To tell dh I hate his pride&joy burgers?

[Jux]

I am immensely grateful that dh cooks quite often. He's an OK plain cook - sausages, chips, a bit of veg - and makes a mean dumpling, and pretty good beef stew.

However, about once a month he insists on doing burgers. He loves them. He squashes a handful of mince together really hard to make a ball, then squashes it flat. Then cooks it. That's it. No seasoning, herbs, nothing.

I think they're pretty vile and so does dd. Mind you, I don't like burgers much anyway.

It is hard to tell him, as he is soooooooo proud of them. I think there's an element of competition as his best mate makes 'fantastic' burgers, and that's probably rolling about in dh's mind somewhere.

Today he wanted to have burgers. He was really desperate to do them, and I'm not feeling brilliant, so am pleased to have someone else cook, and as he's cooking he obviously gets to choose what we eat, especially as he felt so strongly about it.

So I am dreading supper, though I'm really hungry!

[Chandon]

Oh Greensleeves, I agree

[JoanByers]

his convenience foods aren't bad. But I went to one of his pubs once, it was a dreadful rip-off/con.

[Greensleeves]

Heston needs to be slapped and told not to play with his food

[Jux]

No Waitrose near us, Joan. Tbh, I wouldn't buy them anyway, as I don't like burgers much. DH would think it very odd if I bought some. Then I couldn't ever say I don't like burgers again!

It's not a massive problem.

[JoanByers]

They sell Heston burgers in Waitrose. About five quid for two.

Perhaps buy some, serve and just leave it at that, point will make itself?

[Jux]

Joan, I saw Heston B doing something very similar to that on tv once. DH does think Heston's a marvel, but even he thinks HB goes a bit further than yer average domestic cook should be expected to, or should even want to. The last series, dh thought was ludicrous and just courting publicity.

Part of the problem is that dh is very competitive and I am a better cook, so he needs to cook things which I don't. They are few and far between.

[meddie]

pretend to get food poisoning after one of his burgers, run the loo a lot, make heaving noises in the toilet.
next time he offers to cook them, say as much as you love his burgers, after your food poisoning just the thought of them is making your stomach heave, which is sucha terrible shame.
never have to eat his burgers again......

[JoanByers]

jux: postimage.org/image/6hmptmqo5/

[squalorvictoria]

Oh dear, I think he's got sucked into the McDonalds (or was it Burger King?) marketing campaign where they said "our burgers are 100% beef and nothing else".

What he's forgotten is that said campaign DID mention they added seasoning

Plain mince squashed into a burger sounds really vile. You need to conduct a taste test one day. Plain mince vs. seasoned mince vs. seasoned mince with garlic and onion...

[Pickles101]

I can't be the only one sniggering at 'food probe'.






Probe

[ihearsounds]

A burger on its own, even with seasoning and herbs aren't that great. But add cheese, mayo, ketchup, pickles, mustard, red onion, lettuce, tomatoes and it turns into something edible.
A burger without all of that is just a mcdonalds, which are bland.

[Jux]

Bamboo, I've been saying for almost all my subsequent posts that I'll just eat them. Please don't accuse me of losing perspective. It's because, to me, it's a pretty trivial matter that I haven't said anything to dh before, coupled with it being a big thing for him. If I'd lost perspective, I'd be posting on relationships asking if I should LTB!

[DamnBamboo]

Can you not just put some cheese, lettuce, pickles, onions tomatoes etc. with it and eat it like that?

It's a burger once a month... a bit of perspective would be good.

[FellowshipOfFineFellows]

YY to telling him.

I went through 6 years of dp's dry, nasty omelettes. I finally broke when I was pregnant (so not accountable for outbursts ) and told him he made the shittest omelettes I'd ever had the displeasure to force down my throat.

He is an excellent cook btw, just not great at the humble omelette.

[Jux]

Joan, I love your instructions . Not practical for us though. They might be useful and I am currently getting flashes of inspiration about how I might use your know-how....

Luckily, our butcher is a genius with meat (celebrity said so, so it must be true!) and he delivers meat to 2 and 3 star restaurants in London every week. I reckon that his is probably the safest mince you can get - round here anyway.

Thank you all for your thoughts.

[lottiegarbanzo]

If you were capable of doing only the simplest car maintenance tasks, like checking the oil and the screen wash and, every month gained great enjoyment from checking the tyre pressure, consistently badly so your readings were useless, would you expect your DP to fawn over you, offering fulsome praise every time you did you did it, never mentioning that your readings were always wrong, all for the sake of your pride and fragile ego?

I would consider that immensely patronising, would think he had his head stuck in some 1950s notion of gender roles and the presumed inability of the 'little lady' to learn such a manly task (but bless her for trying eh? so sweet!).

I would much rather he acknowledged my effort and enthusiasm and told me how to do the task properly (assuming he knew of course). Then I'd wonder why I hadn't checked I was doing it right before and be pleased to have learnt something useful.

[pumpkinsweetieMasPudding]

Either buy him a burger recipe book or you could say you have gone off burgers
Don' t tell him, It won' t do much good to his confidence

[Proudnscary]

Why is it rude and nasty to tell your do you don't like one of his meals? I really don't get this at all. And we appreciate it when the other makes dinner but are not 'grateful' - there is a difference.

[Chandon]

Cause that woud unnecessarily rude and nasty.

Just add salt, pepper yourself and sauce and plastic cheese, onion, mayo

[Proudnscary]

Why are you 'immensely grateful' your partner cooks?

Why can't you just tell him his burgers suck?

[SummerRainIsADistantMemory]

My burgers are divine, juicy, tasty and filling. And I do none of what Joan suggests.

Inside-out burgers are the most popular, I wrap the meat mix around some grated cheese. Lamb burgers are also really good. The key is spicing, no salt in the meat mix and searing to seal the juice in before reducing the heat to cook through. The meat needs to be bound with an egg yolk too.

Now I'm craving burgers for dinner

[Tee2072]

MmeLindor

[diddl]

Well also as said, let him have his burgers how he wants & add what you want to yours.

But really, what he´s doing is just fried mince, isn´t it?

[MmeLindor]

Tee
What do you know? Americans can't make good burgers. Jeez. You'd think you'd invented then or some...

Oh.

[halcyondays]

I don't know why you can't just tell him you're not that keen on burgers. DH grumbles at a lot of my favourite foods and vice versa.