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Frozen 1/4lb hamburger patties recommendations.

7K views 68 replies 24 participants last post by  Stoveman 
#1 ·
It has been getting to where the frozen hamburger patties found in my local stores are not worth buying. Filled with gristle, sometimes bone chips and not very good tasting. This has caused me to look online for what might be available.

The problem is (beyond price and some of the prices are steep!) that there are not many places that sell 1/4lb burgers (must be able to separate while frozen) though many have 1/3lb (too large in my opinion for regular hamburger buns). I am not impressed with all the buzz words like all grass fed or organic. Makes them sound like marketing to health food faddists and not those of us that care about taste. I want tender, flavorful meat that grills up without a lot of fat to cause flash fires. But enough to hold together and retain juices.

I have tentatively identified a couple of possibilities. Both have 16-1/4lb burger selections. One has corn fed beef and the other all grass fed. The corn fed is higher cost but may just be worth it.

Any of you folks out there have any favorites I could look at? I am not interested in making my own from fresh. Just too much hassle to do properly, and for a single guy, the ability to grill up one or two frozen pre-made patties is hard to beat.
 
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#3 ·
I don't know if you have HEB in you area, but here's what I really like.

https://www.heb.com/product-detail/...inal-beef-burgers/2043063#product-description

These are pre-cooked burgers and I find them to be very delicious. We've been getting these for about three years now and I've never had any gristle or bone in them.

If you don't have a HEB nearby, maybe your local grocery store has a pre-cooked version of their own.

I know I was reluctant to try pre-cooked meats because that kinda stuff tasted awful when I was younger. It seems to me "they" have come a long way since then though.
 
#23 ·
I recommend this too. Presses are cheap.

Let me trot out my old favorite advice on ground beef as well.

Whole packer briskets are already a perfect meat to fat ratio for home ground beef meals. You just have to find it at a price that is in your price per pound acceptable range, and get it ground. Many grocery butchers will give you a free grind if you buy the brisket from them and don't try to ask during a common period of store rush. Late weekday mornings are optimal for begging for a free grind. Memorial, Independence, and Labor holiday sales weeks are the most typical time for whole brisket sales.

Take the big lump of ground meat home, mix again to ensure even fat distribution, and start cranking out patties. Everything you need for the job is typically at most restaurant supply stores. Press, parchment sheets, foil and plastic wrap.

Labor Day is real close. Check online for all the grocers in a hour radius and watch for a brisket sale. $2.99/lb? Jump on it. Buy a 20lb brisket and make yourself up 60 patties and save 5lb for assorted other ground beef meals. The first time doing this may set you back a hundred between gas and a restaurant supply store trip, but next year it will get cheaper.

Obviously my big city access gives me advantages in this plan that you might not have, but it is worth looking into and adjusting. As long as you can find that whole packer brisket for the pound price of local cheap ground beef at least once a year then you can cobble the plan together somehow. You won't regret the taste.

This plan doesn't put you at the mercy of some distant patty maker, who are always so price proud of their product if the meat is decent, or getting stuck with stadium grade bone chip burger patties.

You could even pull this off if you have family you visit once a year in a place where brisket sales happen. Just get them to freeze the whole thing until you visit and buy an inexpensive meat grinder for when you drag it home. Done right you should be getting roughly one nice quarter pound patty for a buck a pop.
 
#8 ·
In my searching today I found a place called Western grassfed beef. I just put in a order for hamburger patties and a few other items like steaks and roasts (to get the free shipping if you buy $100 or more). I notice they are in California which is a fair piece from my place in Arkansas so it will be interesting how the thing works out. Especially with it being Summer time and all.

I will update this Thread once I get a chance to try them.
 
#12 ·
I've ground my own from beef knuckle trim leftovers. It was fresh but nothing to rave about. We habitually purchase already frozen Sam's Club ground sirloin patties. Rated 4.7 out of five stars, I know we really enjoy them. Now for the bad news; they're 1/3 pound before cooking. PS The trick to keeping the patties easy to separate is getting them to the cooler with freezer packs ASAP for the ride home.
 
#20 ·
We pasture raise / butcher 2 or 3 steers every year.
Then ground our own hamburger.
We use a WESTON Hamburger press for making patties.

If you can find good buys on bulk ground beef?
A Weston burger press makes it easy to make your own patties.
They are all over Amazon & eBay around $20.
 
#21 ·
We pasture raise / butcher 2 or 3 steers every year.
Then ground our own hamburger.
...
Which is a great way to save if you are dealing with several people to feed. However I am just one old guy and to keep up with the preparation, packaging, clean up and storage of large quantities of meat does not make a lot of sense. Heck I rarely eat much beef anymore. It has been several years since I have had beef roast or steaks.
 
#24 ·
BTW, as for prices of meats, my local stores always have periods when they discount meats with a pending expiration date. You just have to get a feel for when that is and where they park those meats (and dairy) time/location. Then go there often at that time and stock up.

It's quite common that I'll get meats and dairy with a 1-2 day expiration window, which is always generous by several days. Plenty of time to consume it or freeze the meat.

Since choice meat cuts are often the slowest sellers, those are generally discounted 50% to move them fast as the store otherwise takes a 100% loss. You'll easily score choice ground sirloin or angus, T-bones and other prime cuts, etc. at 30-50% discounts. Seafood and poultry too.

I load up, fill up the freezer immediately and thaw as needed. Generally save hundreds of dollars annually this way, and eat better too.
 
#26 ·
When I was in town everyday for my job I did take advantage of watching for good meat prices like you mention. I now only run to town once every 5 weeks or so. Thus finding a discount is unlikely. The other matter is the quality of available meats locally is not high by my standards and getting progressively worse. Most of the younger generation has no idea of how bad it is.
 
#25 ·
If you can find a decent motorized grinder at a thrift store or even online, you can grind some great tasting meat. Not just beef, but you can grind pork, and my favorite turkey. Around the holidays turkey can be gotten for as low as 25cents/lb. You can bone and grind it easily, freeze it, and have turkey all year mixed with your favorite seasonings. Turkey chili, turkey spaghetti, turkey patties. There's a huge difference in taste if you grind your own. If you almost freeze the meat, pork or poultry you can grind it much easier.
 
#27 ·
I have grinders and tools to process meat. Used to do it all the time as I was a hunter/fisherman and needed to process my catch. But I am no longer into that so it is hardly worth it for a single old guy that don't eat as much.

My thread is for people that have recommendations for places they have ordered frozen hamburger patties that they found was good.
 
#29 ·
Back when I was a young sprout my appetite was prodigious. If I ate that way now I would be either be dead or hideously obese. The metabolism slows as you age. Not to mention that in my family we tend to get skinnier as we grow old.

So no more eating 8 pieces of fried chicken as a snack before dinner. Or downing 43 slices of pizza during at all you can eat pizza nite (not counting the 3 pitchers of Coke and assorted potato wedges).

My diet is now down to about 2-3000 calories a day versus the 8-10,000 :cool:
 
#34 ·
Thanks, but I do not have any Costcos in my area. I suspect also that for all the big chains they have the same regional suppliers.

Back long time ago this was not always the case. I remember when Walmart stores had individual butchers in their stores and they bought beef locally. Nowadays it is all packed elsewhere and shipped out to the stores. You can not ask the store butcher to make you a special order. There is none. Now large urban areas may allow smaller stores to operate differently but in my location the small stores can not compete and are struggling since they mostly have the same merchandise at higher cost.

I know of only one independent butcher that allows you to custom order and he is about 60 miles away in a different direction than my routine shopping location. Though I am not entirely sure that he is still in business since it has been years since I have traveled that way. My old truck only gets 10 miles per gallon so I do not make unnecessary trips.
 
#37 ·
It has been getting to where the frozen hamburger patties found in my local stores are not worth buying. Filled with gristle, sometimes bone chips and not very good tasting. .
Matt, Can you list the brands that you have found gristle & bone chips in??

I used to live in TX and the HEB ones were awesome. Since coming back to SD I have been buying Ballpark but my last bag is on the last burger so I will need to buy again soon. Before buying another bag of Ballpark I want to make sure their quality has not slipped since it has been awhile since I got my last bag.

Thanks.

Mark
 
#39 ·
I had to give up on pre made burgers , I just cut slabs of burger out of a 20 lb wade of burger meats and cook it up .
Throw bacon and cheese on it with a shot of mayo and Katchup.
The kids will eat any thing (I have12 to 16 kids at all times ) we have been getting decent sliders ( small burger ) with good buns at a fair price from shop rite here in NY .
I don’t eat much bread .
But really I get a half cow of dry aged beef for about the same money.
 
#44 ·
That brings back memories of when I moved to Arkansas 21 years ago. I had stopped into a Sonic and ordered a burger. It came with mustard and no ketchup. Thinking that this was a simple oversight on someones part I took it up to the window (Drive in place) and asked for some ketchup for my burger. :eek: The gal behind the counter looked like she was about to have a cow. She explained that their burgers did not come with ketchup (The idea!) and was not sure that she should could give me some. I guess I was lucky that I was not followed back to my truck by some good old boys and taught a lesson for being a "dang furriner". :cool:
 
#45 ·
I press my own with a LEM press with plastic sheets. Stack them in a meat tub and freeze them. Separate and vacuum pack. Every fall/winter I put at least 40lbs of premade patties in the freezer. I have found that 1/2 deer meat and 1/2 wild hog makes the best burgers. I make some 1/4ish pound for hamburgers and 1/3-1/2 pounds for burger steaks.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
#49 ·
Bubba Burgers of course, we don't buy anything else, they are juicy and tasty, they are pricey but we don't eat hamburgers that often, I put them on the George Foremen grill directly from the freezer and they are done to perfection in 7-8 minutes. Not sure if you can buy them online but every place around here sells them minus places like Aldis
 
#52 ·
I received my order this afternoon. Although the weather has been hot the last few days (over 100F with heat index) it arrived still frozen with only a small amount of thaw on some of the hamburger packages. The shipping box had dry ice as a method to maintain the freeze and a good amount was still intact when it arrived. I am including some pictures of the order below.

I had hoped to use my gas grill to cook a couple of the burgers but by the evening the heat had kicked up a thunder storm and rain downpour. So I used my George Foreman electric grill inside instead.

My impressions: After opening one of the the packs of four burgers I was able to separate the frozen patties using a butter knife. The wax paper was a bit difficult to peel off since it was partly frozen into the edges of the burgers. I cooked the patties for 5 minutes and they came out slightly pink inside and moist. The taste and flavor was quite good but I did encounter a couple of pieces of gristle. I would say they are much better overall than the ones I can get from Walmart or Aldis. However at a little more than $2/patty I am not entirely convinced if the better quality is worth the higher price. I have suffered no gastric distress from eating them about 4 hours ago now.

I will avoid including selfies of me fondling my meat.
 

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#53 ·
$2 a patty is a bit steep, imo.

It's also a price that widens your fresh meat shopping options for DIY.

In any case, I said it all before. No sense in me belaboring it.
 
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#54 ·
Agree, though shopping options are far less that you realize compared to the highly urban location that you live. Houston is a city of 2.3 million. The whole state of Arkansas has only 3 million and most of that is in specific locations.

ETA: As a illustrative account. Many years back, in the city my dad and I would do our shopping in, a fellow opened up a seafood and fish market. Before this there was virtually no fresh seafood in the area with the exception of catfish, shrimp and Atlantic salmon (farm raised). My dad was a big seafood fan (having grown up in the Puget Sound region seafood was plentiful and of good quality) and I enjoy some if it is of the best quality, so we bought from this market several times. After about a year we see the "Going out of business" signs so we ask the owner what was up. He told us that the cost of bringing in the fish and seafood and the amount of local customers willing to pay for the best quality meant that he could not make any profit. Since then it has only gotten worse locally to buy the best or even acceptable fish and seafood.
 
#58 ·
I was able to grill up one of the Top Sirloins steaks from my order last evening between the rain storms. Major disappointment. Tough as all get out. Either they did not age the beef or the method of being only grass fed (regardless of it being "natural", "healthy", "free the Earth" kind of thing) makes for tough beef. The taste was good but I had trouble cutting it with a sharp steak knife. The rest of the steaks I will have to try tenderizing before grilling.

I had looked at the customer reviews for the steak, before including it in my order, on the sellers website and they were all glowing with how tender the meat was and that it was near as good as Filet Mignon. Either I got a bad batch or these people deluded themselves that because the beef was expensive, and all natural, it must be good. I have noticed this when people invest in buying certain things that to admit the purchase was less than they expected becomes a badge of shame. Instead they extol it. Never fully understood that. I guess it is a feeling that to admit to it would be the same as saying they made a mistake. People seem to hate that.

Good steak you can cut with a knife, great steak you can cut with your fork.

Oh well you never know sometimes you just have to hope and try.
 
#59 ·
I had looked at the customer reviews for the steak, before including it in my order, on the sellers website and they were all glowing with how tender the meat was and that it was near as good as Filet Mignon. Either I got a bad batch or these people deluded themselves that because the beef was expensive, and all natural, it must be good. I have noticed this when people invest in buying certain things that to admit the purchase was less than they expected becomes a badge of shame. Instead they extol it. Never fully understood that. I guess it is a feeling that to admit to it would be the same as saying they made a mistake. People seem to hate that.
I does seem to be getting harder and harder to trust internet reviews anymore. Also, I agree with your point about people extolling the virtues of a product even though it clearly sucks.

My own Pop is like that. He'll research something for a bit then purchase. Once he gets the item, it could clearly not work as intended or just plain be junk. However he acts as though is the greatest thing since sliced bread. So yeah, I don't get it either.

I also think more and more reviews are paid writers putting out fake reviews. I don't know If I trust reviews at all anymore.


But, then there's your review here and frankly I trust your single review more than I would a hundred 5-star reviews. At least we know you're a real person...I think.
 
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