Minnesota Cooking: The Ranched Burger - Freezer to Plate in 30 Minutes

I placed them in my oven at 350 for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, I flipped the burgers over. I then, set the timer for 5 more minutes. I took the burgers out of the oven and placed a piece of sliced American cheese on one of the patties. I started the toaster oven and got ready to put the burger together. I used a couple small pats of butter on the bread. Normally it would melt with the heat of the toast, but it's cold in my kitchen today with the winter wind blowing and my kitchen is cold, so the butter is slightly hard.

I took the burger with the cheese and placed it on the slice of bread. I put Ranch dressing on the top of the cheese, and put the other piece of toast on top.

I like to cut my sandwiches into four pieces. Petite fours, my mom called them. She also told me later that she only did it because I was a little kid, but I still cut my sandwiches this way to this day.

Ingredients

• 1 patty hamburger
• 2 tablespoons Ranch Dressing
• 1 slice American Cheese
• 2 pieces toast
• 4 patties butter
• 3 tablespoons brown gravy mix
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon Ultimate Steak Seasoning

To prepare for this, you must prepare your hamburger patties ahead of time and freeze them.

I bought some hamburger in 8 pound tubes. The tubes were at least four inches wide and a perfect width for a hamburger. I measured and sliced off the raw unfrozen burger into 1/2 inch thick slices. 1/2 inch thick ensures that you end up with a nice 3/8 inch thick burger for your sandwich. It has a tendency to shrink as it bakes and your huge burger will look slightly wimpy for your bun if you don't adjust for size shrinkage.

You bake them, not broil, so the frozen burger thaws and then, it starts to cook. You will have to flip them over after a period of time, and then finish cooking the last side.

They cook down, so each burger is a quarter pound to a third pound after cooked. I froze them in patty shapes in a plastic freezer bag with waxed paper between each patty.

So, then scenario becomes:

I went to my freezer and removed two patties from a bag. I then turned my oven on at 350 degrees. I used a piece of aluminum foil and placed a bit of brown gravy, garlic powder and Ultimate Steak Seasoning on the foil. I then placed the two burger patties on top on the foil on top of the gravy/garlic/seasoning mix.