Kenji Lopez-Alt is my go-to guy for all things hamburger. In his A Hamburger Today column on Serious Eats, he explores every aspect of burgers, from a survey of hamburger styles (pub, fast food, slider, extreme, stacked, steakhouse, and more), to a compilation of recipes on the ground meat theme, to investigations of facts and rumors surrounding America’s most popular sandwich.
When Kenji posted on sous-vide burgers last summer, I vowed to take his guidelines and adapt them to our style. And after a dreary couple of rainy and cold months, with the barbeque a sad, neglected thing as a result, now seems like the time.
Pam and I got together on yet another drizzly day and went to work. We decided to forego grinding our own meat or buying special burger blends. Instead, we opted for a taste test comparing ground grass-fed bison (buffalo) and higher-fat beef chuck in a chili grind. (We can usually buy the latter out of the meat case at our local Whole Foods, but most butchers will grind it for you; it’s coarser than standard ground beef.)
Other variations would be hand seal vs machine seal of the cooking pouches, skillet-searing vs propane torch for finishing, and rare vs medium rare for doneness.
The winners? Well, the beef got the most votes for flavor, although Pam, who’s a fan of bison, said these were the juiciest buffalo burgers she’d tasted. But there’s something about the mouth feel of the beef that we all preferred — although that may be the result of a lifetime of beef burgers as much as anything.
Hand sealing the food bags using the water displacement method resulted in an airier, more evenly shaped patty; the vacuum sealer compacted the meat and sort of flattened it.
The biggest surprise was the browning method. I assumed that using a propane torch would cook the meat less than searing it in a cast-iron pan, but the latter was much more successful. About 45 seconds per side in a super-hot skillet did the trick. And it’s the only way to go if you want cheese on your burger (or, at least cheese that’s not ice cold).
Finally, we all thought the rare burgers were far superior to the medium-rare versions. Visually there’s not a huge difference between the two, but in terms of juiciness, there was no comparison. The meat was so tasty, most of us skipped our usual condiments and just garnished the burgers with a little mayo.
So, here’s our take on the perfect sous vide hamburger, with many thanks to Kenji for showing us the way. It couldn’t be simpler, and the results are delicious. If it’s not quite barbeque weather yet where you live, give ‘em a try!
Serves 4
- Preheat the water bath to 124°F (51°C) for rare, 131°F (55°C) for medium rare. (Note: Undercooked ground beef should not be served to susceptible or immune-compromised people. Minimize the time between removing the meat from refrigeration and serving to reduce the risk of bacterial contamination.)
- Divide the meat into four 8-ounce portions and shape into patties about 4¼ inches wide by 1 inch thick, handling as little as possible. Season with salt. Place each patty into a separate quart-size zip-lock freezer bag and seal using the water displacement method.
- Cook for 30 minutes.
- Carefully remove patties from the bags and pat dry with paper towels. Place a large cast-iron skillet over high heat until very hot, about 5 minutes. Add a tablespoon of oil, then add the burgers and sear 45 seconds. Turn the patties, adding cheese if desired, and sear the second side for an additional 45 seconds. Transfer to toasted buns, garnish with condiments of your choice, and serve.
What pressure do you recommend using when vacuuming the patties with a chamber vacuum sealer?
Thanks
Use the lowest vacuum setting, since you don’t want to compress the patties.
Just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate your site. I’m not a serious foodie, but I get a real kick out of playing around with my homemade SV apparatus. In the process of reading up on SV, I have found my way to most of the sites out there. In my opinion, yours is by far the most interesting and well done. Good stories, a high level of creativity, “makeable” recipes, nice photography, honest assessments of what works and what doesn’t, and frequent new content. Plus, I love it that it always seems like you’re having so much fun!
I particularly liked your hamburger recipe. It worked like a charm (although I did learn that it’s best to do the searing outside using an electric hot plate to avoid a major smoke fiasco in my not-too-well ventilated condo). I froze four of the cooked patties in their individual baggies. A couple of days later I pulled them out, threw them in a pot of hot water for about 45 minutes, took them out, seared them (outside, this time) and they were just as good as the first time around. Easy squeezy!
I use a “bang-bang” controller, rather than a PID because it was a lot cheaper, and I use a 300W immersion heater (the kind sold for heating a cup of water for coffee or tea) suspended in any of several containers (stockpot, insulated plastic tub, cast iron enameled dutch oven). I’ve found that for the stuff I cook, the +/-1 degree F temperature fluctuation is no big deal. If I’m using a stockpot, I’ll start the heating on the stove to get it up to temp for quickly, then turn off the burner when it’s close to the target. Not exactly an elegant setup, but it works for the simple stuff I do.
Thanks again, and keep up the good work.
How is 124°F hamburger safe to eat? I thought according to Douglas Baldwin you had to get up to 128 or 129 for so many hours etc? I can see this being less of a concern for whole muscle steak since it’s presumed the baddies are on the surface and will be dealt with by searing (unless it has been tenderized via Jaccard) but hamburger?
You’re right, Derek: 124°F (51°C) is below cooking safety guidelines for meat that does not consist of (quoting the FDA) whole-muscle, intact beef steaks. But Douglas Baldwin writes, “If the food is not being pasteurized (as is the case with fish and rare meat), it is important that the food come up to temperature and be served within four hours.” So, cooking quickly, serving promptly and chewing fast reduce the risk.
Nonetheless, there is a significant risk to eating undercooked ground meat. We will edit the recipe to reflect this.
Whoa! Jason Logsdon in “Beginning Sous Vide” cites USDA guidelines that 130F is the MINIMUM safe temp, and even at that you need a long cooking time to kill the nasties. In addidion, the reason you need extra care with ground meat is that all butchered meat will have harmful bacteria and things like e. coli on the surface. When you grind it up, you drive the nasties deep into the mixture, which means you have to be sure to cook it long (or high) enough to kill the interior bugs.
Be really, really careful with ground meat!
Your caution is warranted, but bacterial growth and death result from a combination of time and temperature. Douglas Baldwin, who has thoroughly researched this topic, writes, “Even for immune competent individuals, it is important that raw and unpasteurized foods are consumed before food pathogens have had time to multiply to harmful levels. With this in mind, the US Food Code requires that such food can only be between 41°F (5°C) and 130°F (54.4°C) for less than 4 hours.”
You mention in your next comment that you grind your own hamburger, which allows you to guarantee clean conditions. In that environment, you can safely serve a very rare hamburger, as long as you process and consume it in less than four hours. Minimizing the prep time minimizes the risk.
I recently bought a 5 pound chuck roast at Costco for about $20. I ground it coarsely first, seasoned it (Salt, pepper, garlic powder, worchestershire), mixed it up, and then ground it again at a finer grind. Kitchen Aid makes a cheap and effective meat grinder attachment for their mixers.
Since there was no more mixing of ingredients involved, it was easy to form nice patties without handling the meat too much. Here’s the best trick: I then put the patties on a parchment-lined cookie sheet and put them in the freezer for about an hour. I was then able to fully vacuum seal them without any compaction of the patties.
This made about seven two-packs of hamburger patties, ready for the sous vide. I popped the unused ones in the deep freeze. Now it takes about 1 hour at 135F to go from the freezer to the sous vide to a quick pan sear. (I give the buns a little butter and a quick toasting in the pan as it heats up)
And, you’re right, I don’t put anything on them except for maybe cheese and some caramelized onion.
Cool idea about freezing the patties before sealing. Have you noticed any difference in the taste or texture of the frozen meat vs fresh?
Great idea about freezing before sealing! I will use that for sure. I do deep fry my burgers though. I love the crunchy exterior giving way to a juicy interior! I deep fry at 400F for 40 seconds or less. It may not be perfect, but it’s perfectly acceptable to me.