StufZ Gourmet Stuffed Burger Maker Review

Make perfect stuffed burgers in a flash.

Normally I am not interested in gimmicks, and I normally advocate against burger presses because they compress the meat too much. Loosely packed meat has more pockets for the juices to hang out.

So when this piece of plastic arrived, I was pretty skeptical. I am no longer skeptical. The StufZ Burger Press helps make a pretty good stuffed burger, and stuffed burgers can be very juicy and tasty, with the cheese on the inside, not on top. Or bacon, or peppers, or onions, or mushrooms, or countless other options.

Here’s how it works, You take a ball of ground meat and drop it in the Stufz. You set the handle to one position, and it presses the meat into a disk. Then you adjust the handle and it presses a pocket in the center. Add your cheese or whatever, plop another ball of meat on top, adjust the handle again, and press again. You get beautifully formed thick burgers with a stuffing. Occasionally you need to do a little manual touchup to the top and bottom joins to prevent leaks, and for that matter, you could do the whole process by hand easily enough, but the gadget does make it a bit easier, and you get nice uniform pucks, helpful when you are timing a bunch-o-burgers. Having the cheese in the center helps prevent overcooking the patty while you get the exterior nice and dark. Bottom line, they taste great.

One word of caution: The center is molten and hot, so you need to warn everybody to be careful. But molten cheese is better than limp cheese lounging on top.

Working with it was a bit awkward at first, especially when my hands got meat on them, and if you’re making a lot, it would be nice to have some help, say one person to make the meat balls, and another to run the press. I’m not sure how long the plastic will hold up, but if you’re a cheeseburger burger fan, splurge on this.