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.

Have used the Weston several times now and in general I am pleased with the product. You must use either wax paper or pre-cut patty papers or the hamburger will stick to the mold. The set-up for thickness is a little iffy but not overly difficult. There are marks on the adjustment stem for different weight patties but a little "tweaking" to achieve a fully formed patty can be required. Once set up the press is a marvel. The only downside is clean-up. A little moisture and debris from the patty will get through and the form's adjustable platen can allow food to migrate into the innards of the press. Unless you wash in the dish washer, you can't be really sure you have gotten all of that left-over hamburger. Would have loved an easily removable top platen for cleaning. Outside of that I have added a piece of plastic wrap to the top and bottom in addition to using patty papers. The plastic wrap prevents food from getting onto the surfaces and the patty papers give me a quick removal of the patty. Kind of cool to walk out to the bar-b-que with a stack of tenderloin burgers, all perfectly formed and equally sized.

I love burgers and I like them to have a nice uniform shape.They cook better on the grill when they are a uniform thickness I have used the plastic burger presses in the past and they work ok. This one works Great. I purchased the patty papers recommended, but regular wax paper would work just as well. Place a patty paper on the bottom, add your ground meat, place a pare on top and close the press. Forms a nice patty, with the excess meat on the sides. With the paper no clean up. The press is a adjustable to handle different size burgers, took me a few minutes to figure out you have to spin the inside top to the desired thickness and then set the adjustment nut. Other than that minor learning curve, no issues. Easy to use, make great patties and if you use wax paper with it little or no clean up.

This item works great for patty making..

Well made but too heavy, with too many parts and difficult to clean thoroughly. Burger patties get smaller when cooked. The ones this patty maker turned out are small enough in diameter that by the time they shrink during cooking they work great as sliders. A tortilla press might work better to make large diameter patties.

I bought this to make burger patties from bulk burger packages from Costco. After some trial and error in patty thickness size I can make about 18 or so 1/3 pound patties from a 5 pound flat. Reading the previous reviews I ordered the pre cut wax Weston papers as well, and used them right off the bat with zero issues. I put one paper down, then my burger "ball" and then one paper on top and press. No issues with burger squeezing out into the press or all over. No issues with the patty falling apart either, though if you don't use enough and need to add more burger to fill out the patty I suggest taking it and kneading it into one ball then re-press it. I have a scoop I found that is about the size to scoop the right amount of burger, then I mix it up in my hands (knead) to make sure it's all bonded well and press. If you just scoop loose burger and press it I can see where it might fall apart. I love being able to make bulk patties out of healthier burger than the pre-made crap filled ones at the store. I've used venison and turkey burger as well with equally good results. It's also fun to mix in bacon or peppers and even ranch dressing mix to make delicious "gourmet" burgers. Seriously if you have issue with the function of this thing it's probably because it's smarter than you. Quality is just fine, mine is decent gauge material that I can take apart and top rack wash in my dishwasher with no issues so far with the coating.

Does it make patties? Yes. Is the hinged design flawed? Yes. Is it out of balance? Yes. Is it a royal pain to clean? A thousand times YES. I've always been a believer in highly reviewed products. This is one of the very few instances that leaves me wondering what on Earth people are talking about. This patty maker (the single version that I purchased) is extremely top heavy. When the top, hinged portion is lifted so one can load or unload the patty meat, it has a tendency to tip backwards with the slightest of movement. This has occurred on multiple occasions leaving me to check my countertop for chips/damage. The device is heavy, but in the wrong places. It would benefit from having the bottom portion much heavier to counter-balance the weight of the top. The adjustable thickness screw is a great idea in theory but be mindful that those extra thick burgers you're thinking of making turn into hockey pucks (even when flattening the middle with a dimple) because the overall diameter of the patty cannot be increased. I'd recommend a 5" or greater diameter (knowing full well the patty will shrink on the grill) if you plan on anything heavier than a 1/3 pound patty. Also, when pressing down on the top portion of this press, you have to exert quite a bit of effort (that's expected) on the top knob. Pressing down firmly repeatedly on a knob after making several patties gets a bit old real quick. The palm of your hand will remind you of that. Lastly, cleaning is awful. Even with use of parchment paper, plastic wrap, or any other barrier, it inevitably will rip and get meat juice/particles on the metal itself. Then you're left with trying to disinfect/clean it -- good luck with getting the meat out between the top adjustable plate and the inner wall of the top of the press!! This one just missed the mark for me. Maybe others will have better luck or more patience with the use and cleaning of this press. It's a no-go for me.

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 got this hamburger press last week. I made over 48 patties in no time. I like that I can make different sizes patties. I did not bother to weight them, just filled a small measuring cup. All my patties are the same size, if not quite the same weight... For those who have problems with the meat sticking to the press, just use some wax paper both on top and bottom. I simply use a roll of wax paper and precut it. Put it on the press, then the meat, then fold the rest of the wax paper over and press... It does not stick to the press and once frozen, the patties are easy to separate. Oh, I use a small dishcloth or a potholder to press, so the press does not get greasy. Almost no cleaning. Mind you, next time I make patties, I will seasoned the meat before I make them.