Get your baps out.

I had a chat with my Auntie Pat the other day about historic recipes.  My nan's beefburger recipe definitely fits into this catagory.  I have only ever seen my father cook twice in 38 years - once he made a cheese omelette without cheese in it, and the other time was when he made these beautiful burgers.

I guess the concept originates from a time, post-war, when people tried to eek out decent meat, and just generally tried to be thrifty in the kitchen.  In it's essence this is a very simple recipe, a british slant on a veritable classic (German or American - I'll let you make up your mind).

Here's how you make them:

•   Get a decent mince, none of this <5% fat malarkey, get some normal mince with a visible amount of fat in it.
•   Finely chop and dice a small onion (red or white onions work).  Add to a mixing bowl.
•   Grate a medium-sized potato.  Add to mixing bowl.
•   Add the mince, 250g makes 4 thick patties.  You can add an egg yolk if you want, but I rarely need it - the potato binds these burgers together.
•   Add a pinch of salt, and a generous amount of freshly ground black pepper.
•   Mix with your hands to make 4 even-sized balls.  
•   Flour a chopping board, or cleaned work-surface and pat the balls out until they are burger-shaped.
•   Fry them for about 8 minutes on each side.  They should be dark brown and crusty on the outside.
•   I served them with iceberg lettuce, taleggio slices on top and as you can possibly tell from the picture a fair old smidgeon of ketchup.

I have played around with these burgers to create various alter-ego's - they work exceedingly well with grated beetroot instead of potato.  You can also mash 2 medium potatoes and mix with the mince to create rissoles, which you then shallow-fry.