What’s this? A box addressed to The Ranting Chef??
The Burger Buddy? It sounds very intriguing.
Inside was the Burger Buddy (two pieces) and the directions.
The first piece has an inner ring, and outer ring (with drain holes) and two arms that allow it to sit across a saucepan.
The other piece is the press. The bottom of it fits the inner ring and has a decent handle on it.
This gives you an idea of the size. Made for any decent sized burger. The Burger Buddy is designed to reduce the amount of fat from your burger to make it a healthier meal option. Here is how it works:
Cook your burger through your normal method. I decided to use the Foreman grill. I used pre-made patties of 85% beef, 15% fat. While some fat drains off, the Burger Buddy promises to eliminate even more.
Heat water to at least 170 degrees.
Place the Burger Buddy over a pot and fill the center ring with hot water.
Place a patty in the center ring and take the press and push down on the patty. Use two hands (I needed one for the camera) and gently rock back and forth.
The fat will separate from the burger and end up in the water. Pour more water in to cause the water (and fat) to overflow into the outer ring where it will drain into the pot below. Remove the burger and eat.
Does it remove any fat?
Yes! This water was clear just a minute ago. Three quarter pound burgers later, you can’t see through it.
In case you thought I was kidding. While this is mostly water, there is a lot of fat in there.
How does it taste? Isn’t the fat important to the flavor of the burger? Abernathy Enterprises, maker of the Burger Buddy, has quite a bit of text on this, but I figured I’d run a taste test of my own. My wife, two teenage boys and myself were the taste testers. Only I knew which patties went through the Burger Buddy and which did not.
I made six burgers on the foreman. Three went through the Burger Buddy and three did not. One patty of each was cut into quarters and each of us tasted the burger with no bun and no condiments. I could not really tell much of a difference in taste. My wife and one son preferred the taste of the burger from the Burger Buddy. The other son, preferred the standard burger.
Next, we each received two half patties to dress anyway we wanted. I did not offer cheese or bacon (keeping the fat low) but condiments, lettuce, tomato and onion were in play. After individually dressing our burgers, we conducted another taste test. Once again, I could not tell the difference. My wife continued to prefer the taste of the Burger Buddy patty and my eldest continued to prefer the standard burger. My youngest, flipped and preferred the taste of the standard burger once dressed.
MY TAKE: There is no question that it works to remove copious amounts of fat from freshly cooked burgers. It could quickly be a money saver by being able to purchase less expensive ground meat and press out the fat versus buying ultra lean ground meat to start with that is much more expensive. The taste test was inconclusive. That is a good thing. It removes fat but does not seem to have any negative impact on the taste. For those who would like to reduce the fat in their diet but still want a burger, the Burger Buddy is a good answer.
You can purchase the Burger Buddy by clicking on the name.
Rantings of an Amateur Chef 
Don’t you end up with a wet burger?
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On my husband’s ship (US Navy) they broil the burgers in water. They’re delicious and low in fat. Definitely not soggy. Moist, though. That’s the way a burger should be! 🙂
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It is moist (not soggy) as it does not absorb the water. The heat from the burger (and that you use hot water) evaporates very quickly. In fact after cooking the burgers, those that I did not use the Burger Buddy on I put into a warming drawer. Once done with the BB, I pulled them out. The non BB ones were a little dry.
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Thanks for alerting us to this product. Interesting review. My choice is to use. The butcher where we get our beef only produces/sells the lean ground beef. I prefer turkey burgers. This little gadget would likely work on either, but just gives you something else to have to clean, and as you say, doesn’t really seem to make a huge difference.
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We also barbecue the burgers rather than pan fry, so any excess fat drips away.
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I just love your blog! It’s my new addiction and I read absolutely every post. My husband is an avid fan as well. You remind me of the chef instructors at the Art Institute of Seattle. Are you a chef anywhere? Or do you teach?
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Thank you for your kind words. Not a chef. Strictly an amateur but love to cook!
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Nice writeup! Interesting that you really can’t tell the difference in taste between the two, which is good because there is no need for that extra fat if its not showing up in flavor…
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Burger Daddy – how much thought goes into product naming as well!
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Mmm, not sure about this – dipping cooked burger into hot water. Although you say there was no difference, did you test on an outdoor chargrilled burger? Our fear is that much of that lovely taste might indeed be washed off.
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I like how you ran the taste tests–fun “experiments”
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Interesting blog, I also think this gadget is a interesting idea as well. My partner who is a chef commented to me after I told him about this item said that it should only be removing the drippings but not necessarily remove any actual fat.
I guess to really know if it makes a difference we’d need to use a full laboratory to gauge the end results. I do think it might make for some moister burgers though.
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I know fats a big no no with the health crowd but I think a bit of a change in what kind of beef they’re eating would make a bigger difference than going from say a 80/20 to a 90/10. My preference in ground beef has higher N3 (Omega 3, sorry) and a lower N6 (Omega 6). It’s Range/grass fed vs Grained. Even a range/grass fed cow given a 3 week graining on corn before slaughter (to increase marbling) has a drastic reduction of N3 and an increase of N6. Cattle that have been given supplemental corn feeding throughout their adult years have very little N3 and a huge amount of N6 in the meat. Corn is not a natural diet to cattle. While it increases fat and therefor increases flavor and tenderness, it is not healthy for the human. We absorb the N6. So how do you get extra taste in range fed beef? When grinding the beef, use the tastier fat from the chuck rather than the bland flank and round.
My favorite is certified 81/19 range/grass fed. If you know a butcher, he’ll grind it custom for you to whatever grade you want. It’s the reason us old ass cowboys live so long!
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I agree with you on the initial quality of the beef, pure grass fed is lower in the … “bad fat”… as being a ruminant cattle are suppose to be eating only grasses. You also have to contend with whether or not the beef you buy is also actually ground beef that isn’t from the .. leftovers, (i.e. pink slime beef), which also makes a big difference.
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Yup, thus the reason I mentioned the butcher doin’ your ground beef. A real ground chuck is tasty. Pieces and part cuts are what is on sale over at Piggly Wiggly.
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Interesting. I have never heard of the Burger Buddy although putting an already cooked burger in water sounds really gross. I did see you commented that it did not make it soggy.
The only way we eat burgers at home is off the grill so a taste test would not work here because the Burger Buddy burger would be smushed and the other one would not be.
Also I am curious how this works on a burger that is not cooked so much. I am referfring to the video on the Burger Buddy site. What she puts in the device and what she takes out looks more like a hockey puck than a nice juicy burger.
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Hi Terre!
I noticed you and several other commenters mentioned grilling hamburgers, some said they grilled so the fat would drip off. The Burger Buddy works on grilled, Foreman grilled, pan-cooked, and even fast food hamburgers to reduce up to 50% of extra fat in each type of cooked burger.
Our favorite way of cooking burgers is on the grill too, so what we do is just boil a little pot of water on the grill at the same time we cook the burgers. It only takes a few seconds to process them. They don’t get soggy or fall apart, and they only get as “smushed” as the pressure you put on them. You can watch a video of how we use The Burger Buddy with a grill here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOdjoQHBNpI
The burger you saw in our commercial had been previously cooked and frozen. It was still yummy, just not fresh off the grill.
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On the show ‘Man vs Food’ I recall a town somewhere in the States that is famous for steamed burgers … can’t remember where it was though.
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