Absolutely love the country and I am having a blast. I’m a 41 year old dude from the states. On an amazing 10-year anniversary trip with the wife. Visiting mostly the highlands.

Quick question though. What’s the deal with hamburgers? Are they made with 95/5 meat or something? Texture is so different than what I have had in my life (more than 500 burgers in my belly).

What’s up with the weird burgers?

by Kitchen_Net_GME

18 comments

  2. Because they’re usually just ground beef/pork and some seasoning. That’s all a burger needs.

  3. That’ll be the more lax rules you have over what can legally be classed as a hamburger and what the labelling must state is included in said burger ingredients.

    You have no minimum beef/meat percentage for it to be classed as a burger unless explicitly stated to be 100% beef

  4. Where have you been eating? Can’t help but think you’ve had 500 Big Macs and an actual burger is alien, or you have just fallen into some Scottish tourist traps 🤔

  5. Things are different in other countries.

    And now the weather.

  7. We definitely have different regulations around this stuff – for example, in the UK you can’t order your burger “medium rare” (for reasons that actually seem pretty sensible to me). So maybe it’s related to food regulations or something boring like that.

    Or maybe you just had a bad burger. (Or indeed a good burger, that just wasn’t what you were used to!)

    Jealous of you currently being in Glencoe – hope you’re having fun!

  8. >Are they made with 95/5 meat or something?

    Pretty much actually. If you go to a butcher and buy burgers they’ll usually be 90/10, with “extra lean” burgers being 95/5. I do like American style 80/20 burgers though, but there’s a time and a place for both – the less fatty ones being ideal for a basic dinner during the week and the fattier ones being a good “one off” kind of thing.

  11. Should’ve gone a few miles down the road to Appin & had a steak at The Old Inn.

  12. There are good burgers to be had. I had a really good one at Seuma’s in Sligachan on Skye when I was there a month ago. I’d recommend exploring the pub fare and not always getting the burger. I had a great smoked brisket sandwich at the Corona in Shawlands in Glasgow.

    I’ve visited a few times and never had a bad meal in Scotland. Had a vindaloo that devastated me the next day, though!

  13. Source: I’m a burger perfectionist and an American living here.

    I know exactly what you’re talking about and it’s something I figured out while living in Germany. It’s frozen patties. You have to find a restaurant that makes their own patties. British beef is fantastic, different from US beef but it’s great. I don’t know what it is, possibly a much higher fat content in the frozen patties, but Europe as a whole has terrible frozen patties if you’re used to eating burgers back in the US. The US has frozen Bubba Burgers which are almost indistinguishable from homemade patties, but Europe at large does not have this.

    TLDR: find a place that makes homemade patties and you’ll be perfectly happy.

  14. With a post like this, you didn’t need to mention you were American. We already knew.

  15. “Hey, I’m an American, why isn’t the whole world like where I’m from”

  16. Bros first taste of real meat and he’s confused 😂😂😂

  17. It’s the fat ratios, the meat is much leaner. Leaner meat tends to dry out when cooked too long which seems to be what 90% of the restaurants do here. The good places get their beef at the same 80/20 ratio that is used in the US, the others use frozen patties that often have fillers. We have some friends that run a local restaurant, the burger patties they use are the same ones that are sold in Waitrose and are 85% beef with the rest being made up of fillers.

    I’m from the US originally and won’t buy beef from the supermarket, it all comes from my local butcher. He makes it for me at the 80/20 ratio. He also does my brisket and pork butt cuts for my smoker as everywhere else cuts way too much of the fat cap off.

  18. I think a lot of people misunderstand what is being asked.

    To answer though, the meat/fat ratio is often different here yes. We tend to use much leaner ground beef, 90/10 is pretty common (or sometimes even higher, makes for a terrible burger) whereas you may be more used to 80/20.

    You’re also much more likely to find onions in the mix in the UK in general than you are in the USA.

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