Deviled Beef Patties

Hamburger Press: So Simple, Yet Efficient

The more I learn how to eat like my grandmother, the more I am amazed at the portion sizes–and how satisfied I feel eating less food.  I was reminded, once again, how little meat we really need to eat while I was making some hamburgers to barbecue on July 4th.

I’ve never been very good at forming hamburgers.  They always ended up looking like rocks.  And they felt like rocks when we tried to bite into them.  And then I went through a period where I couldn’t stand touching raw meat/poultry.  I don’t know why, but I was just was totally creeped out by it.  As a result, The Mister took over the responsibility of forming the hamburger patties on those rare occasions when I would serve him something other than beans and rice.

Because we had been away, The Mister was playing catch-up with his projects and had to go the studio to work for a little while on July Fourth.  That left me with the task of forming the hamburgers.  Now, since I’ve started cooking like my grandmother, I’m not creeped out by raw meat anymore.  I’m not afraid to stick my hand into a bowl to mix everything up.  But, I was still concerned about forming the hamburgers.

And then I remembered it.

One of the gadgets I had inherited from my grandparents was a “hamburger press.”  It works like a charm!  I just filled the press with the hamburger mix, turned the knob and out came a perfectly formed hamburger.  Out of curiosity, I decided to weigh a few of the patties individually.  They all weighed 4 ounces almost to the T.  It was amazing to me.  In my grandparents’ day, that would have been considered an enormous hamburger.  To put it into perspective,  in the olden days of my teenage years, these hamburgers would have been considered McDonald’s largest hamburger–The Quarter Pounder  (the Big Mac has two 1.6 ounce hamburgers for a total of 3.2 ounces of meat).  McDonalds’ original hamburgers have 1.6 ounces of meat.  That’s it.  To put even more perspective on it, McDonalds’ smallest hamburger is roughly the daily protein portion recommended by the American Heart Association for a 150 pound person (not the 40 pound children that we feed them to–see the Modern Retro Woman post on the topic of protein requirements).

A few years ago, I found a recipe for Deviled Beef Patties in the Better Homes and Gardens 1972 edition of Eat and Stay Slim. I know this cookbook is beyond my 1960 cut-off date, but it belonged to The Mister’s grandmother so I snagged it when I got the chance.  I have since seen many recipes called “Deviled Something” and, of course, there  are the very popular “deviled eggs.”  My unscientific research has led me to believe that anything called “deviled something” means that there is going to be mustard, for sure, and often horseradish, too.  If anyone knows the etymology of it, please share it with us.  I’m guessing that the mustard (and horseradish) are supposed to make the food spicier and “hotter,” thus the reference to the devil.

Because these hamburgers are so moist, be patient when cooking them.  If you try to flip them too soon, they will disintegrate.  If you are cooking them stovetop, that isn’t necessarily a problem if you don’t mind crumbly hamburgers.  But on the barbecue, a good portion of the hamburger will fall between the grill rungs (and, for the sake of my marriage, I will refrained from telling you why I know this to be true…).

I make up a double or triple batch, form the patties, wrap the uncooked extras individually in plastic wrap and then wrap a group of them together before freezing them.  The plastic wrap aids in separating the frozen patties from each other.  I just cook them in the pan from frozen and it takes only a few minutes on each side.  Yummy!

Deviled Beef Patties

Combine 1 pound ground beef, 1 egg, 1/4 cup chili sauce, 1 teaspoon prepared mustard, 1 teaspoon prepared horseradish, 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and dash pepper.  Mix well.  Makes four 4-ounce patties.