THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO SOUS VIDE HAMBURGERS

Inledning

Sous Vide Hamburger Basics

Burger meat, as a rule, gets far more exposure to oxygen before and during cooking than a solid piece of meat, which can have an effect on color. A burger cooked to a given temperature will be more pink than a solid steak cooked to the same temperature. Don’t be alarmed when you bite into that medium-well burger and it’s still pink inside!

For consistent results, we recommend using a scale to measure out the ground beef for each burger. We also recommend using zipper-lock bags for the initial water bath stage. This will ensure that the burger meat does not get overly compressed, as it can be when cooked in a vacuum-sealed bag.

Traditional sous vide hamburgers consist of an easy, two-phase cooking process:

1. Tätning the meat in a plastic bag using either a vacuum sealer or the water displacement method and matlagning till önskad sluttemperatur i ett temperaturreglerat vattenbad.
   1. The temperature of the sous vide bath during the initial cooking phase is what determines the final texture of the meat.
2. Browning the burgers to develop color, flavor, and textural contrast.

If you’d prefer to introduce new sous vide techniques into your arsenal, you can also use the Anova Precision™ Oven to prepare sous vide hamburgers. Because of the way we’ve designed the temperature sensors and humidity control, the oven will precisely maintain the cooking temperature you set.

You can choose to cook your burgers low and slow in the Precision™ Oven just as you would with a Precision® Cooker, or you can use the oven’s food probe to tell you exactly when the core of your burgers have hit your desired temp.

Just like traditional sous vide, using Sous Vide Mode in the Anova Precision™ Oven typically is a two-stage cooking process: First, bring the burgers to your desired internal temperature, then brown them on the stove or grill to create a flavorful crust.

Pre-ground beef in Cryovac or shrink wrap trays comes heavily compressed and can lead to dense, tough burgers. For best flavor and texture, we recommend buying whole cuts of beef and asking the butcher to grind them for you fresh. A good combination is equal parts well-marbled boneless short rib, brisket, and sirloin. Straight 100% chuck will also be very flavorful.

You can also choose to grind your burger meat at home. Burgers are more tender and juicy the closer to cooking-time they are ground. Another benefit to using freshly ground beef is that you can have fewer worries about eating burgers cooked below well done. Ground meat is more susceptible to foodborne illness, so starting with high quality beef and grinding it yourself can reduce the risk of getting sick when eating, for example, a medium-rare burger.

If you are using pre-ground beef or you’re pregnant, young, or immunocompromised, you can choose to safely eat a burger cooked even to a medium-rare doneness if you pasteurize the burgers, which we’ll address in a moment.

You can grind your own meat using a dedicated meat grinder or a meat grinder attachment for a stand mixer (make sure the beef stays very cold during the grinding process), or in a food processor.

To chop beef in a food processor, trim off any excess connective tissue, cut the beef into 1-inch cubes, place them in a single layer on a plate, and place them in the freezer until they develop a thin, hard crust, about 15 minutes. Working in 1/2-pound batches, pulse the beef in a food processor until finely ground.

It’s important not to manhandle or compress burger meat before cooking. The more loosely the burgers are formed, the more tender and juicy they’ll be after cooking. We like to shape our burgers by gently picking up the meat, tossing it back and forth between our hands until the meat just clings together, then placing it on a flat surface and gently molding it into shape, making sure not to overly compress it. You want to handle the meat just enough so that it sticks together.

With traditional cooking techniques, uneven cooking between the center and the edge of the patty can lead to the patty bulging out in the center. A typical fix for this issue is to form a slight dimple in the center of the burger before cooking. With sous vide cooking, the burger cooks evenly across its entire surface, which means that this bulging issue is not a problem. Sous vide burgers should be shaped perfectly flat.

The burgers will, however, lose some diameter as they cook. Shape your patties so that they overhang your buns by half an inch on all sides in order to get a cooked patty that fits perfectly inside the bun.

Temperatur och tidsinställning

The doneness of a sous vide burger is determined by the maximum internal temperature it reaches during cooking. For instance, so long as a burger does not rise above 137°F (58ºC), it will never cook beyond medium. With traditional cooking methods, there is a very short window of time during which your meat is perfectly cooked. A minute too long will mean overcooked meat. With sous vide cooking, on the other hand, that window of time is stretched into hours, which means your burger will be hot and ready to go whenever you’re ready to sear and serve it.

The texture of the finished burger will change a bit depending on how long you leave it in the water bath. Cooking the burgers for the minimum times listed below will yield a firmer, meatier texture, while cooking them for the maximum times will yield softer meat. The choice is up to you!

Because ground beef has more of a risk for carrying foodborne illness, you may wish to pasteurize the burgers before serving. But this does not mean you need to cook the burgers until they’re well done (unless that’s what you prefer). You can safely serve burgers cooked to a medium-rare doneness, as long as you keep them in the water bath long enough.

After all, there is a misconception about what constitutes a safe cooking temperature for meat. Food safety is a function of both temperature and time.

At 165°F (74ºC), you achieve pasteurization nearly instantly. At 136°F (58ºC), it takes a little over an hour for the bacteria to slowly wither to death in the heat. In fact, you can even pasteurize beef as low as just above 130°F (54ºC) as long as you cook it for 2 ½ hours.

It’s important to note that these times represent the minimum safe cooking time for beef after it has reached those temperatures internally, which can take up to 30 minutes.

Keep in mind that you do not want to cook longer than the maximum times listed in the charts below. Burgers cooked to a doneness less than 130°F (54ºC) can develop different harmful bacteria at prolonged low temperatures. And even if cooking to a higher doneness, burgers will very rapidly deteriorate in texture if they are overcooked. We strongly recommend following the prescribed minimum and maximum cooking times for the best results.

Want more details? Dive even deeper into the science behind pasteurization and get full time and temp charts on our pasteurization page.

Temperature and Timing Charts for Hamburgers

Timings are all given for burgers 6 to 8 ounces and about 1 inch thick. It’s more difficult to get a burger to retain juices than a steak, so burger cooking times are relatively short compared to solid cuts of beef.

Hamburgers cooked under 130°F (54.4ºC) should not be cooked longer than 2 ½ hours at a time for food safety reasons. Hamburgers cooked below 130°F (54.4ºC) will also not be fully pasteurized even at the maximum cook times listed. Please use caution if you are pregnant, immunocompromised, or feeding small children.

Traditionell Sous Vide

Sous Vide Express

We only recommend using sous vide express when you can be sure about the quality of the meat. Undercooked ground beef can house foodborne bacteria.

How to Cook Sous Vide Hamburger, Step by Step

Steg 1

Attach an Anova Precision® Cooker to a water bath and heat to your desired final doneness temperature or preheat the Precision™ Oven to your desired temperature.

Steg 2

Weigh out the ground beef into even piles of 6 to 8 ounces (168 to 224 grams) apiece. Shape the burgers by gently tossing the meat between your hands until it barely sticks together. Place it on a flat, clean surface, and gently press the burger into shape using your fingertips. Do not overwork the meat — press just until it sticks together.

Check the size of the burgers by comparing them to the bun (make sure to wash your hands before picking up the bun and do not let it come in direct contact with the raw ground meat). The patties should be half an inch or a little over a centimeter wider than the bun on all sides.

Season the burgers generously on both sides with salt and pepper.

Steg 3

If cooking using traditional sous vide methods, place the burgers in individual zipper-lock bags and seal, leaving a 1-inch (2.5-cm) opening in each bag. Seal the bags using the water displacement method: Remove as much as possible by hand, then slowly lower each bag into the water bath, letting the force of the water press any excess air out through the 1-inch opening. Seal the bag just before it becomes submerged.

Steg 4

If cooking in the Anova Precision™ Oven, place the burgers on a sheet pan. Insert the probe if cooking using Sous Vide Express. Place in the oven.

Steg 5

Cook the burgers according to the time and temp for your desired level of doneness.

Avslutande steg

Remove the burgers from the bag or oven and place them on a paper towel-lined plate. Pat them dry very carefully on both sides and season with additional salt and pepper. Let the burgers rest for at least 10 minutes and up to half an hour.

Make a note of which side of the burgers is facing up during resting. This side will be drier than the bottom and should be seared first for maximum browning and superior appearance.

Before finishing the burgers, have your toasted buns and condiments ready to accept them.

Steg 1

Preheat a cast iron or stainless steel skillet with 1 tablespoon (15 ml) of oil over high heat until the oil starts to lightly smoke.

Steg 2

Add the burger patties with the top side facing down and add 1 tablespoon (15 ml) of unsalted butter. Cook the burgers, swirling the pan to distribute the butter, until well browned on the first side, 45 seconds to 1 minute.

Steg 3

Flip the burgers and add a slice of cheese to the top surface (if using). Cook until the second side is browned and the cheese is melted, 45 seconds to 1 minute.

Steg 4

Transfer the burgers to the prepared buns, add toppings as desired, and serve immediately.

Steg 1

Light one chimney full of charcoal (about 5 quarts (5 L) of coals). When all the charcoal is lit and covered with gray ash, pour out and arrange the coals on one side of the charcoal grate. Set cooking grate in place, cover grill and allow to preheat for 5 minutes.

Alternatively, set half the burners on a gas grill to the highest heat setting, cover, and preheat for 10 minutes.

Scrape the grill grates clean with a grill scraper, then oil the grates by holding an oil-dipped kitchen towel or paper towels in a set of tongs and rubbing them over the grates 5 to 6 times.

Steg 2

Place the burgers directly over the hot side of the grill and cook until a deep, rich crust has formed, 45 seconds to 1 minute. Flip burgers and add cheese. Cook until the second side is browned and the cheese has melted, 45 seconds to 1 minute.

If the fire threatens to flare up as the burgers drip fat into it, suffocate the fire by closing the grill lid until the flames die out. Alternatively, transfer the burgers to the cooler side of the grill using a long spatula until the flames subside. Do not allow the burgers to get engulfed in flames.

Steg 3

Transfer the burgers to the prepared buns, add toppings as desired, and serve immediately.

A Closer Look at Seasoning Sous Vide Burgers

Burgers require more seasoning than solid meat because much of the salt and pepper on the surface of a burger will get dissolved in juices expressed during cooking and washed away.

We season our burgers with salt and pepper before cooking and a second time right before searing. We recommend seasoning a burger only on its surface, never mixed into the meat. Salt mixed into the meat can dissolve proteins, causing them to cross-link and turn your burger tough.

Intuitively you may think that adding a flavorful fat like butter or olive oil will in turn help create a more flavorful burger, but in fact it achieves the opposite goal: it dilutes flavor. Fat-soluble flavor compounds dissolve in the melted butter or oil and end up going down the drain later on. For best results, place your seasoned burger in a bag alone.

When it comes to spice rubs, keep in mind that spices behave quite differently under sous vide conditions than standard cooking conditions. Normally, aromatic compounds will dissipate into the air in the kitchen or over your grill as a spiced burger cooks. At the same time, moisture dissipates, which means what’s left of your spices sticks firmly to your meat. With sous vide cooking, there’s no way for that flavor to escape the bag. Meanwhile, spices rubbed on the surface of the meat have a tendency to get rinsed off by any juices that are being expressed.

The short answer is that it’s very tough to predict exactly how spices are going to react in a sous vide bag. We’ve found that if we want spice flavor, it’s better to rub the spices into the meat after the sous vide cooking phase and before the final searing phase.

A Closer Look at Finishing Sous Vide Hamburgers

Unlike a steak or pork chop, which can be seared directly after being removed from the water bath, a hamburger should be rested prior to searing. There are few reasons for this. The first is that burgers are relatively thin, which means that heat travels to the center quite rapidly. The second is that burgers are less dense than solid meat, which again means faster internal heat transfer. Both of these factors contribute to burgers overcooking during the searing phase.

In addition, burgers have many open air spaces where juices temporarily collect. This is a good thing: It makes for juicy burgers down the line. However, the juices that collected in the layers near the surface will very easily leak out when the burger is hot out of the bag. This is bad news for searing because excess juices in the pan or on the grill means that energy is spent evaporating that liquid instead of browning the beef.

We find that for the best results, it’s better to remove the burger from its bag after it comes out of the water bath and lay it on a plate with a few layers of paper towels in order to wick away excess moisture. By the time the burger has cooled to room temperature, it will also have a relatively dry surface, leading to much more effective searing.

Måltidsförberedelse och förberedelse Sous Vide

It’s true that given a high enough temperature (130°F (54ºC) or higher) and a long enough time period (several hours), the contents of a sealed sous vide bag should be close to sterile, which means that rapid chilling via an ice bath followed by rapid reheating should pose no health risks, but it does make it difficult to gauge the final serving temperature accurately.

Word of warning: Never chill and reheat any food that has been cooked or held at a temperature lower than 130°F (54ºC). These temperatures are not hot enough to destroy dangerous bacteria. Burgers in particular are prone to bacterial growth.