I love making hamburger patties from scratch. It makes me feel all “Suzy homemaker” like, and that makes me feel cool. My make ahead hamburger patties are easy to put together and the patties freeze perfectly making it a nice addition to my growing list of freezer meals.
Let me show you just how easy making your own hamburger patties can be. Here are my step by step photo directions.
Make Ahead Hamburger Patties
Step 1.
Step 2.
Step 2.Step 3.
Step 3.Step 4.
Step 4.
Check out my post on how to form the perfect hamburger patties. There are many ways to do it, I used the shallow bowl method.
Step 5.
Step 6.
Step 6.
See how easy that was? Only 6 simple steps and it really doesn’t take very long either.
To cook : You can cook burgers frozen or thawed. Thawed seems to work better for me, but you can do either. Cook burgers to desired doneness.
My favorite way to make them is to toast some nice quality buns on the grill or on broiler in the oven. Have some crispy bacon, avocado, tomatoes, onions and crisp lettuce ready. After the first flip add in some cheese, allow it to melt. Then add burger to bun with all other toppings.
YUM! I really wish I could just make the food, take the pictures, eat the food and be done. To relive that blissful moment of snarfing down that burger through writing up this post and posting all these pictures is pure torture. Suddenly I feel like I’m STARRRRVVING!!!!
Here is the recipe for my make ahead hamburger patties. They will work perfect for those 4th of July BBQ’s we will all be attending this weekend. Enjoy!
Homemade Hamburger patties
Ingredients
- 2 lbs ground beef
- 4 tsp paprika
- 3 tsp ground black pepper
- 2 tsp ½ fine sea salt
- 1 tsp dark brown sugar
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
Instructions
- Combine all the spices in a small bowl, mix together.
- In another bowl add the ground beef and about 3/4 of the spices. Mix to combine well.
- Shape meat into hamburger patties and layer on cookie sheet. Sprinkle both sides of burger with a little bit of leftover spice mixture. Layer parchment in between each layer of shaped hamburger patties.
- Freeze. After frozen solid stack into a gallon sized freezer safe bag. Label and freeze.
- To cook : You can cook burgers frozen or thawed. Thawed seems to work better for me, but you can do either. Cook burgers to desired doneness.
Is it possible or recommended to add diced onion to the raw hamburger meat with the seasonings and freeze for later use?
Yes that’s totally great – you can freeze them ahead with seasonings and raw diced onion. 🙂
Easy and delicious
Can you freeze these with shredded cheese in them
Yes I think that would work! 🙂
Question, I have never made hamburgers on the stove or in the oven on my own. Recommendations please? Would end up eating on a bun or a plate w cheese. Im clueless on stove top or oven. Would prefer to be able to put in oven for less mess.
Thanks!
It’s best to grill or even pan fry your hamburgers, I’ve never baked them.
350 degrees for about 30 minutes. Invest in a digital meat thermometer to check for doneness. They are done at 180 degrees on the thermometer. Flip halfway through, but no big deal if you forget.
For how long can this be kept on the freezer?
What is your “rule of thumb” in regards to adding an egg and freezing?
How long are the patties good for frozen in the freezer? And will this work with ground turkey?
Could these be cooked and then frozen and heated in the microwave. Trying to prepare meals for my sister who is returning home after a stay in short term nursing home
Yes it can be done in the microwave but you must be aware of a few things. The most important is that microwaves penetrate the food to excite the water molecules in the food being “cooked.” Hamburger meat is not like pure water and therefore will heat inconsistently through the meat. Be mindful that it is cooked all the way through and around. This brings up the second subject and that is browning. Since microwaves are used instead of heat, the meat will not turn colors. I remember using our very first microwave, almost 40 years ago. I heated that hamburger patty for almost 20 minutes waiting for it to look like it was cooked! Some recipes call for darkening agents- brown sugar, wort. sauce, etc. to make the meat not so red when done.
I have a huge family reunion coming up next July we would like to have hamburgers but I don’t want to be standing outside on the grill constantly I am wondering if I cook the hamburgers ahead what will they taste like and how do I reheat them without losing the good taste whenever I reheat a hamburger I think it taste terrible I just don’t know what to do but I need help
AMAZING! My family loved it. Thank you so much.
does it have to be dark brown sugar? i have light will that work?
Excellent recipe. I tried it and it was great.
Thank you
Great post!! About how long do you flash freeze for? I want to make sure I’m not keeping them in too long.
Just until they are rock solid frozen – then you can remove the little hamburger disks and add to freezer safe bag.
These are awesome burgers! Thanks for sharing!
Glad you like them, Helen!
My rule of thumb is never to freeze anything twice as it just loses some of the flavor. So when you get the meat fresh from the store it’s best to shape into patties and freeze so they only thaw out when you are ready to cook them.
Love these! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Glad you like it!
Yeah, glad you liked them!
Been looking all morning for a good hamburger recipe and I am excited to try this one out! Making some for supper tonight and to freeze the rest!
What do you think about adding a teaspoon of cayenne? I tried it at home and it seemed to add a little kick to it
Yum!
I’m just wondering what you mean by flash freeze? Thank you for the great post!
Flash freeze is when you freeze items separately on a cookie sheet. Then once they are frozen individually, you can you add them into a ziploc bag or other container to finish freezing without worrying that they will freeze together in a large clump. It just gives you the possibility to take individual portions out at a time.
Thanks. I often wonder how to freeze them without them smudging together
Our Zaycon ground beef order is do this month and I want to prep some burgers like you too! I hate the cardboard ones from the stores…bleck! Oh, one question…from your 2 lbs of meat, how many burgers do you think you made?
*due*…lol 🙂
I think it all depends upon how big you make them. I like mine really big so when they grill and do the shrink thing they are still pretty big. So I think I got around 7-8 BIG burgers from 2 lbs. If you make them skinnier or smaller you might get 10-12.
Perfect 🙂 Thank you!
it also depends on the fat ratio as cheep ground beef can haves 40% fat to as low as 7 percent fat in ground sirloin but the best ratio in a hamburger is 15-20% and if you want to keep them more the a week I suggest vac sealing them