I grew up in a small town in the Midwest.
It was a small town surrounded by small towns.
All the towns had at least one restaurant.
The restaurants were for adults. The adults dressed up – suits for the men, nice dresses for the women.
They had cocktails and ordered expensive dinners. It was a ‘night out’.
One might see children there at noon on Sunday or another special occasion, but not in the evening.
Steaks were the prime attraction on the menu, but there was also shrimp, scallops, lobster tail, and frog legs.
With all those choices, my mother’s favorite thing to eat was a Hamburger Steak.
When asked why she didn’t order something more interesting (expensive) she said it was her night out and she ordered what she liked to eat.
This is my mother’s favorite ‘steak-house’ dinner.
Click here to Pin Hamburger Steak, Fried Onions
PrintHamburger Steak, Fried Onions
Cook outside on the barbecue if the weather is good, but a skillet works just fine.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 2 servings 1x
- Category: Beef
- Method: Skillet
Ingredients
- 16oz (500gr) ground beef (mince)
- 2 onions, thickly sliced
- 1 tbs olive oil
- 1 tbs butter
- 2oz (60gr) cheese, something that will melt
Instructions
- Fry onions in butter and oil in a large skillet until well browned and starting to crisp around the edges, 10 – 15 minutes.
- Move to the side.
- Divide the beef in half and very gently form 2 large patties. Do not press together.
- Add patties to skillet and fry until done to your liking, turning once. 3 – 8 minutes depending on thickness and how you like them cooked.
- Top with cheese and cover briefly to melt.
- Top with onions and serve.
Notes
I used mimolette cheese, sliced thinly… Use your favorite.
We like our burgers medium rare, so cooking time was 2 minutes, flip, 1 minute. You can make a small slit in the middle to check.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/2 recipe
- Calories: 684
- Sugar: 6.9 g
- Sodium: 340.1 mg
- Fat: 44.8 g
- Saturated Fat: 18.8 g
- Trans Fat: 1.5 g
- Carbohydrates: 15.8 g
- Fiber: 2.7 g
- Protein: 53.1 g
- Cholesterol: 188.9 mg
Keywords: beef, burgers, hamburger
My mother would have skipped the cheese….
As I was remembering these restaurants I pondered the popularity of frog legs.
One of my parents’ favorite restaurants was The Golden Frog.
I googled it.
It’s still open.
The menu has been updated (of course) and it now offers wings and wraps and salsas and deep-fried pickles.
It also still has frog legs…..
Your mum was literally ordering a bunless burger…interesting choice seeing she could have whipped this up at home….but probably the luxury lay in not cooking or serving !!
Exactly – she loved burgers and hated cooking. lol
I’m with your mom. I’d have skipped the cheese. But this is one of my favorite dinners too! And yes, gently is the word when forming patties of any kind really. I barely hold the ground beef to form it even when making burgers for the grill. I don’t like hockey pucks and the more you work the meat, the tougher it gets and I think, and this is just me, the less likely you are to end up with that wonderful, medium rare that we also like. It seems to go from raw to overdone in a heartbeat when any ground meat is overworked.
I miss the days of getting ‘dressed’ for dinner at a nice restaurant. These days when we go to what I consider an expensive restaurant, it’s jeans with holes in the legs, crop tops, men with baseball caps that are turned backward and sideways, sunglasses left on, people on their phones…I think I’ve mentioned before, we’re members at the Holly Hotel and it’s the one place anywhere near us that still requires a dress code to eat there. Beside the fabulous food and ambiance, it’s one of the reasons we’re members.
My mother in law loved frog legs. I never did see the appeal.
At least we can still get medium-rare hear. And rare. And raw lol.
People still dress up to go out for dinner here, although not as much as they did 10 years ago. And, in the cities, there are still places that require a tie, although most are happy with a jacket. The hubs has started wearing a turtleneck with a jacket and that always works. One can gat sweet & sour frog legs at the Chinese buffet here lol