One Hamburger Summer

Glad you like the idea bourj,
You can always grind the meat yourself… Or go to any super market, pick out a nice and fresh chuck roast, ring the bell at the butcher counter and ask them to grind it for you. If it’s a decent market, they’ll be glad to do it for with no charge.
And please come back and post your results

I had some turkey brats that needed to be used so on Memorial Day I decided to find something to do with them.

I was curious about how well they might mix with ground beef in hamburgers so I came up with 3 different ratios: 1:5 (top), 2:4 (center, 2 burgers), and 3:3 (bottom). Each burger was 6 oz and I wanted to try a 1.5:4.5 mix, but the 1-lb package of beef held exactly that so I came up 1/2 oz short.


Ground poultry can be kind of gooey and it didn't mesh with the beef all that well, and I was afraid that if I worked the mixture too much I'd break down the beef.


They weren't hard to cook but they stuck to the grate a bit more than 100% beef burgers would've.


Because of the turkey I had to cook them quite thoroughly and definitely more than usual. They were slightly dry but not awful and the bratwurst seasonings were noticeable, but overall they were fairly bland. I didn't add anything to the meat mixture and maybe a little salt would've been a good idea.


It's not a bad concept and I'd try it again, but not with turkey. Pork or pork/veal brats would be a much better choice.

Brad

Here is some ground meat on a stick: Beef & Lamb Koftas which were the first recipe I made from Planet BBQ. I also made the Simple Moroccan Hot Sauce & Tomato Olive Relish sidebar recipes from the same section.





Some chopped cilantro, mint & parsley were combined with hot paprika, salt & pepper plus the meat. I made a batch of both beef & lamb.







The beef or lamb plus spices mixture was formed into egg shaped balls & then stretched out into sausage shapes on flat metal skewers. I also grilled up some cherry tomatoes. The last picture shows the koftas on the grill. They are grilled by setting the skewers up on foil wrapped bricks so they don't contact the grill grate.







I served the Beef & Lamb Koftas on a bed of rice with the grilled cherry tomatoes, plus some pita bread, Tomato & Olive Relish as well as some Simple Moroccan Hot Sauce which lived up to it's name.

This meal was a big hit and I plan to make it again, but I will change two things next time:

1) The recipe said use 80 or 85 percent lean beef. I used 80 and next time I will switch to 85 for sure. There was quite a bit of shrinkage and the dripping fat caused flareups and you can't just move these anywhere since you are involved with bricks too.

2) The meat was on the verge of falling apart on the grill. Next time around I am going to add some egg or bread crumbs, or both to serve as a binder. Even after refrigerating the meat it still wasn't as firmly combined as I would have hoped.

Jim

That looks good Brad,
I’ve used pork Brats in meat loaf with great success. I’ll have to try them in Burgers as well. Keep the ideas coming

Awesome Jim!!!
Kofta is my favorite food in the whole world!!
Check this past post for few hints to help keep the meat on the skewers
http://www.barbecuebible.com/board/view ... aking+soda
I will also add a couple of point in addition to my previous post:
1- Molding the meat around the wide skewer is extremely important.
Those flat skewers can help you or work against you. I’ll explain. As you know meat shrinks as it cooks and it bunches up towards the center of the skewers. If you mold the meat very thinly around the edges of the skewers, when the meat shrinks, the skewer edges act as a knife and cut the meat into to layers and it will full off.
To avoid this, you must mold the meat thinly around the center of the skewer and make it thicker around the edges. This way when it shrinks and draws towards the center of the skewer, it would have enough room and wouldn’t cut the meat. That’s why the wider the skewer the better results you would have. Wider skewer allow room for the center of the meat to spread out. If you use thin rounded skewers, you would shape the meat in a cylinder shape and would have to worry about edges. However, the meat would have to be extremely dry so it won’t fall off- refer to hints in above link.
2- The distance between the fire and the meat accounts for success vs. failure. I think Steven mentioned this in one of his books- 90% of failure of this method is contributed to the distance!!
Think about it, if the meat is too high above the fire, the fat would melt before the meat had a chance to sear. Once the fat melts, the soft meat would fall off. You got to cook close to the fire and sear the meat quickly.
Note in this picture that I used three different types of skewers, one more square and rounded (far left), three 1â€

BBcue-Z; how much hamburger goes around one of those stuffed chicken breasts? Did you use an 80/20 mixture?

Thanks for the great tips BBCUE-Z. Kofta is certainly moving up on my list of great foods. My guests had never had it before and they liked it even more than I did, if that is possible.

I used some of SR's flat skewers, the smallest ones, and there seemed to be enough meat around the skewer, so I think the shape and amount of meat is ok.But based on the link you provided I will try some bread crumbs, I will skip the egg I was thinking of using & I will stick with the 80 percent meat instead of going to 85 percent.

I had a similar problem with the veal burgers from BBQ USA which wanted to deconstruct and also stick to the grill. It took a couple tries and I solved that problem but I was successful. I have no doubt it will take some more trial and error here to, but I can't wait ti trt again. Thanks again for the great pix and tips.

Jim

chad miller wrote:

BBcue-Z; how much hamburger goes around one of those stuffed chicken breasts? Did you use an 80/20 mixture?

Chad,
Yes I use 80/20 mixture. Just make sure you form it about 1/4 inch thick around the chicken so it won’t tear during cooking. As far as how much, I really couldn’t be exact, you’ll need enough to cover the chicken, so it depends on the size of chicken breast used. I would guess no more than a quarter pound per burger. The burgers look big, but really not too much ground beef was used, since it’s only covering the outside. Give it a try and let me know what you think……

You are welcome Jim,
Yes, we definitely learn by trail and error, a little observation and lots of determination.
Please come back and share your next Kofta experience with us.

"Makes hamburgers taste like steakburgers."

Remember those words spoken by veteran character actor James Murtaugh in the A-1 commercials of the late '70s and early '80s? Last week I was putting together some burgers for supper and for some reason I remembered the ads and decided to see just how accurate the above statement was.

Seems like everyone's putting bacon into burgers these days; yesterday at the grocery store I saw premade patties with raw bacon and cheese mixed right in. I tried a slightly different approach and cooked the bacon first so that the burgers wouldn't need to be grilled enough to render some of the fat.


The reason I remember the ad was that the cooked bacon wasn't mixing in with the beef as well as I wanted and I thought a little liquid might help. I didn't have any A-1 so instead I used London Pub Steak & Chop sauce, which is kind of an A-1 clone that sells for about $1 less per bottle, and it did help make better patties.


I thought about adding cheese directly to the burgers but thought that might make the patties a bit crowded, so I put some American slices on the top. Whenever I put the cover on to melt the cheese some flyash tends to collect on the burgers but most of it can be brushed away, and whatever's left...hey, it's just extra roughage.


Earth Grains has introduced a line of pita-style flat whole-grain buns and we tried them with the burgers. They have a slightly sweet taste and are pretty good, but also cost about 2 to 3 times as much as regular white buns. The burgers were nice and moist and had good flavor, so I can't say that James Murtaugh steered me wrong!:lol:


Brad

Nothing wrong with adding a little A-1 to the mix, as a matter of fact, I just did the same thing myself a little while ago and I even bought some of the same thin little bread/buns for the build. My burgers aren't anything special, just plain ol' burgers with a few things ( onion,garlic,bread crumbs,sea salt and pepper oh and the A-1) The store was sold out of potato salad so I ended up making a quick batch of my own. I intend to fire up the grill around 6:00. hopefully the temps will drop into the upper 80"s by then. Nice looking beef rounds Brad, as a matter of fact, all the beef rounds here look really really good, thats why I'm doing some tonight.

EDIT: rain delay,man did it come down, rats

jfm0830 wrote:

Thanks for the great tips BBCUE-Z. Kofta is certainly moving up on my list of great foods. My guests had never had it before and they liked it even more than I did, if that is possible.

I used some of SR's flat skewers, the smallest ones, and there seemed to be enough meat around the skewer, so I think the shape and amount of meat is ok.But based on the link you provided I will try some bread crumbs, I will skip the egg I was thinking of using & I will stick with the 80 percent meat instead of going to 85 percent.

I had a similar problem with the veal burgers from BBQ USA which wanted to deconstruct and also stick to the grill. It took a couple tries and I solved that problem but I was successful. I have no doubt it will take some more trial and error here to, but I can't wait ti trt again. Thanks again for the great pix and tips.

Jim

Kofta is one of my favorites as well. I really like the fact that a lot more meat is exposed to the flames, as this means you get more crust on the meat (and to me that's the best part).

When I started making kofta I had the same problems as a lot of people do with the meat falling off the skewers. Z's tip about molding the meat so it's thicker around the edges really works well, and he's absolutely right about the distance from the meat to the coals too. Kofta are fairly thin, so they cook very quickly over a hot fire.

I used 1/2" skewers for the longest time, but I happened across a few 1" and 3/4" skewers a few years ago on clearance at the end of the summer back in 2007. The thicker skewers make all the difference as the 1/2" ones are a bit too thin to keep the meat from rotating on the skewer and then falling off. And if you want to try an Adana kebab (which is in Planet Barbecue) the 1" skewers are the ones I'd recommend using - they're the ones the Turkish grillmasters at some of the local culture festivals up here use for them.

As for the meat sticking, I find that Steven's grill mantra works best: Keep it hot, keep it clean, and keep it lubricated. Currently I stick half an onion dipped in oil onto a grill fork for the last part, and it's the only use I have for that grill fork that comes in every single BBQ tool set on the planet.

Brad_Olson wrote:

"Makes hamburgers taste like steakburgers."

Remember those words spoken by veteran character actor James Murtaugh in the A-1 commercials of the late '70s and early '80s? Last week I was putting together some burgers for supper and for some reason I remembered the ads and decided to see just how accurate the above statement was.
Brad

That’s great stuff Brad,
I like all the ingredients you incorporated into your burgers. They look and sound delicious!!!
I also like those flat buns, they do cost more, but I like to taste the meat without getting a mouth full of bread. Before they become available at the store, I used cut the pocketless Greek pit into burger size and use them.

CanadaBBQGuy wrote:

When I started making kofta I had the same problems as a lot of people do with the meat falling off the skewers. Z's tip about molding the meat so it's thicker around the edges really works well, and he's absolutely right about the distance from the meat to the coals too. Kofta are fairly thin, so they cook very quickly over a hot fire.

Great minds think alike

I strayed from my diet today and on my lunch break, my boss and I went to Pawley's Front Porch in downtown Columbia. Someone told me that Guy Fieri went there on his show Diners, Drive-In's and Dives. Most of their burgers are named after the islands around Charleston. I got a Wadmalaw burger that was OUT OF THIS WORLD!! It had applewood smoked bacon, sharp cheddar, fried pickles, tomato and spicy chipotle bbq sauce on there. Un-frickin-believable! I can't wait to try them ALL! Best part about it too is that you can order it medium rare since they grind their own meat. Oh yeah, you can also get veal and lamb burger there too. If anyone is ever in the area, it's definitely a place to check out!