Ground Beef Recipes That Rock

We think a pound of ground beef deserves better than blah-blah helper or a so-what casserole—and we've got five recipes to prove it.

There was a time when a "Hamburg Steak" was a dinner option reserved for socialites and money-men—served only in hoity-toity restaurants and houses of much repute. But somewhere along the way, between the advent of surburbia, dinette sets and frozen dinners, hamburger took a tumble in social status, becoming instead the star ingredient of the casserole-craving hoi polloi.

These days, only the most exclusive cows will do for some. And that's all well and good if you're not counting the cost—a pound of ground Kobe beef can run into the triple digits. The sticker shock of it all has made us take a second look at cows of a lesser caste. In fact, here are five recipes that will gussy up whatever ground beef you have on hand in a hot minute.

—By Stacey Norwood, Multimedia Editor