Everyone has made hamburgers before. Have you ever put burgers on the grill and they end up falling apart and going through the grates? Or you wonder how to get those perfectly round hamburgers that look so nice on the bun? Well it’s really easy and I’m going to show you how in the video below.

Video Details

A lot of people use eggs or some other kind of binder in their hamburgers to make them stay together. You don’t need any binders. The hamburgers will stay together fine if you use these simple instructions:

Start by grabbing the amount of meat you want to use for your hamburger. This of course depends on how thick and how big around you want your hamburgers to be. For me I grab about 1/3 pound of meat. This make a hamburger that covers the bun just right and is just the right thickness. Just be aware that if you make your hamburgers too thick the outside may burn before the inside is cooked completely and that’s not good times at all.

I use my digital scale so that all the hamburgers are the same size and will cook in the same amount of time. Of course hamburger making is not an exact science and if you’re a bit off on the weight it won’t make that much difference.

Once you’ve grabbed off a portion of meat, start rolling it around and in your hands and squishing it between your fingers. What you’re trying to do here is warm up the fat in the hamburger. Once the fat warms up it acts kind of like a glue to bind the meat together. After about 20 or 30 seconds, the meats will come together as a nice solid mass. This is important. If the meat still has “layers” or big creases and cracks, keep working it.

Now that the meat is together, roll it between your two hands and form a ball. Flatten the ball between your hands. Take the patty in one hand and use your other hand to lightly squeeze the edges of the patty. Work your way around the patty a few times until it’s as large and thick as you like. Don’t go to fast or squeeze too hard or the patty will split.

Now lay the patties one of top of another with pieces of wax paper in between.

Ready for the super-complicated last secret step? Here it is: Put the patties in the refrigerator for a couple of hours before you cook them. What this does is resolidify the fat in the patties and help them stay together once you start cooking them.

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I bought the Cuisinart HM-50 Power Advantage 5-Speed Hand Mixer mixer back in August of 09′. We’ve had a lot of good times but it mixer finally gave out on me. I was making cookies and there was a clunking sound inside the mixer and and the right side of the mixer would no longer turn but continued to make a grinding clunking sound. I figured I’d use the mixer for as long as possible until it completely broke.

The next time I used it was to make mashed potatoes. I assumed all would be well since mashed potatoes aren’t that tough to mix up. But I heard that familiar clunking noise and the left side of the mixer would no longer mix either. So both sides don’t mix and there’s a continuous clunking grinding noise inside. It’s officially dead.

This was on the weekend so I had to wait until Monday to call Cuisinart. They were very nice. I’ll be getting a replacement. The warranty on the mixer is “limited”. They explained to me that the “limited” clause means their warranty doesn’t cover shipping so I have to send $10 for that. That’s not a bad deal though since I paid $45 for the mixer originally.

Until the mixer broke it was reall nice. Unlike a lot of mixers it has a swivel cord so as you’re moving around the cord stays out of the way. The mixer is plenty powerful although it did whine a fair amount when I made cookies. That’s probably what wore on the motor a lot. If you make a lot of things from really tough/stiff dough you might want to look into a mixer with more torque.

If you do intend to work with things like bread dough with the mixer then the optional dough hooks you can buy work really well. I had to look around quite a bit before I found them. I ended up finding them on eBay. They were about $10.

If I weren’t getting a replacement mixer for $10 I would look for something with more power but for the price I paid and the amount of use I got out of this mixer I think it was definitely a good deal.

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