How to Make Juicy Hamburgers and Meat Loaf

I grew up eating juicy hamburgers like those made with the recipe given here. Coming to the dinner table while mom was pulling hot burgers and fries from the oven was the perfect cap to a Saturday of chores and goofing off. With or without a slice of cheese on top, catsup, relish or pickle, we eagerly bit into the patty and felt the juices burst forth from the meat.

The basic mix can also be used for meat loaf, although you may want to experiment with adding other elements just for variety or to use up small leftovers.

The basic hamburger mix
Ingredients:
One pound ground meat
One cup oatmeal
One egg
Half cup milk
Chopped onion, quantity depends on how much you like onions
Optional tablespoon of wheat germ
Season with salt, pepper or other spices such as lemon pepper to taste.
The egg is to help the mix stick together; you do not want pieces of burger to fall apart on the grill/pan or out of the bun.

Instructions:
Mix well in large mixing bowl or pot. You can use your hands . This is fun.
After ingredients are thoroughly mixed, you can start pulling out enough for a burger and shape it into a patty. You can use a mixing spoon to help keep them semi-uniform in size, or just eyeball it. Frankly, these are not spare space shuttle parts so do not sweat it if they vary by more than two ounces.
You can wrap the patties in foil or saran wrap for freezing or go ahead and cook them as is.

Cooking:
Set the stove on BROIL. Cover a broiling pan with aluminum foil and stick a knife or fork into the slots in order to pierce the foil. That way the juices run into the catch pan, the bottom unit of the broiling pan. You do not want to risk a grease fire by letting the grease sit in pools or worse, drip onto the bottom of the hot stove.

Place your patties on top of the foil. They should be completely thawed, if you are using previously frozen patties.

Place broiling pan into oven. Let door of oven stay partly open (it usually stays open with about 3- inches gap). I do not know why you keep the door open when broiling, sorry. I only know that this is how it was done. Let burgers broil for maybe ten minutes per side, although it varies with the size of the patty for obvious reasons. Just watch them and judge by how much they brown, then flip them over. If you are also planning to serve French fries, the point to add the frozen fries is when you flip the burgers.

We generally turned off the broiler after flipping them, because our stove held heat really well. It seems like modern stoves cool off too fast, so you will just have to judge from experience.

Now, for the meat loaf. Start with basic recipe, which is fine as is. You may also wish to stretch it with a half cup of grated carrot for extra color, a half cup of cooked rice, or a quarter cup of peas, mashed potatoes or baked beans -- whatever leftover bits you have. You might place the mashed potatoes on top during the last half hour of baking time, and let it brown. (Kind of like with a shepherd's pie.)

Some people drape the top of a meat loaf with strips of bacon. This not only adds extra flavor, but the strips of bacon are a built-in guide for cutting slices of the meatloaf for serving. Another idea to decorate the top is to use cut strips of green peppers.

But let me give an actual traditional recipe for a Meat Loaf --

The Meat Loaf
Ingredients:
One Pound ground meat
One Half Pound ground pork or other meat
Two cups bread crumbs or cooked rice
One egg
One and a half cup milk
Half an onion, chopped
Salt, pepper, dry mustard, sage -- a quarter teaspoon each except for the sage which is an eighth teaspoon.
Variations: Horseradish, lemon pepper, chili powder, etc.

Directions:
Grease a loaf pan and turn out the meat mixture into this pan. Try to shape into a loaf and leave some space between edges of pan and the meat. You may drape bacon over the top, or decorate with slices or rings of green pepper. Some put dollops of salsa or barbecue sauce on top. Go ahead and laugh but in the 1950s it was the height of middle-American cuisine to top it with a can of tomato or cream of mushroom soup. Feel free to experiment and personalize till you have your own family favorite recipe.

Cooking:
BAKE at 350 degrees for 1.5 hours (i.e. 90 minutes). Serves at least 8.
Serve with baked potatoes, plus some other cooked veggie dish. Apple pie dessert is not required but you may as well go whole-hog, 1950s style.
BTW if you want to make Swedish meatballs, use the pound of ground meat, half cup bread crumbs, egg, half cup milk, onion, and then season with salt, pepper and NUTMEG.

Safety note: if the worst should happen and you have a grease fire, have an open box of baking soda nearby -- toss some onto the flames to snuff it out instantly.