Could four hamburgers in a can for 99p possibly be any good? That’s the question I asked myself as I walked past a shelf full of Westlers’ Hamburgers in my local supermarket.
In a word, no.
As I opened the tin, the first thing that hit me was the smell – almost like dog food mixed with tinned ravioli. The smell alone was enough to make me not want to try them; however, I kept an open mind and would reserve judgement until I tasted them. Interestingly, the burgers are described on the can as 42% hamburger, 42% pork and 26% bacon. In terms of presentation, this is probably one of the worst items of food I’ve ever seen, even by canned food standards. Swimming in a beef gravy, the burgers almost resembled jelly, jiggling on the fork as I lifted them out of the tin to put it on the plate.
As I held the fork and watched the slime ooze from the burger, it fell from the fork and slapped down on to the plate like a slab of rotting flesh. The can advised to cook them in the microwave for two minutes, stir and then cook again for one minute. In all of my years eating and making burgers, I had never been required to stir any of them until now. It even states that they are already pre-cooked, but there was no way I was prepared to eat them cold! I popped it in the microwave and as soon as it began to cook, the smell described earlier intensified and engulfed the entire kitchen. After a few minutes, it was time to taste!
If I was asked to describe Westlers’ canned hamburgers, I’d say that the experience was like meat flavoured jelly which was coated in slime, both in terms of taste and texture.
Despite being formed into a shape that resembled a patty, the burgers turned to mush with one bite and, as described, had a jelly like consistency. In terms of taste, I wouldn’t even describe it as beef – just some form of low quality meat flavoured mush. Unsurprsingly, it didn’t taste pleasant and after chewing my first bite a few times, I had no choice but to spit it out. These were so bad that I wouldn’t have even fed them to my dog – and he eats anything!
It’s hard to describe just how bad these burgers are. So bad that I couldn’t even swallow one bite, and I’ve had some bad burgers in my time! With the widespread availability of frozen burgers for roughly the same price, it’s hard to imagine who is actually buying these. Resembling nothing more than mushy beef yoghurt on the inside, I’d be interested to find out just how many of these supermarkets actually sell.
Not even a mountain of toppings and a good quality sourdough bun could make these taste good. Avoid at all costs. The worst burger I’ve ever had, only slightly surpassing the burger from Charlie Rocks in Glasgow’s west end.
If anyone can suggest a burger worse than this, please let us know!
James vs. Burger 
Stood in the queue at my local post office/corner shop I’ve often stared at these tinned burgers, sat next to canned “full English breakfast”, and wondered why these items exist, who actually buys them, and if they’re as peculiar as they sound. I’m very glad I haven’t had to try them for myself!
You have done well to avoid them, Dog Shit would taste better!!
I’ve just tried this fucking shite burgers & flushed this dogshit down the toilet.Westlers should be convicted of ripping off the public with these plastic so called burgers.Dirty crooks.
I guess you should be convicted too for flushing food down the toilet? 😛
The local pound shop has these, the very same brand. I like to imagine that they were processed and packaged as emergency rations in 1939, in case the Nazis dropped gas bombs on Britain’s farmland – and the Ministry of Supply ended up with millions upon millions of them going spare, and they’ve been passed from company to company ever since then. They just swap the labels. That would also explain Fray Bentos pies. There’s something about them that reeks of the pre-television age.
Cant speak for the burgers…but the Frays pies…..I had a friend that ate them almost daily, I don’t know if he thought it was the cheapest food he could buy or actually liked them…
Thought these were delicious when I was young you didn’t have McDonald’s then lol so I bought some the other day nostalgia food I remember one Xmas we had a chicken in a tin you would eat anything back then lol
it dosen’t say cook ONE for 2 minutes….
Well this is gross lets me be completely honest makes me hate burgers more then I already do
What i do not realize is if truth be told how you’re
now not actually a lot more smartly-appreciated than you might be now.
You’re very intelligent. You recognize therefore significantly with regards to this
subject, produced me for my part believe it from so many numerous angles.
Its like men and women aren’t involved unless it’s something to
do with Girl gaga! Your own stuffs outstanding.
All the time care for it up!
I hope you find a psychiatrist or clinician that can help you. Good luck
Very popular with mobile caterers as they require no refrigeration
The burgers you get at fairs are these . Also the burger of choice served at the old Wembly.
Disgusting is too kind a word.
For a start u should empty the content’s into a saucepan and heat up till boiling.. I used to live of these they taste delicious the only thing that put me off was at the botton of the tin was a white lump of I dont know what but it put me right off!!
lard/dripping
Wonderful, what a weblog it is! This website presents valuable facts to us, keep it up.
app for free instagram likes
This post is really a nice one it helps new net users, who are wishing for blogging.
*Sigh* They remind me of my youth, I now live in NYC and every time back in UK I buy a few tins to bring back…. Not sure why..
Valuable information. Lucky me I discovered your site unintentionally, and I’m surprised why this twist of fate didn’t came about earlier!
I bookmarked it.
Hi to every single one, it’s truly a nice for me to visit this web page, it includes priceless Information.
Four burgers for 99p? Even an organism with only one brain cell would know that they can’t be a good choice but I’m amazed that you needed to extol at great length over several paragraphs and images about this low cost tinned food product. I assume this pointless article was just something to add to your CV?
It’s actually very difficult in this full of activity life to listen news on Television, so I only use the
web for that purpose, and get the most up-to-date information.
Possibly the greatest food ever invented, burgers great! In a can even better! Mushy tasteless pap, magic! Plus gravy! You need to man up a bit and take these fabulous burgers for what they are, putting them in a bun honestly? Open the f####g can hook em out with your knife eat cold and then drink the gravy cold, marvellous….kids today I just don’t know…
Yeah then throw up all over the place, bloody disgusting. Yuck!!
They are lovely. I do them in the frying pan for 10 mins. Moving them round slowly and turning once a minute. They used to do them in ketchup which was much nicer
Given that 2010, Web Hosting Center has actually been supplying reputable and economical shared webhosting services.
Eigentlich scheint die Sache klar zu sein: wenn es ums Entgelt geht, verhandeln Arbeitgeber und Gewerkschaft (in unserem Fall) über einen Tarifabschluss.
Dermabrasion and laser surgical procedures may give you
outcomes however with some unwanted effects and also method
too costly.
Only ever tried these once, way back when, at the annual Bonfire Night ‘do’ down the local pub. Was about 12, and feeling hungry. Never been a fruit fan, so avoided the toffee apples, and at £2 a portion of chips was more than I was willing to pay. However, a burger with fried onions, relish and sauce for £1.25 seemed too much of a bargain to ignore.
More fool me. The bloke at the makeshift kitchen was frying them up, straight out of the tin, using the accompanying gravy and grease to help saturate the griddle with enough fluid to stop them sticking. Thrown into a bun taken out of an industrial sized clear plastic bag, along with a sprinkle of watery (not fried) onions taken from a World War 2 soup cauldron, given a blob of relish.. Which, again, was provided in a 10 litre plastic bottle like those garages keep their anti-freeze in…
It was handed to me, so i could slap on some tomato sauce, after which the bottom part of the bun had begun to dissolve through water/grease/relish saturation.
Managed one bite, which I chewed on for about 3 seconds, before blurting out in front of about a hundred fairly inebriated drinkers… How it didn’t end up like that vomiting scene in Family Guy I’ll never know!
Had one of of these on NYE, needless to say cracking dose of food poisoning and misery followed. What a great start to 2016 😦
Used to eat 2 tins of these a week when i was young. not any more ,wrote to the company complaining about how bad they now are and was rewarded with a £3 cheque for my bad experience but no apology .used the money to buy some bread and a tube of toothpaste.
Hi,I read your new stuff named “Hamburgers in a can – quite possibly the worst burgers in the world – James vs. Burger” regularly.Your humoristic style is witty, keep doing what you’re doing! And you can look our website about مهرجانات 2017.
I remember these from many years ago (about 30-40 years ago). Unlike the author of the review, I absolutely loved them! But nowadays eat scarcely any red meat at all for ethical reasons. Never even realised you could still buy them.
I’d bet that the recipe has changed over the years. [Also advancing years changes your taste, as memories change too ….]
btw I don’t much like the tins with 4 and gravy, but the last big tin (24?) I got were different and had no gravy with onions added.
Don’t cook in a microwave, cook in a pan. And don’t eat it in a burger, that’s gross – have em with Smash and a tin of peas (also pan cooked). Lush!
great for camping,like the guy says with smash.
also try fried slices of spam with beans, delicious.
also corned beef mixed with smash , heaven
Ahh you’re doing it wrong 🙂 sure they’re not exactly quality beef in a patty as in a good burger, but as something different, they are nice when done the right way.
Empty the full contents into a saucepan, with gravy and gently heat up for 3 or 4 mins. Don’t let them bubble. Then put them each in a bun, and the gravy in a bowl, and with the burger in the bun dip them in the gravy. Yummy. Ok with sliced cheese, but not tomato sauce etc.
Westlers burgers best l ever tasted was so delicious 1970. But now l don’t know if still available
I love these burgers. Served with mushy peas and chips. Only thing is there a bit too expensive now at well over a pound a can. Get em down ya. All food ends up a scrap in the end.
How did I get here? I need to reassess my life.
Tell me about it.
These are delicious. I eat them at least once a week, presented as per the serving suggestion, in a white bread bun. I used to own a restaurant too before it closed due to lack of customers so I know a thing or two about quality nosh!
I used to sell these in my hot dog van in the 70,s , Slow heated up in a bain marie ! hot dogs added later.Unless they have changed recipe i could not sell enough and when i ran out i sold the buns dipped in this thick meaty gravy from the broken ones ..Will try them again before i pass judgment.
Nice job Dave!
Yes I think they were more palatable’back then’ .
I know they are questionable at best but they are the nostalgic flavor of my youth.
I wonder if they are almost vegetarian? “Beyond” should try and re create them