[Plowboy]

After two weeks of vacation without a grill, the wife and I were HUNGRY for some burgers. After seeing someone here grind their own ground beef with bacon, I've been wanting to try it for some time.

At Costco today I found "pot roast" for $2.35/lb. The two big cuts had a lot of marbling, nice red color, and soft (flexible) to the touch. After trimming out any large veins of fat, the 6 lbs. of pot roast yielded about 5 lbs. ready to be ground with a pound of bacon.

I treated the grinding process similar to sausage makers. So that the fat wouldn't begin to melt from the whole process, I make sure everything stayed cool. The beef, bacon, and grinder parts went into the freezer for a brief chill. The bowl used to catch the ground pork and beef mix was set into a larger bowl with ice.

Half pound burgers were seasoned with a dash of kosher salt, fresh ground pepper, and a sprinkle of Brauma's garlic powder. The salt was not needed because of all the cured bacon already in the burger.

I was surprised how little the burgers shrunk despite the high amount of fat. Flare ups on the grill were very few as well. Because the mix had raw pork, the burgers were cooked until done all of the way through. Not a burger you want to serve medium rare.

The burgers were topped with a strip of colby-jack cheese and some of my "bbq bean base". The bean base is basically a sauteed mix of red bell pepper, onion, and bacon. Other "mix in" options could be shiitake mushrooms, caramelized onion, or bleu cheese.

If you are looking for something different to do for a Fourth of July cookout, make your own grind. According to the wife, it was the best, juiciest burger she's ever had. I have to agree that it was awesome.