Georgeburgers!

When I was a kid I used to pedal my bicycle past Blair's store six days a week. Most of the time there would be this wonderful smell drifting out the front door.  Mrs. George makin' vege-burgers.  Those things were great. She'd fry them up on this heavy iron griddle with some carmelized onions. The patties were already chock full of onions. Now, when I was a kid I hated onions, but somehow, Mrs. George made all those onions delicious.

Mrs. George would never tell anybody what was in her vegeburger mix. It was her big secret. By keeping that recipe under her hat, she remained the top vege-burger maker in Keene, Texas, my hometown, for some 50 years. Keene is an Adventist college town and everybody there was either a vegetarian or at the very least, a semi-vegetarian. Vegeburgers were to Adventist kids, what Big Macs were to everybody else. I used to save up two or three days' paper route money to buy one of those imminently delicious things hand made things. When Blair's closed, Mrs. George went on to work at the Railhead and several other short-lived cafes and burger joints around Keene. She never gave away her recipe, till she finally told it to Melba Bruce, March 09, 2004 as she sat in Mrs. George's living room. Mrs George passed away a few weeks later. It's like she saw it coming. A special thanks to Melba's son, Stanley Bruce who collected a copy of the recipe and shared it on Facebook. God bless him.


- Tom King

At last - the secret is revealed:

Ingredients

1.One 16 oz can Loma Linda Vegeburger
2.Three eggs
3.Two medium sized onions finely grated
4.One tablespoon garlic powder
5.One teaspoon sage
6.Salt to taste
7.½ cup quick oats
8.Flour
9.Oil

Instructions:

1.Open vegeburger, add to mixing bowl with grated onion, eggs, garlic powder, sage and salt and stir.
2.Add half cup of oats
3.If the mixture is still too thin, add a little flour. The vegeburger mix should not be runny nor should it be too dry and thick.
4. Fry the patties in a small amount of oil. Never bake them.

Making the Actual Burger:

1. Heat the buns in the oven or on the grill
2. Add still sizzling patty and pile on the fixings.
3. Eat while making soft sounds like “Ooooooh” and “Aaaaaah” and “Mmmmmmmmm”

(c) 2011 by Tom King