Talk:Hamburger Helper

34

Jeffrey Dahmer died at the age of 34 and had Hamburger Helper as his last meal, according to Richard Kalapos. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:18B:8200:5830:612F:F0E7:4C5D:F57F (talk) 04:09, 21 January 2017 (UTC)

Ravioli

Ravioli and Cheese flavor seen here http://www.shopwell.com/hamburger-helper-home-cooked-skillet-meal-ravioli-cheese/meal-kits/p/1600027890 isn't listed under either current or discontinued. Anyone know the status of this 208.95.202.18 (talk) 22:24, 31 December 2012 (UTC)

Zesty Italian

It's listed as a discontinued flavor but for all effective purposes it's actually been changed into the Italian Sausage Flavor. After growing up on the stuff, I can tell you that the only discernable difference is an ever so slight change in the aftertaste.

So what is this, exactly?

I'm not entirely sure from the article. Is it just some seasoning or does it have rice or pasta something to bulk out the meat too? Sockatume 02:33, 20 November 2006 (UTC)

Agreed. It is not clear what hamburger helper actually is/is for 121.73.151.234 (talk) 09:37, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

I came to this page to find out what this stuff is, and I'm confused. It sounds disgusting, but I'm not sure what it is meant to do. Is it something that is meant to be added while making hamburgers? Adding browned ground beef, water and milk to a pasta product sounds like a really strange (and improbable) way to make hamburgers. But I'm not sure how it makes 'a complete dish' either. Is it meant to make a loose ground beef type dish? Or is it like a pasta/rice/potato dish with a kind of ground meat sauce? Anyway, the whole thing reads like a (spoof?) advertisement and could do with a revision. AliasMe (talk) 07:15, 4 May 2009 (UTC)

In the U.S., this is unquestionably a notable product, with knock-offs, store brands, "quick and easy" (just add water and microwave) versions, etc. Commercials have been all over U.S. TV for decades.

As to what the finished dish looks like, imagine macaroni and cheese with crumbles of ground beef mixed in and you have a pretty close approximation of the "Cheseburger Macaroni". Other varieties use different noodles and sauces. Tuna Helper uses tuna instead of ground beef. Maybe photos would help?

The basic idea of the product is simplicity. Originally, ground beef + water + a box of the stuff made a meal for the whole family in one pan in about half an hour. For whatever reason, you now need milk as well. New pasta tech has knocked about 5 minutes of prep time. Also, I suppose the age old need to extend meat is an issue. - SummerPhD (talk) 13:56, 5 May 2009 (UTC)

Yeah like the last guy suggested, this is not to make hamburgers. It is to use what we call "hamburger meat" or "hamburger" in the US (ground beef) to make pasta dishes with cheese and spices. So the seasonings and pasta are in the box, and mixing it all together makes things it calls lasagna, stroganoff, etc, but are basically different types of sauces with pasta, generally cheese, and meat. While it's simple fare, I can assure you it's yummy, and it is definitely easy to make. And as noted there is tuna helper, which makes dishes with canned tuna. 70.112.210.120 (talk) 07:07, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for this: 'what we call "hamburger meat" or "hamburger" in the US (ground beef)' --- I think the main problem for non-Americans is where the "hamburger" comes in. The rest is clear and easily understood, but I had a hard time seeing where that damned burger was. It might be helpful to mention/link something about this. Idontcareanymore (talk) 01:22, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

advertisement

this reads like an advertisement. Also, what is the credibility of this seventies page?

Helping Hand claim

On the linked site for product information, there is no mention or picture of the "Helping Hand" mentioned in the article, although it is supposed to be "on the packaging" and there is a picture of the package on the linked site. Unless the "Helping Hand" claim can be verified, it should be removed. JesseW 22:38, 21 Oct 2004 (UTC)

• I've taken this out. —tregoweth 23:55, Oct 21, 2004 (UTC)

Good. JesseW 02:30, 22 Oct 2004 (UTC)

I don't know what you guys' issue with the Helping Hand was. I can remember seeing him in commercials for as far back as I can remember the commercials, and as someone who is a relatively frequent consumer of various kinds of Hamburger Helper, I can attest that he is in fact to be found on the packaging of every one of the boxes I've got in my cupboard at the moment.Toroca 01:30, 21 November 2005 (UTC)

Anyone know what the original flavor was for Hamburger Helper? And what it was like? From what I remember it had flat noodles. 66.32.56.100 01:01, 11 May 2005 (UTC)

Rice Oriental

I grew up with this stuff, but now can only find it in one store in my area. The box has been updated, so it's not like they're just selling old stock. Can anyone else out there find it to buy?--SarekOfVulcan 16:06, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

I still buy it frequently at one of the supermarkets in my little rural town. I have noticed that it's not one of the brands available at Wal-Mart supercenters, probably because they only seem to carry the five or six most popular flavors. When I lived in Denver, I could find it at all four of the major supermarket chains, but NOT at every individual store for those chains. I don't understand why it's not as popular; Rice Oriental has been my favorite Hamburger Helper since I was little.Toroca 21:40, 26 September 2006 (UTC)

I had some a few weeks ago. When I saw it in my cubbard I was wondering what I was thinking when I bought it, but after I made it, I was surprised, it was tasty. AbstractClass 23:31, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

I too love this one....i also love the cheesy jambalaya these 2 are my all time favorites and i cant find either one of them anywhere does anyone know if i could order the dadgum things online? i dont even like the others that much so i dont even buy them but i sure would like to fine these 2 any help? 68.62.44.206 23:22, 31 October 2007 (UTC)

2Lbs of lean ground beef. 2 cups of parboiled rice. ( uncle bens) 4 Tbs of less sodium soy sauce. ( kikkoman) 4 packs of onion gravy mix. ( McCormick) 1 tsp of onion powder. 1 tsp of garlic powder. 5 1/2 cups of water. brown ground beef, drain off excess fat, add rice, onion powder, garlic powder, water, soy sauce, and gravy mix, bring to a simmer, stir well and cover, 25 minutes or until rice is tender, will thicken as it cools. this is as close as i can get to what the box meal taste like. enjoy, from DeeBeesHive@AOL.com. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.30.160.218 (talk) 23:28, 14 August 2008 (UTC)

Other Helpers

Should the "Other Helpers" section be expanded to include product names from the Tuna and Chicken Helper lines, or should those lines be given their own pages? There are at least a dozen flavors of those two products.Toroca 21:45, 26 September 2006 (UTC)

Vandals

This page was vandalized by someone who thought it would be funny to write "they are DELISH!!!" by macaroni helper's name. Fixed the problem! dmurawski

CONFUSED.COM

I concur with Sockatume's comment above. I've never heard of this stuff, it was mentioned on a TV programme and I came here to find out what it was, however this article did not help in any way. Can someone, presumably American, make it clear what this product actually is? --Brideshead 20:38, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Answer

It is a boxed dinner containing uncooked pasta and seasonings appropriate to the meal. It is left to the cook to provide liquids (milk, water), and meat.

It's also very unhealthy! Has little nutritional value and is packed with cholestorol, fat {[trans fat]}, and sodium.

The anonymous poster above clearly doesn't know what they're talking about. If one examines the nutritional information for the various products, it becomes apparent that for most of them, the unhealthy aspects are not present in the packaged product itself. Online, all I've been able to find is the info for the prepared product, but on the actual boxes, the nutrition information is supplied for the product as packaged, also (meaning, without the hamburger or milk or whatever ingredients the consumer must add).

What becomes clear from examining the on-box nutrition information is that the unhealthy aspects such as fat and cholesterol comes from the addition of the hamburger; these aspects are either not present in the packaged product or are only present in small amounts. The exception is sodium, which these products do tend to be high in (but then again, it's almost impossible to find a prepackaged meal product that's NOT high in sodium). Also, there is NO trans fat in any of the ones I've been able to check the nutrition information for. Further, the prepared product does contain moderate amounts of some nutrients, like calcium, niacin, and folic acid.

Some might say this is "original research," but I dispute that considering this information is printed on tens of millions of boxes of these products found in thousands of grocery stores. All I've done is read the information provided by the company. Toroca (talk) 22:16, 5 February 2008 (UTC)

Composition comment

This article needs to be improved; the previous comments on "what exactly is 'hamburger helper'?" make this clear. The introduction should be edited to contain a better explanation of the item. For example: "Hamburger helper is [insert exact definition which does not include the contents of the dinner itself]. It contains [insert ingredients/contents]." Can someone who knows exactly what this item is and what it contains edit this page properly? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 93.109.71.98 (talk) 17:01, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

I cleaned up the lead a little bit. I hope this makes things a little more clear. This product is a little hard to describe to people who aren't aware of it or have never used it (sort of like vegemite or Spam). The problem is, you can't really describe the food adequately without describing its contents. --Jtalledo (talk) 22:54, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

Oven Classics??

I want to find the Oven Classics made for Hamburger Helper- in particular the meatloaf and Mashed Potatoes! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.147.124.138 (talk) 13:50, 12 October 2009 (UTC)

Cultural references?

Parodied on a recent episode of 'Family Guy'. I'm sure there's been others ('The Simpsons' comes to mind as an obvious one, though I'm not sure it's been done before).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Guy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TjMqd7wQe8&feature=related

Also how about a section for past and present slogans? Macshill (talk) 07:21, 14 February 2010 (UTC)

So-called "cultural references" have repeatedly been found to be inappropriate in most cases. The exception? When references to a subject is cited in independent reliable sources. Were it not for this limitation, some topics would be completely overwhelmed by cultural references. Imagine, for instance, if the article God included all such references: every song, poem, play, novel, movie, TV show, etc. that mentions "God" would be listed. The list would be huge, woefully incomplete and, essentially, worthless. - SummerPhD (talk) 19:59, 14 February 2010 (UTC)

Name Change?

The article says they changed their name. If this is true, the article may need to as well, w/a redirect.Smarkflea (talk) 00:05, 28 March 2015 (UTC)

Soundcloud promotion

Over the past 45 years, Hamburger Helper has run numerous promotional campaigns. There have been t-shirts, oven mitts, stuffed toys, TV/radio/newspaper/magazine ads, coupons, in store displays and a lot more. They all have one thing in common: the attracted no notice from independent reliable sources. Now, a promotion has come along that is available on the web, giving us a primary source we can point to and say, "Look, it's true!" Yes, it is now verifiable, but it is still trivial. 5 years from now, in all likelihood, no one will discuss this promotion in discussing Hamburger Helper. If, OTOH, this is one of those rare promotions that does have lasting impact in some way, we will know through the existence of independent reliable sources. Until then, this is the Hamburger Helper t-shirt from 1983 stuffed in the back corner of someone's closet. - 05:04, 2 April 2016 (UTC)

Comments? - SummerPhD^v2.0 03:02, 3 April 2016 (UTC)

Still Under Betty Crocker?

We just made a box of Hamburger Helper today and Betty Crocker wasn't on the box at all. All there was was the info under the nutrition fact about being distributed by General Mills. Is Hamburger Helper still under Betty Crocker or are they their own brand now? 208.167.254.206 (talk) 20:15, 3 September 2016 (UTC)

The homepage for Helper (formerly "Hamburger Helper") is http://www.bettycrocker.com/products/helper. - SummerPhD^v2.0 22:52, 3 September 2016 (UTC)

past tense?

Should this be past tense? Meaning, does the brand still offer all of these? "Hamburger Helper offers a variety of flavors that include Lasagna, Cheeseburger Macaroni, Bacon Cheeseburger, Philly Cheesesteak and others." --Ygtz792 (talk) 18:33, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

The website currently lists something like 20 to 30 varieties. I can't imagine any reason we would need all of them. I'd be willing to bet varieties come and go. If anyone has an opinion on whether we should list a few examples, I'm more than willing to listen to ideas on how we might choose which to mention. - SummerPhD^v2.0 01:28, 13 December 2016 (UTC)

still a few problems

For instance, the lede declares that the Helpers

create a complete flavorful dish

yet there's no support for the "flavorful" claim, and not only is the other modifier unsupported but there's no attempt at all to explain w.t.f. "complete" — are we talking the mythical "complete breakfast" of 1960s sugared-cereal ads? or maybe something like complete protein? If the latter, then there's gonna have to be some discussion of nutrition… which (perhaps predictably enough) is a word that never appears at all in this article, ostensibly about a food product central to many meals.
Weeb Dingle (talk) 21:29, 22 June 2019 (UTC)

I've taken a crack at cleaning this up. Yes, "flavorful" is promotional and POV. Pretty much every food is supposed to be "flavorful". Whether or not they succeed is the reason there is more than one ice cream flavor in the world.

"Complete" is a different animal. As advertised (and in my house as a child), the idea is that the preparation of an entire meal takes place in one pan. I call similar recipe ideas my "one pan wonders". Rather than, for example, pasta in a pot, sauce in the pan and a bowl of salad with bread in the oven, you make one thing in one pan and you are done. Less work, less cleanup, etc. The best I could do and keep it brief was "a complete one-dish meal". I welcome alternative approaches.

As for nutrition, I can't remember any mention in the advertising or on the packages (other than the required nutritional data). Yes, I'm sure many a hurried meal in the 1970s was augmented with a can of green beans and that assuaged some parental guilt. Whatever. The advertising focused on the star of the show: simplicity and easy. No doubt some period articles in Good Housekeeping and such recommended the quick can of veggies for an easy way to feel better about what you are serving your kids nutritional boost. If anyone wants to track that stuff down, have at it. - SummerPhD^v2.0 00:56, 23 June 2019 (UTC)

Actually, I like the "one-pan meal" description as a definition for "complete," though then I'm stuck for a supporting source.

But I'm restraining myself from essayism. Now that I've got the concept in my head, it seems clear that the Helpers are essentially a stovetop casserole or hotdish, where

A hotdish … contains a starch, a meat, and a canned or frozen vegetable mixed with canned soup

so having advantages such as shorter cook time — most hotdishes require the meat to be cooked separately, and most Helpers are ready to serve in about the time it'd take to heat up an oven.

And using that "complete" we can set aside all the "balanced nutrition" questions! So, thanks: around here ANY progress is often remarkable.
Weeb Dingle (talk) 15:51, 23 June 2019 (UTC)

History

I notice there isn't very much detail in the History section. I found some good info at https://blog.generalmills.com/2017/02/how-helper-got-its-start/ , but I'm not sure that counts as a credible source.

64.222.110.200 (talk) 01:46, 14 November 2020 (UTC)