On Thu, 5 Feb 2015 01:42:23 -0800, "Julie Bove"
> wrote:

>Just curious how you make yours. I made some yesterday that were a bit of a
>fail for two reasons. One, the patties didn't stay together and two, the
>taste was off. I used sort of a compilation of recipes and added a little
>bit of ketchup and Worcestershire sauce. I think those two things were a
>mistake! I also added bread crumbs to the meat and that may have
>contributed to them not staying together. I made with with brown gravy
>(from scratch) and a lot of onions. Only other things that I added were
>salt, pepper, parsley and some dried onions to the meat. No cream soup or
>egg. Would have been a really good meal had it not been for the slightly
>off flavor.

As others have said, for me a "hamburger" is just ground beef, perhaps
sprinkled with a little salt and pepper and maybe some modest other
spices if you must, but generally you're going to slather stuff on top
of it later so it's just meat.

Then there is that school lunch special, "Salisbury Steak" apparently
aka "Hamburger Steak", which allows other meatloaf-style ingredients
and drowning in brown sauce. Meatloaf is a black art and one I've
small experience cooking, though some eating.

Where you go with it depends on where you start, with good meat or
cheap. Meatloaf can have just about anything in the world thrown in,
based on a good recipe.

Ketchup in the hamburger then covered by brown sauce, was probably a
mistake.

And if it didn't even hold together then you used way too many bread
crumbs (or didn't mix them, or used dry croutons instead of smaller,
softer crumbs?), or possibly way too lean meat! Most burgers taste
better when made with higher-fat meat and adding bread crumbs is made
to keep more of the fat in place instead of running it off, so be sure
that's what you want to do.

J.