The Best Burgers...

These are the best hamburgers I have ever had. With a dollop of homemade sauerkraut they are so simple and so satisfying.

The trouble is, now that our cowshare is done and this being drought-laden California, meat shares are a bit thin on the ground right now, especially for a family that needs a quarter. So we are on a wait list, and meanwhile I simply do not buy factory farmed meat, even supposedly nicer factories like Whole Foods. If indeed, that is the case. To buy pieces of different animals as needed goes against our family's philosophy of how we get and use our food - that we procure one animal for however long we can use it...8 months, one year...that is acceptable.

So we held out as long as we could, and then finally John went back to Prather Ranch and started to pick up a family-sized pack of ground beef every few weeks again because vegetarianism simply won't work for us. (We are also eating chicken, but again, it's an expensive thing to do when done right, not to mention, again, the whole ideology of how the animals ought to be raised.)

This leads into the way that I have been figuring out to add healthy filler to a few pounds of ground beef to make it go farther as amazingly tasty burgers. I used the food processor to chop up veggies on hand, in this case onions, garlic and mushrooms, sautéed them with red wine vinegar and a bit of salt and pepper until they were cooked through with the liquid reduced, then cooled the mixture and added it to ground beef.

I'm sure that you could use any ground meat - chicken, turkey, elk, buffalo...

Did I say that it was amazing? If I can take a picture before the next batch disappears I will post it!
They are Paleo-happy and GAPS conforming....

Amazing Economical Burgers

Makes about 9-12 burgers.

Ingredients

• 2 medium onions, quartered
• 1 lb mushrooms
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 tb butter
• 2 tb olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1-2 tb red wine vinegar (I used Pinot Noir vinegar, but regular red is good, too)
• pepper to taste
• 2 lbs pastured ground meat

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350F.
Chop the onions, mushrooms and garlic in a food processor by pulsing until fine. Sauté with butter and olive oil on medium heat with red wine vinegar and sea salt until both cooked through and so that the liquid is reduced. Put the mushroom/onion mixture into a bowl and set aside to cool.

When cool, blend by hand with the beef and form into palm-sized or slightly larger slightly rounded patties in a 9"x13"pan.

Bake for about 20 minutes or until slightly pink inside.

Serve with the condiments of your choice...