There Is Zero Shame in a Frozen Burger

I wanted to make sure that the burger draft was over before I went out on a limb with the following statement: There is no shame in a frozen burger.

Don’t freak out. I’m not talking about those “up to 23% meat protein” monstrosities in the freezer at your local grocery store. And I’m not saying frozen burgers are better than fresh ones—they’re not.

But some of us live in a world where dinner isn’t a meticulously planned multi-stage journey that begins each day at noon. Some of us—a lot of us—shut our laptop screens at 5:45 and swiftly throw back a glass of wine before figuring out what to cook the family for dinner on this hamster wheel existence we’ve been damned to for the past 11 months.

And it’s the latter person that needs to, on occasion, embrace the time saving godsend that is a properly made frozen burger. My salvation came this summer in the form of Two Rivers Burger Box, a box of 20 patties that’s a reasonable $65. And you’ll recall that not only did Two Rivers place in last week’s aforementioned burger draft, their meat also appears in many of the other winning burger spots.The patties are 5oz, a mix of 50% chuck and 50% brisket, and kick ass. The only proviso is that while they’re packed with flavour, that flavour (in the form of fat) requires diligence on the grill because these babies love to give up flare ups. Alternatively, you can use the pan and get that more smash burger vibe, although for the truly lazy you’re now in one more dish territory.

My next foray was a similar revelation—the cavalcade of two packs that Legend’s Haul offers through their in-house Hill’s Legacy Meats. You have lean venison, classic grass-fed beef and even frozen smash burger balls that you can jam down yourself like the pros (and the prices are likewise, super reasonable).

So there.