The Ground Meat Cookbook

Note: This edition of The Ground Meat Cookbook has been updated to include Metric equivalents.


Quiz an American on his food preferences and you will uncover a devotee of hamburger, a lover of succulent ground meat oozing in a bun. This book is a bow to a national mania and a reminder, too, that juicy, tender, flavorful ground meats of all kinds merit top place on the menu.

For ground meats are more than hamburger, and even hamburgers can be something more than the popularly tagged “hamburger with” or “without.” With imaginative combinations of herbs and sauces, for instance, they can be transformed into piquant main dishes, welcome to the palate of the most discriminating gourmet.

Ground meats have a versatility all their own. They are adaptable to the skillet, the casserole, the oven, the open fire. They can be combined deliciously with pastry, with cereal, with fruits and vegetables; piled into molds or grilled on a plank or a skewer; shaped into loaves or balls or patties; add nutrition and flavor to soup. They can start the day, gratify the lunch-time cravings, stimulate the dinner appetite or satisfy it altogether. And for busy people, ground meats have the added extra grace of cooking quickly, of supplying top excellence in a matter of minutes.

Ground meats deserve a cookbook of their own. And ground meat cookery, you will discover, is easy, sure-fire—and fun!