Freezing Hamburger Patties for Convenience

I always thought that making foods ahead of time, then storing them in the freezer, can be a real time saver. Especially on the nights that I come home from work and don't really want to cook, I can just pull something out of the freezer and throw it in the oven or on the grill.

I've found that making hamburger patties ahead of time and freezing them is a real time saver. I freeze 8 patties at a time and store them in a large gallon size freezer bag. This is my recipe for delicious hamburgers, and how I prepare them for the freezer.

First, I buy about 2 pounds of ground sirloin or lean ground beef. I like to buy a lot of ground beef when it's on sale at the store, and that's when I make my hamburgers. Next, I add all of my seasonings, which includes about 1 tablespoon of McCormick's Hamburger Grill Mates seasoning, 1 teaspoon each of salt and pepper and 2 teaspoon garlic powder. I mix all of the seasonings into the ground meat, and I divide the meat into 8 patties. Two pounds of beef makes about 8 quarter pound burgers.

Now it's time to prepare the burgers for the freezer. I use regular sandwich bags, the zipper kind. You can use freezer sandwich bags for extra protection against freezer burn, but I really don't see the difference when I use regular. I place 1 burger into 1 sandwich bag. Make sure all of the air is out of each sandwich bag, and then zip each one closed. Next, I place all of the burgers into a large gallon size freezer bag. Hefty and Ziploc are my brands of choice, but of course you can use generic brand if it's cheaper for you. There should be enough room in the gallon size bag for freezing, but not enough to let air in.

When it's time to make the burgers, pull them out of the freezer about a day before you plan on making them. The nice thing about freezing multiple burgers is that you can choose how many you want to take out. You can take out 4, or just 1, or all 8. The choice is yours. Let the patties thaw completely before cooking. I don't have an outdoor grill, so I use my George Foreman grill to cook them. They turn out just as good as if you made them fresh, in my opinion. Try out this trick today!