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 3.
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.
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!
Hamburger Patties are easy to put together and the patties freeze perfectly easy to make!
- 2 lbs ground beef
- 4 teaspoons paprika
- 3 teaspoons ground black pepper
- 2 teaspoons ½ fine sea salt
- 1 teaspoon dark brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
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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.
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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.
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!
I also agree with her It depends on the thickness of patty, I prefer compact and thick patty however the struggle to keep the thickness are real! haha
i bought patty presser, its like a injector that compressed patty..I couldnt find it in any store..I bought one at shorisuperstore.com online…
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
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!
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!
I made the burgers last weekend best burgers ever on the bbq thank you for the recipe.
Yeah, glad you liked them!
Love these! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Glad you like it!
These are awesome burgers! Thanks for sharing!
Glad you like them, Helen!
Would you freez the hamburger before making the patties? I have done this and it seams to make the burgers tast bad.
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.
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.
Excellent recipe. I tried it and it was great.
Thank you
does it have to be dark brown sugar? i have light will that work?
I tried doing the patty myself, and doing it by bare hands are quite difficult, thickness are inconsistent. I tried patty compressor, and I am satisfied knowing it is packed and do not seperate in case I flame grilled ala burger king style.
AMAZING! My family loved it. Thank you so much.
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.
How long are the patties good for frozen in the freezer? And will this work with ground turkey?
What is your “rule of thumb” in regards to adding an egg and freezing?