Use a patty press for hamburgers?

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I used to work at a restaurant known for its burgers. So, we'd start with grass-fed beef, 12.5 lb., add 2.5 lb sirloin trimmings/suet (straight from the freezer). This would get put through the Hobart meat grinder. To that, we would add 1/8 tsp ground cloves, 1 small can tomato paste, 2 T ground pepper, 4 T salt 2 tsp red pepper flakes. Mix that all together, make 6 oz. balls using the 6 oz. scoop. Put those in the freezer for at least 30 minutes, overnight if possible. Toss the balls back and forth between your hands to get the air out, and then hand press them, making a ridge along the edge and shallower in the middle. It is a lot easier to do a couple of pounds this way than it was to do 15 lb. Even though I have a burger press, I still do mine by hand. And then the formed patties go in the freezer for 30 minutes and are tossed on the grill partially frozen, finished in the oven once they have grill marks on them and are partially done. Works for me. I could hand-form 15 lb of patties in just under 30 minutes. And I was slow compared to the owner.

When my parents owned a restaurant, we had a metal burger press. You would put the parchment paper on the bottom, then the meat, and then another piece of parchment paper and squish the meat between the two pieces of paper.
 
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I used to work at a restaurant known for its burgers. So, we'd start with grass-fed beef, 12.5 lb., add 2.5 lb sirloin trimmings/suet (straight from the freezer). This would get put through the Hobart meat grinder. To that, we would add 1/8 tsp ground cloves, 1 small can tomato paste, 2 T ground pepper, 4 T salt 2 tsp red pepper flakes. Mix that all together, make 6 oz. balls using the 6 oz. scoop. Put those in the freezer for at least 30 minutes, overnight if possible. Toss the balls back and forth between your hands to get the air out, and then hand press them, making a ridge along the edge and shallower in the middle. It is a lot easier to do a couple of pounds this way than it was to do 15 lb. Even though I have a burger press, I still do mine by hand. And then the formed patties go in the freezer for 30 minutes and are tossed on the grill partially frozen, finished in the oven once they have grill marks on them and are partially done. Works for me. I could hand-form 15 lb of patties in just under 30 minutes. And I was slow compared to the owner.

When my parents owned a restaurant, we had a metal burger press. You would put the parchment paper on the bottom, then the meat, and then another piece of parchment paper and squish the meat between the two pieces of paper.

I don't understand how you would press a patty from a ball that had been in the freezer overnight? In our freezer that ball would be rock hard. 30 minutes would just set it up a bit, but 8-12 hours?
 
You pull the hotel pan out, let it sit for a bit, and then when you start tossing them back and forth, the do soften up. I think it was because of the suet.
 
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