I use a kitchen scale . . . it does grams and ounces (by weight)
time comes, “burgers” become in demand.
I’ll buy a big package of ground beef - for burgers I look for 80/20 fat - tried 85/15, found that to be a bit on the dry side.
made 4 ounce patties . . . bit skimpy so,
once upon a day I cut out 6 ounces of ground beef and, using a ring mold, made a ‘burger patty’ - it was immense on the plate/bun, soooo big.
thence later made 5 ounce beef patties, using (same) ring mold.
munching away, , , came to “compare” these rather generous burgers to stuff fast food joints sell as “quarter pound” aka four ounces…
no flipping comparison.
what do the fast food joint do to shrink 4 ounces of ground beef into a thin ~2 ounce ‘looking’ patty?
now, indeed . . . not everyone ‘scales’ their ground beef to make a home burger - but any “it is how big?” experience with known/proven/actual 4 or 5 or 6 ounces by weight burgers vs. the common resto/fast food “claims?”
A local burger stand advertises it’s 1/3 pound char-broiled burgers. They also have 1/6 pound “baby burgers”. I’ve been getting the smaller ones, and after a while I found the larger ones to be too much. Another joint seems to have 1/6 pound as the standard, but they seem bigger. At home, I’ve started making the 1/3 pound brisket patties from Trader Joe’s, and for some reason they’re about the right size.
I don’t understand the competition for size in burgers and steaks. What would I do with a 12 ounce ribeye, except take a large part of it home and dry it out while reheating?
My favorite place of old used an ice cream scoop.
When we’d hit it after the bars closed the cook would be scooping balls and placing a sheet of wax paper between each.
Smashed down when he threw them on the grill.
I miss those.
2 Likes
CCE
(Keyrock the unfrozen caveman lawyer; your world frightens & confuses me)
4
I most often mix ground sirloin (usually 90-10 ish) and chuck (more like 83/17-ish or fatter) in equal amounts.
The burgers I make from this are usually 5.33 ounces (151 grams).
Works for us quite well.
And contrary to Kenji’s advice at Serious Eats, I salt (and add garlic & onion powder) as I separate the two meats onto a sheet pan before I make the patties.
the 1/3 lb size - ~5 ounces - is, for me, quite adequate.
why a “1/4 pound” resto/fast food burger seems so small compared to a 4 ounce home burger remains a mystery.
oh, the steaks !
one thing I enjoy in eating out is an appetizer of something ‘not simple/easy’ to make.
so a 5-6 ounce steak is plenty for me, considering that I also like veggies!
most steak offerings now-a-days seem to start at 10 ounces , , , up to 10 pounds. well, not really 10 pounds, but way too big.
I do 5 oz at home. 4 is too small and 6 is too big (for my personal preference). The costco pack is something like 21 oz so it ends up being 4 patties a tad over 5 oz. One for each of us, and one leftover!
I’ve been buying the Costco frozen grass fed hamburger patties, at 1/3 lb each. For a home burger this seems like a good size. Get a decent amount of beef but not too much and not overwhelming. The only time I opt for a bigger burger is at a sit down restaurant that’s known for their burger, like Nopa in SF. Making a hand pressed big burger at home can get messy without a good bun and even then it can get unwieldy. Need to let the burger rest but that rarely happens.
most often, there’s no choice of ‘burger size’ in the places we’ve visited.
but don’t buy ‘pre-made patties/burger’ - I chop up a mega-pound package of ground beef using a scale, then ‘season / etc’ -
I can only (roughly) relate the resto burger size based on my home-made 4/5/6 ounces burgers.
I’m fond of mushroom-swiss burgers - at a ‘sports bar’ managed to ‘special order’ a non-menu ‘regular’ burger with fried onion, mushrooms and Swiss cheese. I’m thinking the ‘regular burger’ was the size I got - it was excellent, but it was at least 6 ounces of beef. being the venue of rowdy sports fans hootin&hollerin with 20 different games on 60 various jumbo tv screens, I suspect the ‘way too big’ burger is the draw for the beer&burger game crowd.
" . . . can get messy . . . "
I have multiple sizes of ring molds - which is a advantage for fitting the burger to the bun . . .
