Twenty‐five brands of beefburgers were bought at retail in the United Kingdom, and their weights and dimensions, chemical composition, compressive strength and expressible fluid measured before and after grilling and compared with sensory evaluations. Compressive strength of grilled burgers measured with a punch and die, averaged 2.6 × 104 Nm−2 and varied from 1.1 to 4.6 × 104Nm−2 between brands. Beefburgers with a more rubbery, cohesive and coarser, tougher texture had higher compressive strength, higher total nitrogen, higher defatted meat content and more acceptable texture. The major variation in texture between brands was a combination of the sensory attributes rubberiness and tenderness of particles, and 70% of that principal component was accounted for by linear combination of three objective variables with measurements of strength predominant. The second principal sensory component, composed mainly of moistness and comminution attributes, was related to chemical assays and expressible fluid. These findings support the interpretation of the sensory profile as a primary component involving behaviour under stress and strain and a secondary involving perception of structure, composition and moistness.