Preformed hamburger patties at the Country Mart!

Forsyth MO. – In the meat section of the Country Mart store are preformed hamburger patties the likes of which I've found to be somewhat addictive!

At $3.99 a pound, these burgers were way more expensive than the regular packaged ground beef offerings, but I've never been accused of being very logical!

The patties both weighed in at about .35 of a pound. I prepared one on my venerable George Foreman grill, as it takes only a few minutes and much of the fat is drained off. From there, I added a bun, onion, mustard and ketchup and was ready to go! At about 340 calories, this wasn't a diet destroying meal, (as I reluctantly left off the side of potato chips)!

Critique: Best Choice frozen beef patties!

As many of my readers might have already guessed, frozen beef patties run in a wide range, as to ease of preparation and overall taste. Schwan's fire grilled Angus beef steak burger #444 is one of the best I've ever prepared or eaten! They are fully cooked and are ready from the microwave in a matter of minutes! Other frozen burgers required time to cook, either in a frying pan, broiled or from the grill. This offering from Best Choice is of the latter variety, but, not by much!

While I do not remember what I paid for these burgers, Value Mart sells them online for $18. Each patty is advertised to be a quarter pound or about 113 grams. That comes to about 1.3 cents per gram while Schwan's came in at 2.5 cent a gram! So, if the cost is a valid factor, it's established that perhaps the Best Choice burgers maybe not as high a quality as those offered by Schwan's on a gram for gram basis.

I choose to prepare my burger in a stainless steel frying pan on an induction plate. (I choose this arrangement due to the fact that induction cooking uses way less electricity that a regular stove top would). I also used a bit of Mrs. Dash steak seasoning. The directions were not very clear as they indicated you needed to cook the meat until the temperature had exceeded 165 degrees. If you don't happen to have a handy dandy meat thermometer, then you are forced to guess. I went ahead and guessed.

After cooking for a number of minutes, I allowed the meat to 'rest' on a paper towel for about a minute. I used that time to slice some onion and grab a few leaves of Romaine lettuce. Then, with some mustard and ketchup slathered on and a side of broccoli, I took a bite...

The taste was not all that bad. Mind you, it was not as good as the meat from Schwan's (could have been the seasoning), but definitely very edible. I gave it a 7 on a scale of 10. And after the package is used up, I'll have a decision to make, won't I.

Critique: Ballpark Flame grilled hamburger patties!

On a recent visit to my local grocery store, I was in search of some pre-made hamburger patties. You know the ones you don't even have to make yourself! They're ready to go into the microwave or grill of your choice.

The thing was, I didn't have a clue as to where they might be found and so stop the Deli lady to ask for help. Her name was Shelia

Odeela (I think) and right off the bat she wanted to know if I wanted the fresh or the pre-cooked patties. I stared helplessly into space waiting for some form of divine revelation when Shelia suddenly pointed to a package of Ballpark Flame Grilled patties that were on a frozen food shelf just a few feet away! With relief, I grabbed a bag and headed for the checkout counter. As I stood in line waiting my turn, I reflected that at $7.99 for a six (73 gram) burgers, I at least hoped the taste would be impressive! I was due that, right?

Once home, I extracted a frozen burger and elected to go the 'stove top route. I noted that the patty looked for all the world like a rotting piece of cardboard and when I placed it on a hot skillet there was no 'sizzling' sound. Well, after all, the picture did say it was already cooked! So there it set and then, after a few minutes,

Hmmm

it did begin to look vaguely like hamburger meat and I was vastly relieved. Before much time at all had expired, I'd made my self a hamburger that didn't look all that shabby. But, the big question was...how did it taste?

I'll be honest, I've had better burgers! This meat was a bit dry and though I think kids would enjoy it, us grownups would probably not. Money-wise, you can buy a pound of hamburger and make up 5 or six similar patties (the Tupperware hamburger press works wonders), freeze them and you'd have a much better product for just a little bit of extra work.

On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd give this deal a lame score of 5. And, from now on, I'll stick to the homemade variety!

Followup: After nuking a patty in the microwave, I'd raise the score a point or two! For the money and convenience! This was not actually all that bad!