Fast food burger joints are dead to me. I recently started to chop my hamburger meat. I’m cycling through different cuts of beef to find the one that I like the most. Eventually, I will play around with blends. The one thing that is certain so far is every cut that I have used has been superior to any fast food joint. Part of this is the quality of the meat and part is the process. The process is the chopping the meat without the meat excreting too much myosin. That makes for tough burgers. Grocery stores rarely grind their own hamburger meat, but even when they do, they typically take two passes through a meat grinder. That’s good for sausage making if you want that “knack”, but not for hamburgers. The key to chopping your own burger meat is quite simply: chopping, not grinding. It’s not a lot of work either, because you don’t want to over chop. Less is better.
So, for the price of one fast food meal you can make superior burgers for two to three people. If you plan ahead and buy the meat on a regular grocery store trip, then it is faster that driving to a fast food restaurant and waiting for your order. Quality, speed, taste.
I buy Angus beef burgers at walmart. I get 12 patties and the price is around $1.50 each which is still a lot less then a fast food place.
If you buy buns and toast them and add some lettuce you have a better burger. You can add french dressing and pickles and tomato’s etc. The hamburgers taste better made at home.
I like them plain myself.