My husband came home one day with this weird looking plastic gadget that made no sense to me, until my 12 -year-old told me how to use it: it it’s a stuffed burger press. We’ve been making stuffed burgers for years, but this silly little gadget actually works great. It’s messy and a little awkward, but it gives you nicely formed burgers with a perfect hole in the middle, so your burgers cook evenly with a tasty, gooey surprise in the middle!
So here’s what you do with it:
1 glass of wine – white or red, whatever you like
2 pounds-ish lean ground beef
2 eggs
1 Tbsp Montreal steak spice
Step 1: Drink some wine.
Step 2: Mush the burger, eggs and spice all up, get your hands in there, squeeze between your fingers – it’s kinda therapeutic!
Filling:
You really can do anything you want with this, but make sure that you use a soft cheese rather than a hard one. Softer cheese such as mozzarella, Havarti, goat cheese, etc. will melt better and give you a gooey, tasty burger. You can stuff your burgers with only cheese, or add tidbits such as chopped tomatoes, Kalamata olives, etc.
Here’s what we do for these burgers:
1 glass of wine – let’s face it, you’ve finished the first glass already
2 onions, finely sliced
2 cups mushrooms, finely chopped
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp olive oil
Step 1: Drink more wine.
Step 2: Melt butter over medium high heat with the olive oil – this will prevent the butter from burning and will add a layer of flavour to your onions and mushrooms. Toss in the onions and sauté for 5 minutes, until the onions start to soften and cook.
Step 3: Toss in the mushrooms and sauté together until mushrooms and onions are browned and caramelized. Remove from heat.
Step 4: Grate your cheese. We use an herb and garlic Havarti, but you could use a plain Havarti, provolone or mozzarella. Line up your burger, cheese and onion mix and prepare to stuff.
Step 5: Slap a small handful of burger into your burger press, even it out and then press the top of the burger press into it to form a depression or hole in the burger patty.
Step 6: Put 1 tablespoon of onion and mushroom filling in the hole, then fill with cheese. Don’t overfill your burger or you won’t be able to seal it and the burgers will open when they cook.
Step 7: Flip over the top of the burger press and fill with burger evenly. Then press firmly (don’t go all “Hulk” on it, just press gently). Then lift the outside of the press and gently pull the burger out. You will have to fiddle with it to get it out nicely and then make sure that it’s sealed all the way around. You don’t want all of that cheesy goodness spilling out all over your barbeque!
Step 8: Drink more wine, this is messy and time consuming and you’ll need the liquid motivation
Step 9: Repeat and grill.
Note: Cook your burger thoroughly. Ground beef must be fully cooked to prevent the possibility of food poisoning.
This makes huge burgers, so you will only need one per person unless you did go all “Hulk” and need more fuel to finish the day. Dress your cooked burgers however you like, adding more cheese if you love it and don’t have high cholesterol. Then enjoy biting into your ooey gooey summer goodness!
If you don’t have a silly messy burger press, you can easily do this just by forming burger patties with your hands and then putting two together, stuffing and sealing the edges. And if you do get a burger press and can’t figure out how to use the stupid thing, I’ll send my 12 year old over to help you!
