Hamburger and/or Ground Beef

Hamburger or ground beef used to be the cheapest and most versatile items in the meat case. You can brown it to add to a variety of dishes or casseroles. You can form it into patties for burgers. You can add a few extra ingredients and then form it into meatloaf or meatballs. Oops I almost forgot our family favorites, hamburger gravy and rice. Or brown a pound of hamburger, clean out the fridge and throw everything you find that isn't growing hair into the pan with the hamburger, top with cheese and present it to your family. The only limitations hamburger has is your imagination.

Hamburger soup!
click here for how to make our hamburger gravy recipe
click here for easy meat loaf recipe
Hamburger Funny Face Recipe
Prime Rib Loaf Recipe


Regular ground beef is 27 to 30 percent fat. You should be able to find boneless chuck roasts on sale for about the same price. Have the butcher grind some up for you. You may not save much, but you will get a lot better product. Just about any cut of beef in the case, when ground, will make leaner and nicer hamburger than the regular ground beef.


Boneless chuck or cross rib roasts make outstanding hamburger. The fat content will be more like extra lean than lean, about 10 percent.
Easy Beef-Stuffed Peppers
Salisbury Steak Ground Beef Recipe

Round steaks on sale make great extra lean hamburger, as do rump roasts and London Broils. Whenever you have the butcher grind something you can expect to lose half a pound in the head of the grinder, so make sure you grind enough product to make it worth your while. You can save a fair bit of money and get very good quality ground beef. Fat content should be less than ten percent.


You can have ground sirloin for less than the regular price by asking the butcher to grind either a sirloin tip roast or petite sirloin steaks. Sometimes top sirloin steaks are on sale for less than ground sirloin. Have the butcher grind some of them for you.

If you would like to learn more about Italian cooking. Here's a link to a nice site and a sauce recipe that uses ground meat.
All-About-Italian-Food.com

Source: John Smith, author of Confessions of a Butcher- Eat Steak on a Hamburger Budget and Save$$$. Ark Essentials.com