Grill up the best takeaway style Aussie burgers with “The Lot”. Loaded with juicy beef patties, smoky bacon, fried egg and melted cheese alongside the perfect pairing of fresh lettuce, tomato, beetroot and pineapple!
In This Post You’ll Learn
Why We Love This
Aussie burgers always remind us of family. Whether it was getting fish and chips for a takeaway dinner and someone always wanting a burger with “the lot” or recreating them at home on the barbeque and serving them alongside things like potato bake and Greek salad.
Packing the burgers with things like pineapple slices and pickled beetroot (always from a can!), means we can also feel a little healthier having the extra fruit and veg between the buns.
Related: Beef Rissoles / Japanese Beef Burgers
Help! My Aussie burger is too tall! How do I eat it?
You’ve just assembled the most epic burger of your life, only to realise it’s WAY too tall to possibly eat neatly. Here’s some methods on how you can go about eating your burger so you can enjoy it as much as assembling it:
The Skewer: Place a skewer in the middle to help hold in most of the ingredients – fair warning though, those beetroot are slippery!
Half At A Time: Try holding down the top of your burger and carefully cut it in half with a bread knife in a sawing motion. Eating half at a time can help reduce catastrophe of your ingredients ending up all over the plate.
The Squish: If you’re impatient, just squish the burger down as much as possible and MAKE IT WORK. Beware though if you make runny fried eggs, that yolk is going to go everywhere!
Wrap It: Wrap baking paper around half the burger to help hold it all in. This is one of the least messy methods and can help hold in any runaway juices or yolk too.
Knife and Fork: The daintiest of all the methods and totally NOT the way a burger is meant to be eaten, but when you want to keep clean, it may be your best bet.
What are Aussie burgers? And what does “The Lot” mean?
Instilled in Australian culture, the Aussie burger is usually just referred to as “a burger with the lot” if you’re colloquially talking about it or ordering it as takeaway. You’ll find it on the menu of most fish and chip shops or chicken and chip shops.
“The Lot” literally just means a burger with everything on it (think bacon, fried egg, cheese, tomato, lettuce, beetroot, pineapple and sauce). And what makes it Aussie? It’s the beetroot and pineapple!
While no one really knows how the use of beetroot and pineapple came to be a symbol of our culture, here it is. For us, pineapple and beetroot just remind us of summer nights and BBQs. It’s the flavours that are associated with our childhood, and if they weren’t on a burger, they’d be on a steak sanga (steak sandwich), which is another favourite for takeaway, on a camping trip or a dinner at home.
Either way, this Australian burger certainly stacks up to be quite a mouthful, so have fun taking your first bite!
What You’ll Need
- Beef – We love using a good ratio of fat to meat with our beef mince / ground beef when using them specifically for hamburger patties, so go the lower star rating (if you’re in Australia), or opt for more fatty and less lean mince if you have the option. Sub with chicken, turkey or pork for something a little different.
- Cheese – Slices of cheddar cheese fresh from the deli are our choice, but sub in with whatever melty cheese you prefer.
- Bacon – Smoked short cut bacon from our local butcher are our choice, but you can also use full bacon rashers. Sub with ham, ham steaks or go fancy with a slice or two of prosciutto.
- Pineapple – Sliced pineapple in a can is easiest, or cut them fresh if you prefer. We recommend patting them down with paper towel to reduce the amount of juice running everywhere when you’re trying to eat them. You could even turn them into pineapple fritters!
- Beetroot – Canned, pickled and sliced beetroot is best. You can easily pickle beetroot yourself if you can’t find it canned.
- Eggs – We use standard extra large eggs. Sarah fries hers til it’s hard, whereas Laura loves it sunny side up style. You can also sub it with a poached egg or scrambled for something a little different.
- Burger Buns – We went fish and chip shop style with classic sesame seed hamburger buns. We’ve also used brioche buns or crusty rolls in the past that work just as well!
- Tomato Sauce – Also known as ketchup. Make your own tomato sauce from scratch if you prefer. Sub with BBQ sauce, or most of our homemade BBQ based Japanese sauces will work well too.
How to Make an Aussie Burger with The Lot
First, gather your ingredients: See recipe card below for measurements.
- Pop your beef mince in a medium bowl and give it a good crack of salt and pepper. Mix together and knead well for a minute or two. Portion into quarters (around 125 g / ¼ lb per patty). Pick up each portion and throw between your hands a few times to compact the meat (and help soften the patty once cooked), then form into a hamburger patty and place on a plate ready to cook.
- Heat up a BBQ grill, skillet or large frying pan on medium low heat and add your vegetable oil. Once hot, add your beef patties and cook each side for around 6-8 minutes until cooked through or just pink in the middle if you like it that way.
- Once cooked, add your cheese slices to the top of each beef patty and allow to melt for a minute or two (you can add a lid on at this point to speed things up if you need). Then remove from the pan, and either loosely wrap in alfoil (don’t touch the cheese) or pop in the oven on keep warm.
- Add the bacon to the same frying pan, but turn the heat up slightly if you prefer crispier bacon. Cook to how you like it – either a couple of minutes each side, or a few more if you want. Remove and place on a paper towel to remove any excess oil.
- Now let’s fry those eggs in the beef and bacon oils left in the pan! Crack them straight into the pan back on a medium low heat if you want to cook them through sunny side up style, or you can leave it on medium high if you want to fry them quick and want those yolks hard too. Either way, these will need at least 2-5 minutes to cook through.
- While the eggs are cooking, it’s time to toast your hamburger buns. Slice them in half and you can either pop them in a toaster or place them until a grill / broiler for a couple of minutes. (Or, don’t do either and leave them fresh!)
- Now it’s time to layer it all together! Here’s our order:
Burger bun base (with optional butter),
tomato sauce / ketchup,
lettuce,
sliced tomato,
sliced beetroot,
beef patty with cheese,
pineapple ring,
fried egg
and finally the top of the burger bun.
Enjoy!
Wandercook’s Tips
- Cook on the BBQ – If you want to fire up the grill, you can usually cook the beef patties, bacon and eggs all at the same time on the barbeque plate!
- Dry Your Beetroot and Pineapple – To reduce the juices, try patting dry your pineapple and beetroot slices before layering them on your burger.
- Runny Eggs? Leave the Top Off – You can serve up the burger with the top of the bun on the side if you have runny eggs so it doesn’t break the yolk and have it dripping everywhere before you’re ready.
FAQs
Really it’s up to your own preference, but our favourite is:
Burger base, tomato sauce, lettuce, tomato slices, beetroot slices, beef patty, cheese, pineapple slice, bacon, burger bun top.
Yes. You can make them the day before and store them in an airtight container in the fridge. Leave them out for half an hour before cooking for best results.
You can either slice a patty in half, or even just a little to peek if it’s cooked all the way through.
Here’s some tips to make sure it’s cooked in the middle:
– Cook over a lower heat (low to medium) for a longer period of time. This will allow the middle to heat up longer and cook without burning the outside. It’s also okay if the beef is slightly pink in the middle still.
– Bring the meat up to room temperature, to allow the middle to come up to heat quicker.
– When you take the patties out, you can either wrap them in aluminium foil until you’re ready to serve or pop them in the oven on the “keep warm setting”. This will allow the patties to keep cooking in the middle a little longer even once they’re off the stove or grill.
Variations
- Vegetarian – Swap the beef patty for a Japanese tofu patty known as ganmodoki.
- Onion – Some people love to add either fresh onion or red onion, fried onions or caramelised onion. We like it simple and usually leave it out.
- Beef Patties – You can totally sub these out with beef rissoles for extra flavour!
- Burger Sauce – Up your sauce game by mixing a 1-to-1 ratio of tomato sauce and whole egg mayonnaise for an even better sauce experience.
Try these amazing recipes next:
★ Did you make this recipe? Please leave a comment and a star rating below!
Ingredients
- 500 g beef mince 1 lb, room temperature
- salt and pepper to taste, around 1/2 tsp each works well
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil for frying
- 4 slices cheddar cheese
- 4 shortcut bacon or two full rashers
- 4 eggs fried
- 4 burger buns brioche is best
- 4 tbsp tomato sauce / ketchup sub barbeque sauce
- 4 lettuce leaves cos or iceberg
- 2 tomatoes sliced
- 12 slices beetroot canned
- 4 pineapple rings
Instructions
- Pop your beef mince in a medium bowl and give it a good crack of salt and pepper. Mix together and knead well for a minute or two. Portion into quarters (around 125 g / ¼ lb per patty). Pick up each portion and throw between your hands a few times to compact the meat (and help soften the patty once cooked), then form into a hamburger patty and place on a plate ready to cook.500 g beef mince, salt and pepper
- Heat up a BBQ grill or large frying pan on medium low heat and add your vegetable oil. Once hot, add your beef patties and cook each side for around 6-8 minutes until cooked through or just pink in the middle if you like it that way.1 tbsp vegetable oil
- Once cooked, add your cheese slices to the top of each beef patty and allow to melt for a minute or two (you can add a lid on at this point to speed things up if you need). Then remove from the pan, and either loosely wrap in alfoil (don't touch the cheese) or pop in the oven on keep warm.4 slices cheddar cheese
- Add the bacon to the same frying pan, but turn the heat up slightly if you prefer crispier bacon. Cook to how you like it – either a couple of minutes each side, or a few more if you want. Remove and place on a paper towel to remove any excess oil.4 shortcut bacon
- Now let's fry those eggs in the beef and bacon oils left in the pan! Crack them straight into the pan back on a medium low heat if you want to cook them through sunny side up style, or you can leave it on medium high if you want to fry them quick and want those yolks hard too. Either way, these will need at least 2-5 minutes to cook through.4 eggs
- While the eggs are cooking, it's time to toast your hamburger buns. Slice them in half and you can either pop them in a toaster or place them until a grill / broiler for a couple of minutes. (Or, don't do either and leave them fresh!)4 burger buns
- Now it's time to layer it all together! Here's our order:Burger bun base (with optional butter), tomato sauce / ketchup, lettuce, sliced tomato, sliced beetroot, beef patty with cheese, pineapple ring, fried egg and finally the top of the burger bun.Enjoy!4 tbsp tomato sauce / ketchup, 4 lettuce leaves, 2 tomatoes, 12 slices beetroot, 4 pineapple rings
Video
Recipe Notes
- Cook on the BBQ – If you want to fire up the grill, you can usually cook the beef patties, bacon and eggs all at the same time on the barbeque plate!
- Dry Your Beetroot and Pineapple – To reduce the juices, try patting dry your pineapple and beetroot slices before layering them on your burger.
- Runny Eggs? Leave the Top Off – You can serve up the burger with the top of the bun on the side if you have runny eggs so it doesn’t break the yolk and have it dripping everywhere before you’re ready.
- Vegetarian – Swap the beef patty for a Japanese tofu patty known as ganmodoki.
- Onion – Some people love to add either fresh onion, fried onions or caramelised onion. We like it simple and usually leave it out.
- Beef Patties – You can totally sub these out with beef rissoles for extra flavour!
- Burger Sauce – Up your sauce game by mixing a 1-to-1 ratio of tomato sauce and whole egg mayonnaise for an even better sauce experience.
Nutrition
6 Comments
Trozny
07/01/2024 at 10:36 pmHi, looks yummy! The order is kind of important though. Sauce, cheese Pattie onions (essential for The Lot) go first, so the Pattie melts the cheese and glues the meat to the bun. Then egg, and bacon to shield the hot stuff from the salad ingredients. After all, who puts ketchup on lettuce? Haha sorry, but there is a science to the order so the fillings don’t fall out of the bun and into your lap, and the hot ingredients stay hot, the salad stays cool and the flavours make sense on the palate. That bacon shield is important in the middle. Best eaten at the beach so you can wash off afterwards in the surf. 🍔🏖️
Wandercooks
08/01/2024 at 10:47 amHaha I love the idea of the bacon shield, what a crack up. We’ll try it this layered way on our next batch. We don’t mind the lettuce and tomato sauce together though – don’t hate us! Haha
Also agreed – burgers at the beach are the best!
vinnie
05/10/2023 at 10:09 pmI haven’t tried recipe yet but I’ve seen sites that suggest eating burgers upside down since tops of rolls are thicker and don’t come apart as easily as bottoms do when soaking up the juices.
Wandercooks
06/10/2023 at 1:30 pmHey Vinnie, cheers for the tip – we haven’t tried this either, but we’ll give it a go on the next batch and add it into our recipe notes!
Malcolm Davies
05/10/2023 at 6:06 pmI always add sweet mustard pickles to my homemade hamburgers along with bbq sauce
Wandercooks
06/10/2023 at 1:31 pmOOOooo Sarah LOVES sweet mustard pickles, but never thought to add it to the burger. Definitely trying that!