My Mother-In-Law’s Most-Requested Recipe Comes From a Vintage Charity Cookbook

When my husband and I started dating more than 20 years ago, we’d often travel to Pennsylvania to spend time with his family. Almost every time we visited, my now mother-in-law would make burger bundles for dinner. These delicious little meatloaf-style patties, filled with stuffing and topped with mushroom gravy, are deeply embedded in my memories of those early years of dating, and subsequently, marriage. 

What Are Burger Bundles?

Throughout the years, my mother-in-law continued to serve burger bundles to us in her home and eventually made them in my own kitchen — at my husband’s request — when visiting us at our home in Florida. Because the dish relies on canned condensed soup and boxed stuffing, I assumed it was a recipe my mother-in-law picked up from a recipe on a label.

However, she told me her mother made burger bundles for her and her siblings when they were kids, and the recipe came from a 1972 charity cookbook produced by the Pennsylvania State Grange, a community service organization. “Mommy made [burger bundles],” my mother-in-law said. “They were [my brother’s] favorite. She got the recipe from the Grange cookbook.”

As best as I can tell, the recipe for burger bundles first appeared in a Better Homes and Gardens cookbook called Jiffy Cooking, a collection of menus for entertaining published in 1967. The official menu for burger bundles included mashed potatoes, green beans, and a retro dessert salad, and recommended drinks such as coffee and milk be served alongside the dish.

When she became a mom to three hungry boys, my mother-in-law resurrected the dish from her own childhood dinner table. “It was a quick, tasty meal,” she said. “My boys always liked it.”

How to Make Burger Bundles

Until recently, I never attempted to make burger bundles in my own kitchen because the recipe always felt like something special my mother-in-law made for us. When I did, though, I realized it’s surprisingly easy.

After making some stovetop stuffing and combining the ground beef and milk, I divided the meat mixture into six equal parts and flattened each “burger” like a pancake. The stuffing goes right in the middle of each flattened burger, then the meat gets wrapped around the stuffing and sealed — like a cross between meatloaf and a stuffed meatball.

The real magic of the burger bundle is its gravy-like sauce, made from condensed cream of mushroom soup, milk, ketchup, and Worcestershire sauce. This creamy sauce is poured over the burger bundles in a baking dish and the whole thing cooks slowly in the oven at 350 degrees F for two hours. 

“Don’t forget the creamy mashed potatoes and a vegetable everyone likes,” my mother-in-law told me. “But, is there such a thing?”

What Makes Burger Bundles Delicious?

My family’s version of burger bundles are served with a tasty, creamy mushroom gravy. But since the recipe calls for any type of condensed soup, the possibilities are endless. I could see making this recipe with condensed broccoli and cheese soup or even cream of chicken. No matter what kind of soup you throw into the mix, the result will be a creamy gravy that’s delicious both on top of each burger bundle and on the mashed potatoes you really should serve the dish with.

The tried-and-true meatloaf-like ground beef mixture wrapped around boxed stuffing makes the dish savory and comforting. We paired our burger bundles with mashed potatoes and some oven-roasted green beans — a perfect combination.

Now that I know the full origin story of burger bundles, it will absolutely go into the dinner rotation at our own kitchen table. And it’s so easy to make that I won’t always have to wait for my husband’s mom to make the meal for us. Although, everything tastes better when mom makes it, so her version will always be a special treat.

My Mother-in-Law’s Burger Bundles Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 pound of ground beef
• 1 ⅓ cup milk
• A few servings of cooked stovetop chicken-flavored stuffing
• 1 10.5-ounce can of creamy condensed soup  (such as cream of mushroom or broccoli cheese)
• 2 tablespoons of ketchup
• 1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce

Directions

1. Combine ground beef and ⅓ cup of milk in a mixing bowl.
2. Divide ground beef mixture into six even pieces and flatten each into a pancake shape. Form stuffing into balls and place in the center of each burger. Fold the ground beef around the stuffing until it resembles a baseball and seal the stuffing into the center of the burger bundle.
3. Place the burger bundles in a 9X13-inch baking dish. Combine 1 cup of milk, the can of soup, ketchup, and worcestershire sauce in a mixing bowl or large measuring cup. Pour the soup mixture over top of the burger bundles. Bake for 1 ½ to 2 hours at 350 degrees F. 
4. Serve with mashed potatoes and a vegetable of your choice.