Best Burger Recipe - German Hamburgers

A couple of years ago I helped open a German restaurant in the Texas Hill Country. We made and sold a ton of German hamburgers, and people ordered them with a variety of traditional German side dishes such as  mashers, sauerkraut, red cabbage, Spaetzle, French fries, German potato salad, Jaeger Sauce and, of course, a fresh pretzel.

The following video demonstrates the mixing, shaping and cooking of this German food specialty. Our restaurant batches were pretty big---the recipe yields about 24 half-pounders---but you can easily adjust it to your desired amounts. Simply divide the ingredients by 2, 4, or 8.

I recommend that you always make more than you need for one meal. Why? These German hamburgers are fabulous when eaten cold with some mustard, pickles, and crusty bread. Of course you can quickly reheat them in the microwave, too.

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This restaurant-size recipe for 24 half-pound patties requires a stand mixer (or a couple of pro-wrestlers) for proper mixing. Divide it by half, and you can easily do it by hand in a large salad bowl.

Prep: Fry 2 cups of chopped onion until translucent and slightly brown; add 3 tablespoons chopped garlic and cook for another 2 minutes; add 1 cup chopped parsley and cook for 30 seconds; take the mix off the heat.

Then, combine thoroughly...

• 8 pounds ground beef
• 2 pounds ground pork
• 7 eggs
• 1 cup (honey) mustard (I like honey mustard, but any kind will do)
• 3/4 cups Worcestershire Sauce
• 3/4 cups Montreal Steak Seasoning
• 4 cups cracker crumbs
• prepared onion/garlic/parsley mix

Shape your patties and pan-fry them to a dark-golden brown. Or, if you have a fryalator at home, by all means - use it. It's a lot faster, and if you use a double-basket fryer, you can either supply a larger crowd faster with fresh German burgers, or you can simultaneously cook up some French fries.

Below I introduce you to the electric deep-fryer we've used in my Bavarian Bistro food trailer, where it took quite a beating and kept on ticking. Very nice product!

In addition, I recommend that you look into getting a spider tool (for fishing the burgers out of the hot oil) and a practical French fries cutter.