CONSUMER advocacy organisation Choice has conducted a blind taste test of 14 unflavoured beef burger patties from the major supermarkets, including Coles, Woolworths, and Aldi, to determine which ones win on flavour.

“If you need an easy meal that doesn’t require a lot of preparation, a pack of beef burger patties with some buns and salad will do the trick. To help you decide which beef patty deserves a spot in your bun, Choice experts taste-tested different options to find the most flavoursome option,” says Choice Editorial Director, Mark Serrels.

“The most expensive per kilogram beef patty in our test, the Coles Finest Coarse Ground Angus Burgers, took the top spot with a score of 77 percent. Two out of the three frozen patties we tested received the lowest score – the Coles Simply Beef patties and the Woolworths Beef Burgers both did particularly poorly with a score of 10 percent,” says Serrels.

“Choice tests sometimes reveal that price is not always an indicator of performance, but in this taste test, there was some correlation. I would advise shoppers to avoid the three frozen varieties in our test, which were also the cheapest products we included, and stick to the fresh options,” says Serrels.

Choice experts blind taste-tested each beef patty, and assessed them on appearance (both cooked and raw), flavour, texture and aroma. We recommend patties with a Choice Expert Rating of 70 percent or more.

The best tasting beef burger patties: 

1. Coles Finest Coarse Ground Angus Burgers

Choice Expert Rating: 77 pecent

Price per 300g pack: $9.00

“The judges praised these beef patties for their balanced, mild beef flavour and pleasant aroma,” says Serrels.

2. Woolworths Chuck & Brisket Quarter Pound Beef Burgers

Choice Expert Rating: 70 percent

Price per 454g pack: $9.00

“The judges noticed the raw beef patty had visible mince strands and lots of herbs. When cooked, the judges enjoyed the beefy flavour and the balance of seasoning throughout the patty,” says Serrels.

The worst-tasting beef burger patties: 

Coles Simply Beef patties

Choice Expert Rating: 10 percent

Price per 800g pack: $9.30

“The judges noted the raw patty had a grey appearance. The cooked product was unfortunately no better, with the judges saying it was incredibly mushy, contained no beef flavour and tasted unnatural,” says Serrels.

Woolworths Beef Burgers

Choice Expert Rating: 10 percent

Price per 800g pack: $9.30

“Judges noted that these patties had a greyish white colour, tasted very unbalanced, and felt more like consuming binder than meat,” says Serrels.

Will you get better at the butcher?

If you have a butcher who makes their own beef patties, they may be worth a try. While we didn’t include any butcher’s products in our full comparison of supermarket products (since they didn’t come from a supermarket), we did ask our experts to try one beef patty sourced from an independent butcher.

Although this product was the most expensive we gave our panel at $33.33/kg, it did earn the highest score (80pc) of all the patties sampled.

Another alternative is to make your own burger. These can be as simple to make as seasoning minced beef with salt and pepper, and shaping your meat into patties that match the shape of your bun. But recipes that include egg, breadcrumbs, Worcestershire sauce, ketchup and an almost infinite number of flavourings abound.

Of course, if you’re short on time or simply don’t feel like doing much preparation, the supermarket or butcher options might be more appealing, even if you know that you can produce a better (or cheaper) result by making it yourself.

The fresh patties in our test all contained more than 80pc beef. Aldi’s Ready Set Cook Beef Burgers had the lowest percentage (83pc) and the Woolworths Steakhouse Quarter Pound Beef Burgers had the highest (99pc).

None of the three frozen products we looked at contained more than 70pc beef.

Other ingredients included water, seasonings and firming and binding agents such as flour, psyllium husk and bamboo fibre.

Some of the patties also included flavourings such as onion, tomato, garlic and a mix of herbs and spices. Antioxidants and preservatives were also present in some of the products we included in our test.

How Choice tests beef patties

Products

We included products labelled as beef patties and excluded any product that included a flavour description (garlic, pepper, or any herbs) or that was described as extra lean.

We chose products that are available nationally through at least one major supermarket chain.

Tasting

Our experts inspected and tasted the samples blind (without knowing the brands) in a randomised order and rated the patties on flavour, texture, aroma and appearance.

Scores

The ratings each product received were based on the scores for each aspect of the judging. The results were weighted as follows:

• Flavour: 50pc
• Appearance: 15pc
• Texture: 20pc
• Aroma: 15pc

We recommend products with a Choice Expert Rating of 70pc or more.

Source: Choice Australia