All the Best Burger Ingredients to Buy

Want to make the best burger of your life? Sure, a good recipe is handy, but more than that you need the best ingredients. Lucky for you, we, the burger-loving obsessives over at Sporked, have tasted each individual component and found the very best you can buy at the grocery store. Read through these rankings and stock up on everything you need to be the burger boss at any cookout.

Best Frozen Burgers

best frozen burgers
Credit: Merc

You don’t have to be close, personal friends with a butcher to get great hamburger patty meat. We found six frozen burger brands that are so good even your snobby carnivorous friends won’t be able to tell they weren’t freshly made. 

Best Plant-Based Burgers

best plant-based burgers
Credit: Sarah Demonteverde / Target / Instacart

Plant-based burgers have come a long way—and they’re now essential at any BBQ. Check out our list of the five best plant-based burger patties you can buy. 

Best Burger Buns

best hamburger buns
Credit: Sarah Demonteverde / Amazon / Instacart / Target / Walmart

Don’t just put your grilled patty on any old bun. Put it on the best burger bun—one that won’t fall apart but also isn’t rock hard. 

Best Cheddar Cheese

best cheddar cheese
Credit: Sarah Demonteverde

Cheddar cheese is the best cheeseburger cheese—aside from American cheese, but we haven’t done that taste test yet. So top your burger with the best cheddar you can find at the grocery store. 

Best Vegan Cheese

best vegan cheese
Credit: Ryan Martin

Don’t do dairy? Don’t worry. You can have a “cheese” burger that’s just as good as a cheeseburger if you use the best vegan cheese. 

Best Burger Sauce

best burger sauce
Credit: Merc / Amazon / Instacart

The burger gods have heard your prayers and you don’t have to make your own burger sauce anymore! You can buy the best burger sauce, pre-made! We tasted all the top burger sauces and found the ones worth buying.

Best Ketchup 

best ketchups
Credit: Ryan Martin

We tasted all the top ketchups you can buy with guest taster Josh Scherer, so now you can make an informed decision at the grocery store. Because, yes, some ketchups do taste better than others. 

Best Yellow Mustard 

best yellow mustard
Credit: Sarah Demonteverde

Here are six yellow mustards so good you shouldn’t just be squirting them onto your burger, you should be squirting them directly in your mouth.

Best Mayonnaise 

best mayonnaise
Credit: Merc / Walmart / Amazon / Instacart

For some, mayo is a burger necessity, just like ketchup or mustard. For those people, we present our list of the best mayonnaise brands. Yes, we tried them by the spoonful. 

Best Dill Pickles 

best dill pickles
Credit: Ryan Martin

Whether you dice them as a burger topping or have them on the side, dill pickles are a must-have for a real burger experience. These are the best ones we’ve tasted. 

Best Bread and Butter Pickles

best bread and butter pickles
Credit: Sarah Demonteverde / Target / Instacart

If you are one of those weirdos—I mean…eccentrics—who love bread and butter pickles, we haven’t forgotten about you. Add some sweetness to your burger with the best bread and butter pickles. 


About the Author

Justine Sterling

Justine Sterling is the editor-in-chief of Sporked. She has been writing about food and beverages for well over a decade and is an avid at-home cook and snacker. Don’t worry, she’s not a food snob. Sure, she loves a fresh-shucked oyster. But she also will leap at whatever new product Reese’s releases and loves a Tostitos Hint of Lime, even if there is no actual lime in the ingredients.