well on the outside....maybe oyster sauce or something.

 

I know you can use egg, bread crumbs etc as binder and its ok but it's always a home made type result. And just using pure beef is nice too but always a more crumbly texture, I know Italians use bread soaked in milk for their meatballs. Maybe something like that?

[KhunLA]

I use local Thai beef for burgers.  It's a burger.  Either have brisket ground, and I choice the pieces of, or have lean beef ground, again, I chose the beef.

 

I cook beef in Beef Tallow only, for added flavor, and no fillers, just some seasonings.  Quite tasty, and better than anything served from any vendors ... IMHO

[Ralf001]

Mince, 75% beef 25% pork.

weetbix.

woosty sauce.

tomato sauce.

egg.

diced red onion.

salt and pepper.

.

Lush.

 

[impulse]

I gave up on finding reasonably priced, decent quality Thai beef and went to making pork and chicken burgers.  I ground my own at home with a $15(USD) meat grinder and had excellent burgers.  I added condiments and veggies to the burgers in lieu of putting anything into the ground meat.

 

I also made my own Italian and Breakfast sausages using the same materials plus spices available in several marketplaces and online recipes.  I didn't use a sausage stuffer and casings, I just fried them up.

 

BTW, I also got a few bad batches of ground pork and that's why I started grinding my own at home.  I bought a patty press from Lazada to keep them consistent and froze some for cooking later.

 

 

[Kenny202]

There was some Thai beef sold by Makro up until a few months ago....Pro Butcher brand and labelled "Dairy beef". I was buying 300 gram rump steaks for 90-120 baht a pack. Literally the most tender, flavorful beef I have ever eaten, and I am from Australia. I made the most of it while available but as always when Makro offer a really good, well priced product, they try and produce it themselves (poorly) . They still have a product labelled Dairy Beef but packaged under their own ARO brand. Its awful. Even so Makro sell Australian beef reasonably cheaply between 300-400 baht kg. Its not premium but decent and certainly good for burgers....you can use the cheaper cuts like chuck and brisket which is perfect for burgers. My wife had a burger restaurant and ground it up herself.

 

I like the idea of pork burgers but always seem to cook a bit mushy for my liking. Tried adding all sorts of things with no luck.

 

I too make sausages, bacon, bread, pies, jams. My pork breakfast sausages now are the best I have ever eaten. Grind my own shoulder pork so I can control fat content to around 20-30%. Got a cheap stainless hand wind sausage stuffer off Lazada for around 1200 baht (holds around 2kg) and I use natural hog casings. The stuffer broke after a few uses, typical of Chinese stuff these days (and getting worse). One of the brackets stainless spot welds broke. Were picking up the kids from school one day and saw a guy welding up some stainless gates and asked him if he could do a quick welding job. 200 baht and like a new one 🙂

 

Not sure on your skill level but my issue again when I first started doing sausages was texture. Dry and crumbly, too fatty. Sometimes decent, sometimes not and making a 5kg batch you want them to be consistent. The dog got quite a few batches. Someone put me onto a series of you tube videos "two guys and a cooler" showing the proper way to create sausages so they have that lovely bound, firm texture and retain all their juices and fats. It's all about Myosin creation which is achieved by proper salt levels, icy cold meat (before grinding) and mixing until a sticky mix is achieved. Its a real game changer. Not rocket science at all....15-18% salt, 10% water....All your bowls and steel grinding parts and cubed meat in the freezer until par frozen (before grinding). After grinding add your spices etc and mix in a stand mixer until the mixture gets thick and sticky. No need for any binders or thickening to your mix. Just 100% pork 🙂 If you are interested, have a look at the you tube videos. Was a real game changer for me. My batches now perfect and consistent every time. I do the thick sausages now. I was doing the thin breaky sausages in synthetic casings but didn't cook very well. The thick ones are much nicer. I like the outside of my sausages brown and crispy and by the time I achieved this by cooking for a while the inside was overdone. I coat mine in cornflour before cooking now. Really nice brown crusty coating