I used to know someone who liked jam on his burgers. Another person only wanted the bun and patty, nothing else. Fried eggs might be more common though unappealing to me. Peanut butter???😖

I know several people who’d be happy with your longburgers.👍🏻

“Another person only wanted the bun and patty, nothing else.”

That’s my daughter’s order. ”Plain burger. Nothing on it. No cheese, no lettuce, nothing. Hamburger, bun. Medium rare.” I’ve got the script down pat!

Yes, I’ll form burgers to match the bread on hand. I most often do that with patty melts. Rye is not round!

This reminds me of ”hot dogs” I’ve been meaning to make for like 15 years now. From my daughter’s ”Pre-K Family Recip Book”

Never made long burgers. I have made brat burgers using ground pork a few times and I believe Johnsonville sells them in the summer months. My son always wants an onion ring on his hamburger rather than raw or grilled onions.

I first saw fried eggs on hamburgers a long time ago, in Australia, at their version of Burger King (I think "Burger King" was already taken). I don't know if this is right, but the impression I got, from what some said, was that the eggs were cheap and abundant compared to beef, so it was a common way to add food value rather than double patties, and egg caught on as a normal topping because people liked it. It's only recently that I've seen it on offer here. Perhaps an Aussie influence, or perhaps the same economics considering the current price of beef vs. the public's opinions of what burgers are supposed to cost.

Making your patties fit your roll makes sense. My mother's meatpacker made large oval patties, perhas meant as "hamburger steaks" which did not fit the buns and were overly compressed, The opposite of home barely handled and fit the roll. Yours sound great!

For me, I want the full California salad on my basic burger. That's not avocado, inside California, which can taste good but doesn't stay in place well. Guacamole is better if you're going that route, but it still squishes out and can be messy. The full California (my term, normal execution) is leaf lettuce (cruncy iceberg, usually), burger sized tomato slice, thick, but not so thick it tastes like a tomato burger, slice of crunchy raw onion, enough dill pickle chips to cover, and mayonnaise or mayonnaise based burger sauce, more often the former. If there's cheese, for me, it has to be melty and tasty. No cheddar unless it's compounded with sodium citrate. Otherwise, it breaks and runs out and is in all ways disgusting. Same with most Swiss, though I had guyere once which was really good. I don't know if that's due to the cheese or the skill of the chef.

I'll venture into unusual toppings if they're on offer, or just variety, like the classic mushroom or western, if they don't have yucky broken cheese. A grilled Anaheim or Hatch is nice, when fitted to the bun, but while jalapeños go down well, they can make the whole esophagus burn, so not a thing to do without a glass of vinegar water to wash it down. But while such ventures are fun, and variety is the spice of life, if I'm craving a hamburger the full California salad is what I really want,

I never got the idea of adding cold, fresh, raw veggies to a hot sandwich. So no lettuce or tomato for me and I don't like pickles so skip them as well. I do like onions but not fresh - grilled only. I prefer my burgers quite plain - cheese okay (preferrably American but blue cheese okay) and some variety of "secret sauce".

And shape is whatever fits the bread I have on hand, which is usually not a bun shape :-))

ETA: eggs on burgers are popular here and most places have some variation on the menu. Also things like grilled pineapple (no thanks!). I also omit any bacon from my burgers. Never cooked done enough for my taste and also kinda overkill in my book.

When I was a kid, there was a recipe for bottled Chili sauce added to mayo(50% X 50%). Together the combination was heavenly! Also known in today's lingo as "Bang Bang" sauce.

Yes, I've formed hamburger meat to fit the buns I have on hand. :0) Why not!

Re pineapple, there was a long ago restaurant that did a "terriyaki" burger that wasn't overly sweet, was very flavorful, and had a ring of grilled fresh pineapple on it--thinner than canned by nearly half, and punchy. It was really really good. Still a bit too sweet to be a favorite for me, but really good. You cannot replicate this with canned. Just no. But for a Hawaiian inspired changeup, pineapple is possible. :)

If you order a hamburger with ”the lot” here in Oz, you get lettuce, tomato, onions, cheese, egg, bacon and pickled beetroot in most places. (Also, we think it is odd to call anything on a bun a ”sandwich”. Sandwiches are on sliced bread only. If it’s cold fillings (meat, cheese, salad etc) on a bun, it a ”roll”, and hot fillings (meat patty, fried chicken etc) is a ”burger”.)

I make my hamburger patties with ground beef, finely diced onion, diced bacon, garlic, mixed herbs, and grated cheese. Not your classic burger, but we like them this way. DH has lettuce and tomato with may and ketchup. I like lettuce and very thinly sliced tomato with mayo and Chinese hot chilli sauce.

Yes to fit the bread. I also don't see a burger being a sandwich. That's for bread and cold filling. I also don't see the place for cold salad on a hot meat thing. Recently on faceache, someone here was putting salad on top of a hot galette - lots of people up in arms LOL. The salad would be wilted and quite horrid by the time it reached the client. And, I never saw the point of iceberg. It tastes of water. So many tasty, nice things to eat. There's an island off the coast of southern Brittany where they do the best burgers in the world LOL He gets flavours into a burger that I didn't think were possible https://www.asphodele.com/ The look doesn't match up to the flavour. We travel a long way to eat those LOL

How about skewered sliders?

Speaking of iceberg, DH is especially fond of it. I’ve been buying these at TJ’s.

I haven't seen those. I like the storage potential, says she with the giant cabbage problems...

Giant cabbage…I can relate!

I should have added that when I make lamb burgers, they go on Turkish pide rolls, which are sort of oval shaped. So the patties are also sort of oval shaped.

Colleen, we had lamb burgers last night. It’s a Weber recipe that’s supposed to be smallish balls skewered and grilled. One day I decided to make patties instead and formed them into ovals. Not sure why but have done oval patties ever since…served alone or in pita. These are the ingredients, but, like last night, I often use all lamb.

2 medium garlic cloves
1 small red or yellow onion, chopped
1/4 cup lightly packed fresh mint leaves
3/4 pound ground lamb
3/4 pound ground beef
1 T. red wine vinegar
1 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. paprika

Colleen - Can you elaborate on the pide rolls? I know what pide is, just curious about the rolls.

The last lamb burgers I made were simply stuffed with goat cheese and fresh mozzarella cubes. Delicious!

It's Turkish bread, which usually comes in a big long flattish oval shaped loaf, made into smaller flattish oval shaped rolls about the same length as a hot dog roll but twice as wide and half as high. When I make my lamb burgers I toast the cut rolls then "butter" them with hoummous, put the cooked patty on then top with thinly sliced feta, sliced tomatoes and baby spinach leaves.

I doubt it's really odd, but I've cooked hamburger to fit baguette to make French dips. I never cook roast beef or prime rib, but sometimes get a hankering for a French dip.

Plllog I love your explanation about words used for different things. It's bad enough in Britain with the same words meaning different things in the different countries - for example a muffin in Scotland isn't the same thing as a muffin in England as a muffin in the US. Now, the muffin as a cake in a paper case has become generic.

I understand your like of crunch from iceberg as contrast. but I can't get over my dislike of hot meat with a cold leaf on it LOL

Thanks. :) I like words. :) When I was young and in a group with a couple dozen native English speskers from all over, I asked them all about regional words. I don't remember which places went with each word, but just in North America, there were at least five different words for what I grew up calling "tennis shoes" (the this, canvas ones). They were also tennies (nearly the same), gym shoes, sneakers or sneaks, trainers, court shoes, and plimmies (I think that was South Africa). Maybe a few more There were some other words we all said differently, but that was the biggest variety. But then there was the argument between an American guy and a German lad. It was on the way to coming to blows when I walked in. The former had asserted a world population in the billions. The latter vehemently protested the impossibility of the number. I wrote down billion in digits in both USA and Euro. Peace was restored to the Earth. :)

Re the lettuce, we like what we like. No issues. And, yes, if the lettuce is going to wilt in the heat of what it's paired with it's not nice. The tomato slice and onion slice are good for insulating the lettuce. They're fine warmed up a bit. OTOH, when I make a bowl of pasta or soup just for me, I'll microwave it with a big pile of spinach or arugula on top. The steam from what's underneath wilts them nicely and makes them nice to eat without any special seasoning or sauce. Hot willed iceberg, no, but okay for some slightly less crunchy greens. :)