Tag: hamburger

Phyllis’s Bar-B-Que Burgers

It was a typical summer day in southern Kansas—hot and dry and windy. Jerri’s oldest brother and his wife live a couple of miles west of a small city with a beautiful view of the Gyp Hills. On that day, Theron was 225 miles away at a bank meeting and Phyllis was home with three of their four daughters. The oldest daughter, Lynne, had driven the old Hudson to her job.

People in Kansas are alert for severe weather. When Phyllis heard the tornado warning, she herded the three girls into the basement. After the four of them were safely underground, she remembered the puppies upstairs and started to go back up to get them.

“There’s not much you can do except follow tornado precaution instructions and pray,” she said, explaining why she stopped at the foot of the steps. At that moment the cellar door blew off and “things got exciting.”

Lynne heard about the storm and headed home. Her fears of what might have happened intensified when she found the road blocked by a tree about a half mile from their house. A neighbor came along and managed to get around the tree and take her home.

When Phyllis and the girls climbed out of the basement, they first saw that their seventy foot tall antenna tower had been bent and blown over a building behind the house and that equipment and feed bunks were scattered across the yard and destroyed. Walking around the house, they saw that the top half of the big cedar tree in the front yard was gone.

Debris was everywhere, but at least their house was only slightly damaged. The house belonging to Mrs. Bauman, their neighbor across the road, had been blown four inches off its foundation.

As they surveyed the mess, four-year-old Leslie announced, “This never would have happened if daddy had been home.”

The whole family, especially Theron, loves the story. No one was hurt, the puppies survived and Theron’s old pickup didn’t even get scratched.

I don’t know whether they had electricity after the storm, but I’m sure Phyllis managed to put a good supper on the table. She might have made her Bar-B-Que Burgers which she could cook outside on the grill.

Many years ago, Lynne compiled The Krehbiel Family Cookbook to preserve some of the recipes and wisdom she and her siblings learned while growing up. Most of the recipes are from Phyllis, but a few originated with Theron and some were contributed by the girls themselves.

Phyllis found the recipe for Bar-B-Que Burgers in a Carnation milk advertisement. You can find an ad with the recipe here. Lynne noted that this was a “a favorite hamburger, nice and moist!” It might well become one of your family favorites too.

INGREDIENTS:
1 1/2 lbs. ground beef
1/2 cup cracker crumbs
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp. dry mustard
1 large egg
2/3 cup evaporated milk

PROCEDURE:

Put the meat in a large mixing bowl. Crush the crackers, making sure no pieces are bigger than a quarter inch. Peel the onion and wash the pepper. Chop both into a fine dice. Mix the salt, pepper, crackers and vegetables with the meat. Add an unbeaten egg and the milk
and stir with a mixing fork until you have a smooth meat mixture.

Divide the meat into six equal parts and form the patties. Broil them for five to seven minutes.

NOTES: You might want to use just a little more salt, but diners can add salt if they want. You can use a red or yellow bell pepper if you don’t have a green one in your refrigerator.

Jerri’s Hamburger Pie

In spite of the fact that we have been using our Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook at least once a week for over forty years, it is in pretty good shape. The title page and page two, a note from the editors, have torn loose and some of the section tabs have torn off. But every recipe is still there, and many taste just as good today as they did when we first tried them.

That, coupled with the fact that the recipes are easy to read and follow, helps explain why the book has been in print continuously since it was published in 1930. Over forty million copies have ended up in the kitchens of America.

Our copy is the 1968 edition and the copyright page states that the book was published by Meredith Corporation of Des Moines, Iowa, and “Printed in the United States of America.” I was glad to learn that, as it gave me the perfect answer to the question that Minnesotans like to ask visitors from the Hawkeye state, “What is the best thing to come out of Iowa?”

I-35 indeed. Ask the jokers how many cookbooks from Minnesota have sold forty million copies.

Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook is still published in Des Moines, Iowa, but I note sadly that it is no longer printed in the USA. Instead, it is now “Printed in China.” Alas.

One of the recipes that Jerri discovered in this wonderful cookbook is “Hamburger Pie.” Like many casseroles, this one lends itself to being put together ahead of time and cooked just before the meal. When she was giving piano lessons, she made this casserole at least a couple of times every month. She assembled it before her first student arrived, put it into the refrigerator and then popped the casserole into the oven an hour before we sat down to eat.

Even our kids liked it. Give it a try.

INGREDIENTS:

1 lb. hamburger
1/2 small onion (about 2 inches in diameter)
1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. black pepper
2 cups canned cut green beans
1 can (10 1/2 oz.) condensed tomato soup
4 large or 5 medium potatoes
Water
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup milk
1/8 tsp. white pepper
1/4 tsp. salt
1 large egg
1/2 cup Cheddar cheese

PROCEDURE:

Peel and quarter the potatoes and put them in a two or three-quart saucepan. Cover them with water and add a teaspoon of salt. Bring the pan to a boil and simmer the potatoes until they feel tender when you jab them with a fork. It will usually take about twenty minutes for the potatoes to cook, but check them after fifteen minutes or so, as you want them tender but not falling to pieces.

While the potatoes are cooking, brown the hamburger over medium heat in a large skillet. Use a wooden spoon to break the hamburger into crumbles and season it with a half teaspoon of salt and about an eighth teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper. Chop the onion medium fine and mix it with the hamburger. You want about a half cup of chopped onion. Remove the pan from the heat.

If there is more than a tablespoon of fat in the pan, drain the excess before you add the beans and tomato soup. Drain the beans and mix them with the meat. Then stir in the soup.

Grease a one and one-half or two-quart casserole and spread the meat mixture evenly on the bottom.

Preheat the oven to 350º.

The potatoes should be cooked by this time. Drain and mash them. Heat the milk until it feels very warm but not hot and use the masher to stir it vigorously into the potatoes. Beat the egg in a cup until it is lemon yellow and stir it into the potatoes along with an eighth teaspoon each of white pepper and salt.

Spread the mashed potatoes evenly over the meat mixture.

Grate the cheese and sprinkle it over the top. Bake the casserole for twenty-five minutes or until the cheese is melted and slightly browned around the edges of the casserole.

NOTES: Jerri uses medium Cheddar most often for this casserole, but I think that it is even better with sharp Cheddar. In an emergency, you can use mild Cheddar or even Colby.