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I have done them with cut-up bacon pieces in the past, also like green pepper and sometimes some onion. They are delicious. That's not what I'm after right now, I want to try to duplicate the taste of burgers I remember back in the 50's B4 McDonalds.

The butcher disappointed me. Maybe he didn't want to mess with it. I do prefer to buy my meat from him rather than the supermarket though. I have gotten some nasty stuff at the supermarket. And some was ok. I don't like the grind of their 80/20 beef though, too tough and coarse.

If they are going to be that way about it, I will find a way to get across the river to Jerry's which is reputed to be the only seller of USDA choice beef in the area. And lucky the people who can buy half a cow from a farmer and it's a good one. I got a sample from a roast of some kind and never tasted beef that good. But for just me, it would be too extravagant to buy from a farmer and don't have the freezer capacity.

You just gave me an idea for my thick-cut bacon my daughter picked up. I was upset and she snapped at me that I could eat it. It's still in the meat drawer, sealed pretty well, and I like it crisp but can't chew thick crisp bacon. The only way I could use it would be to render the fat out, use that or throw away, fry or bake the bacon, and then try to substitute that for ham in bean-type soups.

Now I can try your idea. The meat market is kitty-corner from a regional hospital so they've set up a huge grill in the nice weather. It's $3 for a burger but are they good! He uses a special pork seasoning on the beef ones (I only like it sprinkled on one side because it's pretty salty), and it makes them unique. He sells the spice for over $11 and I think I'll pass on that for now.

While I was looking for a burnt sugar fudge recipe I just copied recently, I came across my photo of Russian hamburgers on a plate with dilled potato salad, peas and some grain like barley, not sure what it was. The burgers were oval-shaped.

They are similar to the ones my mother-in-law used to make as a staple in their cuisine, things added to stretch the meat to feed more people. In later years I find myself wishing I'd paid more attention and hungry for them. She could make delicious gravy from the pan drippings, used Kitchen Boquet to darken it but don't know if she used bullion cubes or not.

Those with simple boiled RED potatoes (I thought I preferred russets like my mom cooked but find myself getting hungry for red ones).

She never seemed to run out of gravy.

I don't know why I shy away from grass-fed beef. Our midwest beef is partly that on cattle that are allowed to graze, of course, but their diet is also corn which I thought made our beef so good.

As a child, we took family trips out west and in the northern parts of the southwest. Some of the burgers and beef I got tasted terrible to me, wild and gamey tasting. But I learned about chicken-fried steak which is a favorite with gravy on it. Some places that was tasty.

I noticed in later years the taste of beef in the west improved, not sure why that was. A lot of people swear by grass-fed beef. I'd have to do a comparison taste test to become a believer :-)