Weston Burger Express Hamburger Press

I like hamburgers. Easy to fix and store frozen, ready to throw into a pan or on the grill in no time. So many ways to prepare them with and without buns, including with gravy and sauteed onions and no bun at all. I've found from experience 90% - 93% hamburger makes lousy hamburgers on the grill, generally speaking. (Fine for baby meatloafs with gravy and onions though.) The lack of any usable fat in the lean burger makes a boring and pretty dry piece of meat, unless one mixes in a bunch of spices and what-not into the mix, then makes the patties. LOTS of extra work that way and dirty bowls needing washing, etc. Even then, still not a great hamburger though better than just sprinkling a bunch of spices on the outside of the 90% - 93% beef. I've even done some experimenting with marinating burgers in various concoctions. The best grade for juicy hamburgers on the grill is 84% - 86% burger, but the drawback is that it will shrink about 20% in size and get fatter (taller) as it cooks. Neither is a big deal. I used to look for the big fat round tubes of 84% burger, get them really cold in the freezer for an hour, then cut the burgers into slices with a good sharp knife, put into individual cheap sandwich bags, then seal in the seal a meal vacuum thing. Those wide tubes of burger are hard to find and rarely go on sale, making me search for another option. Soooooooo ---- the next best option is to make your own pre-formed burgers for use later, when you run across a good hamburger sale. With burger getting north of $3 a pound, one wants to stock up when it's on sale. I thought it would be iffy, but I got a hamburger press to make my own preformed burger patties. It showed up and was built nicer than I thought it would be, and was easily adjustable for thickness. I chose the 1/2 pound setting on the threaded bolt. It was perfect. After grilling with just the tinniest bit of pink down the middle, the width of the now finished burger fit a normal size bun perfectly! Right to the edge all around. Little bit tall but no taller than some of the premium burgers I have had at store bought places like Ruby Tuesday or Burgers In Paradise, or wherever they sell those $7 hamburgers. So now, I can catch loose 84% burger commonly on sale in the big loose packages and make my own perfectly formed, ready to freeze and thus use hamburgers. By my third burger using the press, I had it down, and the making of a burger took me 15 seconds or so each from then on. By all means USE the special hamburger paper to both make cleanup easier, and two burgers will not stick together if you vacuum seal two or more of them to a pkg for the family. Quick hint..... you will quickly learn to eyeball the loose burger as to about what will fit into the press for the size you have selected. Then cut the burger into squares with a butter knife, erring on making them TOO BIG rather than too small. This way when going to the next burger, just scoop up the chunk you sectioned and place it onto the paper in the press. Place another piece of the treated paper on to the top of the burger and close the press tight. I leaned on it pretty good, but it was easy. The press showed no signs of wanting to break. No coatings flaked off during my use and subsequent cleanup. If there is too much burger in the press, it simply squishes out around the press where you can easily run your finger around it and place the excess back in the bulk pack of burger to use with the next patty. IDEALLY you want just a bit of burger to squish out letting you know you got the press full, so it can do it's job correctly. I put the press on a paper plate to eliminate table clean-up, and that worked perfectly. The whole thing is easy and fast, and it truly does make a excellent formed and cohesive burger in NO time. Be sure the burger is at cold refrigerator temp before making them, as the directions tell you to do. Do not let the burger warm up on the counter first, which you shouldn't do anyway. Cold hamburger makes a better patty. My finished patties stuck together VERY well into a cogent burger with no signs of wanting to crack in two when picked up. If yours do want to come apart, then I think you are not pressing on the press with enough pressure and did not load enough burger in the first place. I did not really intentionally use the little "handle" on the press, but rather pushed on the left and right sides of the top half of the press itself to exert more pressure and not break the little handle off, if they were prone to that happening. You will get the knack of this very quickly, so no worries!! One reviewer thought the press should be a bit heavier and thus less prone to break, and this is probably true. But I am a large strong guy, and pressed HARD, and so far, nothing broke.

We had a smaller version of this... where the patty would be about 1/2 the size you can make with this one. We have had it for years and used it frequently. But, we decided to change to this one to allow for larger burgers or at least to change to what ever size we wanted. Both of these are simple. For those having problems, you really should use the wax paper squares. Keeps things much cleaner and easier. Use a square on the bottom, place the meat on that, put another square on top and press down. We find it makes more uniform burgers if you take the beef and quickly just wrap your hands on it to make a "ball" of meat. No really fussing over it, just cup yours hands, make a ball and put it on the wax paper square. You really MUST use the squares top and bottom. Used our new one today. Burgers set at 1/3, came out even and perfect. IF you wish to wash the press you will have to unscrew the top to get to every part but ... you simply unscrew the screw, then, screw it back on. There was one review where someone thought this was a pain to do. Really, folks, you unscrew then screw it back in place. Not rocket science. but this only has to be done if you don't use the wax paper squares for the most part. No meat should get up into the lid part unless you are not using wax paper on the top. It is..easy..clean, no hassle plus this new one allows us to change sizes where the other we had did not.

It is a solid unit that makes consistent sized patties. Use it as per directions and use it with very cold meat as they advise. I strongly recommend spraying at least the top surface with a non-stick spray even through this unit is non-stick coated as the patties are going to stick to one side after pressing them and it is far easier to get them off the base than it is to dig them out of the cup. The adjustable shaft is graduated in approximate weight which is useful and the diameter is a very good match for the larger sized buns you typically buy. It will press out any thickness patty between very thin, up to 3/4 -inch (19 mm) using the stamped settings on the shaft. It has enough adjustment beyond to press patties 1-inch (25 mm) thick. It works good, I am happy with it and I would buy it again.

My wife likes thin burgers and I like thick, go figure. This is nice and easy to adjust so I can do both. It's also nice to use when having a large family cook out.

I was a little disappointed upon first using this press as I learned there was no way the eject the finished patty from the tool. I did however get better at using and I think the mfg. shouldn't leave it up to the consumer to find out best practice. As I said I did get better at using the press with some practice and experimentation so It's not a bad press but it would've been nice to know up front rather than having to learn best process. If it helps, I found the easiest way to quickly make patties was to use a single piece of wax or butcher's paper center folded so half was on either side and then press. You can use the same sheet several times. This allowed easy extraction of the just pressed burger and kept the press cleaner which translated into easier clean up.

Top bit of kit. Will last a lifetime it’s so sturdy and well made, could even become an heirloom. Simple to use, especially if you are making batches of patties for a bbq or for the freezer, and cleans very easily. I disassemble it for cleaning but that’s no great effort. Easy to adjust for different thicknesses of burger. Love it and looks great as a piece of industrial chic.

Esta prensa es bastante buena, vale su precio. La hamburguesas quedan todas iguales y ya no pasa que algunas le queden chicas al pan. Es muy fácil de desarmar, se separan completamente todas las piezas y se pede meter a la lavadora de trastes. Resulta muy rápido preparar y congelar hamburguesas más saludables que las comerciales y tenerlas siempre listas en casa. Recomiendo usarla con el papel antiadherente para evitar el desastre y que se peguen para congelar o incluso cuando se están friendo.

I got this for my nephew who is into BBQing and smoking big time, he is very good at it, thank you. He loves it.

厚さを変えれるのは使いやすいですが、その分パーツが増えるのでお手入れの際に分解するのに時間がかかります。

I did enjoy it multiple times in this summer. Very good product, easy to use . If one wants to have good standard patties then this is a product for them.