On 8/23/2004, nancree wrote:

>The real secret to making very good hamburgers is this:
>DON'T start with frozen beef patties !!!!

<snip>

> And the best ground round to buy is with 15% fat ! Keeps it
>moist. Pure ground sirloin is disappointingly dry.

My ideal hamburger is a 50/50 combination of round and chuck
coming in at around 15% fat (a little higher because of the chuck).
I always buy and use it the same day. I never freeze it. I know
that some posters here grind their own (Sheldon, for example),
which I'm sure makes for a superior result, but I've never quite
gotten into it that much.

I don't always prepare my ideal hamburger. In recent years, as
a small nod to dietary issues, I often use the low fat ground beef
(e.g., the 4% or 7% fat), and I have learned to like it (sort of), much
like when I switched from regular milk to non-fat milk. The first time
I tried non-fat milk, it seemed thin and watery with its odd "bluish"
ring at the surface of the glass, but, given a little time, I got used
to it, and regular milk almost tastes too rich for frequent consump-
tion.

My only real issue with the low fat beef is that it comes prepackaged
from the distributor, and the packages (at least in my stores) don't
say what cuts are used. The store meatcutters will tell you if you
ask, but I still think the package ought to include this information.

What really puts me off are these 3 pound opaquely wrapped
packages of ground "beef" that look to me like Duraflame logs.
I suppose they are technically beef, but what exactly they are
is a bit of a mystery. I once bought a 1 pound version of this
product (7% fat - or so the package said). I crumbled it, pan fried
and tasted a bit. It wasn't terrible, but the raw product was on
the damp side. I fed the rest to the dog, who thought it was great.
The dog lived.