- 5 months ago
Chefs Jae Lee and TJ Hoy, and meat purveyor Jake Dickson are experts in fine dining and meat; however, today on Epicurious, we’ve asked them to give us their unfiltered, honest reviews of some prominent frozen burgers found on supermarket shelves. Which burgers pack the most bang for your budget, and which should you avoid at all costs?
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00We've gathered three burger experts to blind taste test every frozen burger patty we could
00:06get our hands on to see which ones meet their standards.
00:12All of the burgers have been lightly seasoned and prepared following the cooking instructions
00:16on their packaging. Bubba Burger, original beef burger patties. That's a fun shape. Look at this
00:23edge. You could definitely tell it was pressed or cut with something. You can't get this kind
00:27of shaped from hand form. If it was done by hand, it means someone's really bad at their job. The
00:31sear is nice. It has a nice little caramelized action on it. Not too much juice is coming out
00:36of it. When it comes to frozen beef burgers, there's a few things that I'm looking for. It has to have
00:42a nice beefy flavor. The inherent flavor of the meat itself. A good burger should be juicy. It should
00:46not be dry. It should not be like a hockey puck. Fat is what makes a burger taste juicy. That fat
00:51to water ratio. If there's too much water and not enough fat, it's going to eat kind of dry. It should
00:56also have the right texture. I'm looking for something that kind of chews but also crumbles at
01:01the same time. The thing that will be most impactful on that will be how kind of mixed that meat is and what
01:07meat went into it and how it's ground. It should have the right appearance. Is it nice and charred on
01:12the outside? I want something that when I look at it, I say, that's a burger that I would actually want
01:16to eat. When you bite into the burger, the inside of the patty, does it look great or does it actually have
01:22some bright colors to it? There's no reason why a frozen burger patty has to be any worse than a
01:26fresh burger patty as long as it was frozen when the meat was fresh, it was done correctly, it was
01:31packaged well and held well in the freezer. It doesn't have a ton of flavor. You taste it up front
01:37and then it kind of just like goes away. That's horrible. Oh my god. It's almost like I have COVID
01:43right now and I can't taste anything and I'm just chewing burgers. The moisture content,
01:48it's fine. You can see when you squeeze it, there's definitely fat in there and some water content.
01:52There's juice, but the texture's off. It's a little bit too tough. I do think that you'll find that
01:56almost all commercially made burgers are going to be like that. Between the fine grind and maybe a
02:01little bit of over mixing, you're getting that tougher texture. The appearance actually doesn't
02:05look horrible. You can kind of see the layers of how it was pressed and maybe put through a
02:11conveyor belt and it has like weird air pockets in it. I kind of want to say it's a Bubba burger.
02:15Ooh. Bubba. I have heard of Bubba's, yeah. There's funny claims I find on all of these things.
02:21So you'll see a lot of like the 100% USDA. USDA stamp of approval, they basically come around and
02:29make sure all the health codes are up to standard. Well, this is going to be the facility number for
02:33the USDA. So that's where this burger was made. And then the claim they're making is the 100% USDA
02:38choice. The grades go prime choice select. So choice meat means it's the second highest of our marbling
02:45scores. I would have expected if you told me this burger was made from choice beef, that it would
02:50be a little juicier. But that being said, if you're picking lean cuts from a choice graded animal,
02:56it's still going to be lean. If they put it on the package, that is a approved label by the USDA.
03:01They have to follow it. It means that there's a hurdle that they're going over to get it into
03:05your burger and they're not just buying the cheapest thing available to them. So there's no claims on
03:11no hormones, no antibiotics, no growth promoters. It means there almost definitely are those things
03:16in here. So this is what this patty looks like before being cooked. I'm sure that they focus
03:20grouped it and people think it's more natural. This like 90 degree perfect angle that maintains
03:26that angle when it's cooked. I don't like that. I personally don't really like that they've kind
03:31of done this imprint thing. My guess is so it cooks more evenly and more fully. Cooking it from frozen,
03:37you want the heat to get to the center and not dry the outside out. Docking it would help you
03:42heat the center quicker than if it was just a solid flat piece.
03:48Good and Gather all natural beef patties. I like that this one's round. It kind of seems more
03:54natural that it's symmetrical to me. It has appetizing appearance. Thin patty. It's got some texture to
04:01it, which I like. Pretty moist. Definitely held some of the fat in there. There's actually beef flavor.
04:07And the texture of the beef and the juiciness, it works together. If I had to guess what this
04:12one was, I would say maybe like a grocery brand one. Good and Gather all natural beef patties.
04:20This is a target, right? Oh, wow. It's only 15% fat. So they're actually touting the fat content in it.
04:25All ground meat is supposed to be listed between the lean. So that's the protein and the fat content.
04:31Generally, I like to go 80-20, a little more fat content because fat is flavor. When you have too
04:37much fat though, the burger tends to shrink more because all that fat's just rendering out. So here
04:41they're doing all natural. In our country, all natural on its own never means anything. So you'll see
04:46two asterisks says no artificial ingredients and minimally processed. This is actually a perfect
04:52example where they've made a claim that means pretty much nothing. It's basically saying it's meat.
04:56I'm a firm believer it's okay to freeze meat as long as you freeze it right. The faster you freeze
05:01something, the more quality it's going to retain. If you freeze something slow, you get big ice
05:05crystals. And if you develop crystals fast, you get little crystals, which will affect the texture
05:11of the end product less. It does look a little freezer burn. Freezer burn is basically the refreezing
05:17of the water crystals that form on the outside after it starts the frosting. It is interesting that all the
05:22burgers that we're eating today, they want you to cook them from frozen and to cook everything
05:27through. My guess is mostly food safety related. Because they're mostly thin and uniform, they
05:32probably cook more evenly that way. Unlike with a steak where you're cooking the outside that might
05:37have the E. coli on it, and the middle is mostly sanitary. With ground beef, we're taking the outside
05:42surface that might have bacteria on it and folding it inside. And so at 160, you're going to kill any
05:48pathogen that's inside. And it's convenient. Who wants to spend hours and hours thawing and then
05:53cooking? Like cooking a burger should be easy as one, two, three. I thought from an eating perspective,
05:58I enjoyed it. It works. I'm a fan. Amazon Grocery, ground beef burgers. This one definitely shrunk a bit.
06:07Could have been higher water content, higher fat content. This one was great. The shape of it looks
06:11like it was hand formed. I think that's a great sign. Smells like a burger patty. Everything smells like a
06:17beef patty right now. I'm not mad at that. You don't really get a beefy flavor. It's pretty
06:21appealing actually, texturally. Pretty juicy. The moisture content is not bad. It's making me
06:26salivate. I think that's a great sign. My guess is that this, I'll tell you after this bite,
06:34has a higher fat content. Look, Amazon Grocery, 80% lean, 20% fat. I was right. Previous one was 85-15.
06:43So this one definitely had more fat content and I could taste it. Who knows why this was their
06:47choice. Maybe they want it to be juicier. Maybe fat is cheaper than protein. So when it says beef,
06:52I think it's more or less they're using every part that they could kind of use to make the patties.
06:58100% beef and all beef. When we're talking about a burger is also a meaningless claim.
07:02You know, it's just saying this is meat or this is beef. Ground beef is a byproduct in our country of
07:07our steak industry. To have our ribeyes and strips, we're left with a huge amount of stew and ground beef
07:12that we need to use. That is why burgers exist. Because this one's not making any claims about
07:18choice or select or grading, I would say highly likely that it's retired dairy cow because they're
07:23usually older and the way they're raised and their breeds, they usually don't make great steak.
07:28You really don't know what part or cut of the cow actually made this burger.
07:33My guess is they buy beef from different farms. Because there is no claim on here,
07:39the meat in here could be coming from different countries even. So you could be buying lean meat
07:43from Australia or Brazil, where a lot of meat in our country comes from. And then you could be
07:49buying fat from the local dairy industry. And they grind it all up in one batch and then they throw it
07:55into a machine, gets pattied out and it's frozen. The grind of the beef affects the texture.
08:00They could definitely get overworked, overground. You grind it too small, you grind it too big.
08:05Was it moved around a lot? Did it go through a lot of tubes and different things before it hit the
08:10form that it came through? I think all those processes can change the quality and change
08:15the texture of it being either mushy or kind of mealy. But it's not overmixed. It's a decent burger,
08:24I would say. Kirkland Signature, 100% grass-fed beef patties. Oh wow, this one's bigger than all the rest.
08:34Look at the size of this patty. It's actually larger than the bun size.
08:40Not a huge amount of flavor. Not the most pleasant texture. Mushy. However, it's juicy.
08:46The moisture on it is actually really good. The flavor is um, like metallic and I have to keep
08:51chewing. Like there's sinew in there too. That is heavy. Kirkland. Dang, I love Kirkland. I thought
08:56these would have been a little bit better than what it was. I grew up on these as a kid. There's some
09:00weird things going on with this package. Some good things, some bad things. 80-20. There's 20%
09:05fat. Without antibiotics or hormones and it's 100% grass-fed beef patties. When we talk about grass-fed
09:11beef in our country, that means grass only, so no grains, through the complete life cycle. Cows that are
09:18grain-fed typically are fattier. To me, I think it tastes beefier, I would say, and it tastes more pleasant. I
09:24think it's all a marketing scheme. A lot of it. The way I would buy a burger or even the way I buy my
09:29steaks. Grass-fed grain finished. All cattle start their life on grass. It's as the animal gets older
09:35where things diverge. 100% grass-fed will stay eating only grass, whereas all other cattle are
09:41finished with grains of some sort. More carbohydrates partnered with the right genetics at the right time
09:48of their life will create a more marbled steer. Now the question is usually when it says raised
09:53without antibiotics or hormones, there would be an asterisk. There's no asterisk. That means like
09:58it's what we call never ever. Never in its life to get antibiotics. When it comes to commodity beefs,
10:04they use a lot of different antibiotics hormones to make it grow faster or to keep the cattle from
10:10getting sick. And it adds to what's in your beef because then you're consuming what's in the cow.
10:17So having no antibiotics, no hormones, I think it results in a better product because you're getting
10:22that full beef. And it's the same with what they eat, grass-fed versus grain-fed. If they're able
10:27to be out in the pasture and live a normal life, you're going to have more of a high-quality beef.
10:34Teton Waters Ranch, grass-fed beef burgers.
10:38After the last bigger one, this one looks kind of sad. It's kind of like a little,
10:42it clearly shrunk a lot and cupped a bit. The appearance of this is my favorite so far.
10:47Very appetizing. Has a nice little thickness to it. Nice little grill marks on it.
10:52I actually think the meat tastes pretty good. It has like a decent flavor to it.
10:55I could taste the beef fat. Look at the way it's pulling apart too.
10:58I don't really like the texture. It's eating really dry.
11:00Looks like it's a little over-processed. But it's sinewy though, actually.
11:04It's natural. Sinews are natural, but not the best for burgers.
11:08Teton. Teton wrench. No antibiotics, no added hormones, 100% grass-fed.
11:14Certified humane, which for me personally is a big deal. That's a good sign.
11:18That means they've hired a third party to come in and certify that the animals meet a certain criteria.
11:23No sugar added. I mean, come on, like, is that really necessary?
11:26I've never heard of why you would add sugar to a burger.
11:30Gluten-free. Okay, again, like burgers are gluten-free. It's all protein. It's all beef.
11:38Snake River Farms, Wagyu Hamburger Patties.
11:40Very thick for a frozen burger. This right here looks like a restaurant-level burger.
11:46So definitely like a half-pound burger. Maybe more, actually, depending on the shrinkage.
11:50It's got a decent crust on it. It's pretty good. It didn't really dry out,
11:55considering how long it's been cooked. It has some texture to it.
11:58You can definitely see it's more structured ground beef. Has the fattiness all the way through.
12:04A lot of moisture retention. Doesn't taste dry. Has a nice beefy flavor to it.
12:09This right here tastes like a gourmet steak burger. It's beefy. It doesn't taste super dry.
12:15There is a chew. Like, it's definitely like a real burger. You can, like, actually see meat.
12:20I was worried it was going to taste burnt, but if something has enough fat content,
12:23it'll often caramelize instead of burning. They definitely did a lot of research.
12:27They're using something a little bit better than the commodity offcuts.
12:31Ooh. Oh, Snake River Farms. That makes sense.
12:34I've definitely heard of Snake River Farms. They're very well known for their beef.
12:38A lot of restaurants buy this and sell it as a homemade burger type thing.
12:42So it's all Wagyu beef or Wagyu crosses or American Wagyu, if you want to call it.
12:47American Wagyu beef is a crossbreed. Angus and Japanese cow.
12:53So they crossbred and made American Wagyu.
12:55Beginning in, like, the late 80s, people started bringing some Wagyu steers over here to the US.
13:02Then they cut off export of live animals, but there was enough of a base here in the country,
13:06and people started bringing in semen across to expand the herds.
13:10So there's herds all around the country that are anywhere from 50% Wagyu up to 99% pure Wagyu.
13:17Wagyu are prized because, like Angus, they have a really fine muscle structure.
13:21They eat tender, but they're also known for exceptional marbling. It's a really good fat.
13:25I feel like they're treated pretty well.
13:27They say they feed them beer, they give them massages,
13:30they do all different types of things to keep these cows happy.
13:33I think the reason that this burger is superior is not because it's Wagyu.
13:36It's that it was treated in a much more, like, natural way.
13:40Like, it is very different than the other ones we've had.
13:42Not only is it bigger, but it's more coarsely ground.
13:45To do something so minimally processed, you need to have a very high quality original input
13:51and also very consistent.
13:56Lidl Angus Beef Burgers.
13:59This one looks like it's more homemade, more hand-formed.
14:03It's not perfect, which I think is good.
14:05It's probably one of the more appealing patties that I've looked at.
14:07You're getting, like, a really nice crust forming, which makes me think probably a higher fat content.
14:13The flavor's good. More char. It's got a really, like, loose texture to it, which I like.
14:17Like, it seems more like a patty, you know, that you would have made.
14:21That was a weird combination. It was juicy but dry.
14:24Beef fat is coming through, but the beef flavor from the meat itself is not really coming through.
14:29It is, however, juicy.
14:31You can even see, actually, on the bun, there's, like, more fat than a lot of the other ones.
14:35Like, the bun doesn't look dry like the others.
14:37It felt like I was taking a bite of almost a gusher, getting that burst of fat.
14:45Lidl? Lidl?
14:46Angus Burgers from Lidl?
14:49I don't know how to pronounce it. L-I-D-L.
14:51Oh, Lidl. The new place that's popping up everywhere.
14:54Made with Angus Beef.
14:55Angus Beef, which used to mean a lot in our country, now kind of less.
14:59From a cynical perspective, that just might mean this was made with a black-coated animal.
15:04That could be it. Angus had been prized because they marble pretty well.
15:09They're a medium-framed animal, and they have a small grain size in the meat.
15:13So different animals might have, like, an open grain or bigger grain of the meat.
15:17That fine grain of an Angus deer, or the classic Angus deer, makes it eat more tender.
15:21It's a marketing thing. Honestly, it tells me not much.
15:25Can I taste the difference, or can you taste it? I can't tell the difference.
15:29Back in the 70s, farmers who were raising Angus came together as a cooperative, essentially,
15:35and created a marketing criteria for Angus to help build Angus as a premium brand, essentially.
15:42So then they could sell both the meat and also their genetics for a higher amount of money.
15:47So you might go to the supermarket and see certified Angus beef.
15:50It doesn't mean that they're actually Angus, but it means that they're primarily or partially Angus,
15:54that they meet whatever the minimum criteria is for that marketing program.
15:57If you really want Angus, go out to a steakhouse and get it.
15:59The shape of this looks similar to Bubba.
16:02To me, this looks like a cookie-cutter conveyor belt burger.
16:05And then you actually look at it after cooked, and you're like,
16:08oh, wow, that might actually be made at home.
16:09It's actually quite impressive the amount of shrinkage this one had,
16:13which in some ways, like, I'd be like, oh, it's horrible. It shrunk.
16:16But, like, it resulted in a pretty delicious end product compared to the others.
16:20And you can see all these white parts in here.
16:22This is fat. This is beef fat.
16:24Beef fat is not a bad thing. It's flavored.
16:26But the fat and the meat didn't come together.
16:28It almost, like, ate separately, which is not a good thing.
16:31So far, this is my favorite burger we've eaten.
16:34I don't even think we're halfway there.
16:38Wegmans Seasoned Angus Beef Burgers.
16:41All right. Well, this one is juicy.
16:44There is juices all over it.
16:46I don't like the shape at all.
16:47Strangely oblong.
16:49All right, guys, I can't do the butt anymore.
16:51But the most important part is this.
16:52So I'm going to taste this.
16:58So I want to call that the chicken nugget of burgers.
17:00It almost has the texture of, like, a breakfast patty.
17:03Guys, this right here is horrible.
17:05The texture is like a rubbery meatball.
17:08This is definitely fascinating.
17:09All of it reminded me of a McDonald's chicken nugget.
17:12Almost rubbery, but not rubbery feeling.
17:15It's like a fake beefy flavor that it has to it.
17:18Super salty.
17:19I'm curious when we get the box if it says that they were salt
17:21and it was like a seasoned patty.
17:23Yo, I would rather eat a lifetime of bubble burgers
17:26than eat one of these.
17:27This has to be one of the, like, Dollar Tree kind of brands.
17:31Wegmans, are you serious?
17:32Yo, I'm so disappointed, Wegmans.
17:34Wegmans Seasoned Angus Beef Burgers.
17:38So it is seasoned, like, throughout the whole patty,
17:41which is probably why it's not tender, but also why it eats nicely.
17:44It's seasoned well.
17:45It's seasoned so badly and so much.
17:50Ingredients.
17:50Angus beef, sea salt, and cherry powder.
17:54So cherry powder is used in a number of ways,
17:57but mostly about color.
17:58Appearance comes second.
17:59It needs to be flavor first.
18:01It's quite expensive, actually, the cherry powder.
18:03My guess is something in the way this burger is made made it very gray,
18:06and they're trying to counteract the grayness.
18:08It's already kind of gray still,
18:10and the fact that it has salt and cherry powder in it,
18:13I find that kind of puzzling.
18:14My guess is this is, like, a separate from, like, Wegmans meat program.
18:19This is a third-party branded product,
18:22like, white-labeled product from somebody else.
18:24Some companies white label their burgers,
18:27meaning they sell it to different companies,
18:30and that company will stamp their label on it.
18:32You could definitely have multiple burgers from different supermarkets
18:35with different boxes that are all the exact same product.
18:37So overall, enjoyable but strange product.
18:40The thing that made it enjoyable was salt.
18:42You could put salt in your own burger.
18:44If I wanted something with more of a chicken nugget texture,
18:47I'd probably just walk to McDonald's.
18:52Marketside, 100% Angus beef burgers.
18:55Visually, this looks very nice.
18:57Nice, even, round shape.
18:59Really nice grill marks on it.
19:01Has a nice little caramelization.
19:02It definitely cupped a little bit,
19:03so you're getting, like, more sear on the outside, less in the middle.
19:06Got a bigger beefy flavor than a lot, but it's pretty dry overall.
19:11Texture is not very good.
19:12It's dry.
19:13That's pretty good.
19:16Marketside.
19:18This is Walmart's premium brand.
19:19100% Angus beef burgers.
19:22So it's Angus again.
19:23So they went bigger, thicker.
19:25But the problem is the thicker doesn't really work necessarily when you're going to well done.
19:28By the time you cook the center through,
19:31the outside of the patty gets super dry.
19:34Overcooked because they're telling you to cook it to 160.
19:39Great value.
19:40100% pure beef burgers.
19:42It's got a good look to it.
19:44It clearly rendered some fat.
19:45Juiciness.
19:46Looks like it's there.
19:47Doesn't look like a bad frozen burger.
19:51I like the texture.
19:52A bit of toothsomeness, but not tough.
19:53It seems like actual, you know, normal ground beef kind of burger.
19:57Not overly processed.
19:58Texture-wise, very good.
20:00Tastes like beef.
20:01Good grind.
20:01You could tell from the first bite of this that it uses a more thicker grind or pieces
20:06of a thicker grind going into it.
20:08When you pull it apart, it doesn't rip in a straight line at all.
20:12To me, this would mean like it's more of like a paste mixed with a chunkier
20:16beef to give it that texture and mouthfeel.
20:19Overall, I think this is like a pretty solid patty.
20:21Good amount of beef flavor.
20:22And the beef fat, it's together.
20:25It has very good feng shui.
20:27Walmart, better goods.
20:29That's my guess.
20:31Great value.
20:32Okay.
20:33Is that Walmart?
20:33That's another Walmart.
20:34First guess.
20:36Getting better at this.
20:37This is Walmart's regular.
20:39I like it better than the premium one.
20:41I think because it's not trying to be something it's not.
20:43Beef burgers, 80-20.
20:45That plays out in terms of like the eating experience and the fat that rendered out.
20:49There's nothing else about this burger.
20:51It is a beef burger.
20:52From the last one I tried from the same company, it's same flavor, just different texture.
20:58The other one just seems like it was more ground beef than processed.
21:03It is a dozen burgers in a bag, but they're pretty solid.
21:07Am I halfway there?
21:09I'm like hallucinating.
21:13Holton's Chop House, smashed burgers.
21:16So this is different in every way from the ones that we've eaten.
21:20All right, this one's really thin, super thin.
21:23Oh, this looks horrible.
21:24They're definitely going for like some sort of like smash burger type thing.
21:27Oh, I don't want to eat this.
21:30Flavor's pretty good.
21:33Doesn't have much flavor for the burger itself.
21:36Because it's so thin, you're basically tasting crust and less burger.
21:40You do get a little bit of a charred flavor on the outside.
21:43This doesn't even taste like beef.
21:44I would not eat one of those burgers again.
21:47I'm not expecting beefiness out of this patty.
21:49I'm not expecting juiciness out of this patty.
21:51This is more about crust and flavor, and they've maximized the surface area.
21:56Maybe they're going for like a smash burger that wasn't smashed.
21:59They pre-smashed it.
22:01Oh, smash burgers.
22:02I was right.
22:02Holton's Chop House smash burgers.
22:05Pre-smashed.
22:05I kind of like it.
22:06I think as a double with cheese, it would work really well.
22:09I could see it being better with like a whole bunch of them stacked,
22:12and then just throw a whole bunch of condiments on it.
22:13I think they're going towards the consumer that doesn't really cook often.
22:17It's a great concept for that.
22:19Somebody that wants to stack something high and build the smash burger without knowing
22:23kind of how to cook it or how to do it.
22:25I think they're doing an okay job at it.
22:27Oh, man.
22:29They messed up.
22:29They messed up.
22:30They messed up bad.
22:31It's so weird.
22:32It tasted so off.
22:34Bubba's is better than this.
22:35They docked it.
22:36That's going to increase probably the speed that it cooks.
22:38I want to slow it down for something this big,
22:40so I could cook it on both sides with a weight on it.
22:45Cesar Canyon Meats.
22:47All beef patties.
22:49Definitely has some holes in it, so I'm not sure what that's about.
22:52I can kind of see right through it.
22:53No more buns.
22:54No more buns, guys.
22:57Wow, that tastes like beef.
22:58It's got a good beefy flavor.
23:00It actually has a nice char on it, and it's pretty juicy and tender.
23:03Very thin.
23:03The moisture's there.
23:04The beefy flavor, you could taste it more than the last one I had.
23:08Not too coarse.
23:09Not too fine.
23:10Not rubbery.
23:11Not dry.
23:12The beef is chewing well.
23:13No sinews.
23:14And as I'm chewing it, I'm still getting flavor.
23:17Beef flavor, which is a great sign.
23:19You don't see a lot of big pieces of meat in it,
23:20so it's pretty finely ground, but I think it's not overworked.
23:23So it doesn't have a toughness that some of the other ones have.
23:25It's definitely a run-of-the-mill type burger.
23:28Just your normal, thin, frozen patty.
23:31Ugh!
23:32Cedar Canyon Meat Company.
23:34Never heard of them.
23:35Let's read the packaging.
23:36100% all beef patties.
23:38Ready to grill.
23:39I think that is the extent of their claims.
23:42It's beef in a circle.
23:43It's made in Kansas by Cargill, but Cargill's huge.
23:47There's like the biggest commodity meat can go through a cargo plant,
23:49but then also like within Cargill, there could be like smaller brands operating as well.
23:54There could be a grass-fed program going through.
23:55You know, and maybe this is a little bit of everything, right?
23:58So maybe this is all the excess trim that's going into their burger program.
24:01There's no way to know.
24:04Philly Gourmet, pure 100% beef patties.
24:08It looks decent for a frozen patty, but very soft.
24:11It's very pliable.
24:12I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing.
24:14This one got nice color on it, which makes me think it was a bigger patty that shrunk and rendered a little bit.
24:20One of the beefier flavors I've had.
24:21It's got a little bit of beefiness to it, but not a ton of flavor.
24:24Kind of texture is all right.
24:25Not too chewy, not too soft.
24:27It has a nice little mouth feel to it.
24:28Moisture content's there.
24:30The juiciness is definitely mostly from the fat.
24:32Not a bad burger.
24:33This ranks like middle tier for me.
24:35Middle of the road.
24:37Philly Gourmet.
24:38I do not know what that is.
24:39It's kind of a fun box at least.
24:41100% beef, cooked frozen, quarter pounder, gluten-free.
24:45I like how so many of them have the gluten-free claim, but then they always show them on a bun.
24:49That's really all they got there.
24:50I like that they have to put a note that says that this burger is larger than it appears in real life.
24:55When it doesn't say the fat content, I just assume it's going to be dry.
24:58But tasting it, I would guess the fat content to be like 80-20 or maybe 75-25 almost.
25:04They did a really good job with the fat in here.
25:07And depending on what fat content you want, you add more fat or less fat.
25:10Most burgers use short rib, brisket, chuck, top sirloin, something like that that doesn't have
25:17too much of a fat to it.
25:19And then you're going to take the fat from the better cuts of the ribeye, the short loin,
25:23the strip, and you're going to mix that in with the grind on your lower fat cuts.
25:32Wellesley Farms. Sirloin and beef patties.
25:35Wow. This one, huge, huge patty.
25:37It's a big burger. It is significantly larger than the bun, even post-cooking.
25:42This has kind of a similar shape as that Bubba burger. Definitely cookie-cutter processed.
25:47Looks appetizing. A little dry, I would say.
25:51It's weird that it's drier than most, but it's retained its pink color more than most as well.
25:55More moisture once you get into the middle of it.
25:57Although it's not super rich and fatty, it is juicy.
26:00For a thin burger, this one definitely has more of a beefy flavor.
26:05Very tightly packed ground beef.
26:07And it is beefy.
26:08I would have that one again.
26:09I think they actually chose what they wanted to be in it.
26:12Maybe like a sirloin burger.
26:14I would say like a BJ's. I don't even know if BJ's has their own burgers.
26:19Well, Wellesley Farms.
26:21I've seen this brand before.
26:23Isn't that like a BJ's thing?
26:25Yo! BJ's!
26:2785-15. I thought the fat content would have been a little bit higher.
26:31Remember when I said they didn't taste as fatty? Like as rich?
26:34This one is the first one that's mentioning sirloin.
26:37They definitely pick what cuts they use in the burger to give it the beefiness and the flavor.
26:43So they're making a sirloin claim, which is probably not accurate.
26:48I mean, I wonder what they're qualifying as sirloin.
26:50Sirloin is a specific cut, but there's a couple cuts that you can call sirloin.
26:55It could mean a million things. It could be sirloin from a dairy animal. It could be sirloin.
26:59What they used to call peeled knuckle, which is like the sirloin cut in the front.
27:03It's really more like a leg cut and not a sirloin cut.
27:06The reason why they probably put sirloin here is because people know the name sirloin.
27:09And it's going to be like, oh, sirloin burgers. It's definitely all marketing.
27:13It's not 100% sirloin, but it's sirloin and beef, other parts of the cow.
27:17I don't think you would want 100% sirloin anyway.
27:19Sirloin is not going to be as flavorful as chuck. And the only reason you buy sirloin over chuck
27:24is for a steak, for something more tender. And we're grinding it so tenderness doesn't matter.
27:29So you could make the argument actually like sirloin makes worse ground beef.
27:32Tender things, when you grind them, sometimes get like a toothpastey texture to them.
27:35Just because this says sirloin on it doesn't mean it's the same sirloin that you would buy in the meat case
27:41as a steak. It could be from an animal that would have never made it into the meat case as a steak.
27:45Because it could be from a bad cow or a good cow. Who knows? But at the end of the day,
27:49this flavor is what counts. And it tastes like a very good burger.
27:54Now let's see which burgers our chefs liked the most and the least.
27:58Out of all the frozen burgers I tried today, I think my favorite one was the Snake River Farms.
28:03The Snake River Farms one, clearly superior beef that didn't need to be manipulated in a lot of ways.
28:09The Snake River Farms burger, it's not even fair to rank that. It's apples and oranges. So just leave that up.
28:14I would say Great Value is my favorite. Forget the packaging. It tastes beefy, the right amount of
28:20fat content. It's very juicy and the appearance is very appealing. It looks like a fresh burger.
28:26Other ones I liked, Amazon Fresh, Wellesley Farms, and Cedar Canyon. All very good burgers. Very, very good.
28:32My runner-up was the Teton's Water Ranch. The mouth feel and the beefy flavor was really good on that.
28:39I also appreciated the Holton's Chop House Smash Burger. Just because I liked its uniqueness,
28:43it was all about the texture of the end products that they were creating.
28:46My least favorite burger has to be Wegmans. I couldn't even eat it.
28:52The seasoned Wegmans Angus Burger reminded me of a chicken nugget. I don't think I'm going to be
28:57running towards anytime soon. It kind of worked for me. I don't know.
29:00The less quality ones were the generic store-bought real thin flat ones.
29:06I was also not a big fan of Bubba's. You know, if you're shopping for burgers,
29:12I mean, you have to choose what makes the most sense. But I would always choose based on
29:16as many claims as possible. Frozen burgers, a great way for a home cook that's practical,
29:22economical, and very convenient. If you're after the flavor and the taste,
29:26you should definitely splurge a little bit on a frozen burger. If you're not after any of that,
29:30just be sure to buy a lot of condiments and pickles to throw on there. Guys, I'm sick of burgers,
29:34burgers, but I don't hate them. Bubbas, if you're down for a collab, let me know.
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