First Sous Vide Cook - burgers

[RolfTaylor]

OK, so I will admit I sometimes eat raw store-bought hamburger. I guess I have always thought if it doesn't kiil you it will make you stronger. That said, I don't do it anymore. My immune system isn't what it used to be, and the monopolies that process meats have priorities other than food safety.

So I don't eat raw hamburger, but I cook mine on the low side. Everyone in my household likes them red too.

Also, I have been upping my burger game lately anyway, with reverse sear and finishing on the griddle on the propane Weber.

So, naturally my first SV cook was burgers. The ANOVA Gen 1 machine (used) arrived yesterday. It checked out as working and it's temperature is very close to the two thermometers I used to spot check it. So out I went to get 80/20 burger meat.

In each zipper bag I put 3 half-pound patties and one one-third pound patty. A light sprinkling of mortons salt was the only seasoning.
Each bag got a spoon for ballast and I sucked out the air with a straw and then got just a bit more out the top. I put one in the fridge to cook later and 2 in the pot. A couple of forks on top to make sure they were at least 1/2" under water.

Cooked at 131.5 for 2.5 hrs.

Took the two bags out and chilled. Opened the bag for tonight (the other went in the fridge) and placed on towels and then flipped a few times to dry them. The handling and the weight of the forks on top definitely deformed them a bit, but c'est the vie (or should I say c'est la vide?). They got some garlic powder, black pepper, and Dizzy Pig SPG (Salt paper garlic) blend.


I had my medium BGE set up with lots of charcoal and the cast iron grid as low as I can get it. During the SV cook I did some measuring and it looks like if I get 12.5" grate I could put it on my spider and get them even closer to the coals. I am looking into that. Or maybe the grillgrates meant for the Small BGE.

Seared for a total of about 4-5 minutes (I lost track) flipping every 60 seconds or so. It was already dark so it was hard to tell exactly what they looked like.
Looking pretty good I would say. In retrospect I would cook them a couple minutes longer and flip every 40 seconds. The inside was a bit on the cool side and a deeper layer of char wouldn't be bad.

As I was preparing to serve them I moved one and discovered some nice juice underneath! So I shifted them all and took this shot. Now that's a juicy burger - red juice before it is even cut into!


Our family is more of a Salisbury steak family, so these didn't go on buns. I did get some nice buns at Lidl to make as garlic bread. I served with Aldi's eggplant fries which count as a vegetable!

So the proof is in the pudding, right? They were nice and red as I planned:



The last picture I took by accident when I picked up my phone. But it makes a nice ending:


Thoughts and Analysis:

I should have used more salt. I salted immediately before bagging and putting in the water bath. My thought was they would dry brine as they cooked. I would love comments on that. In any case, I would use more salt next time.

I do think I will order some of those burger rings since looks do matter. I do not plan on buying a vacuum machine. The straw worked well and space is a premium here.

The stock pot is awkward, and of limited size. I dared not put the third bag in there. I am thinking about buying a cooler and cutting a hole in top. I gather evaporation can be an issue on longer cooks to having something insulated and covered make a lot of sense.

I just ordered a one of the Combustion Inc thermal probes. That should help me get them warmed up with maximum sear and not over cook them in the future.

Meat has been expensive lately. Next time I see a good deal on round roasts I plan on picking one up, slicing into 2" steaks and sous vide them for maybe 6 hours? I grew up in a large and frugal family and I don't mind chewy steak. But tender is better.

[randy.56]

Nice cook, and wright up. I've been SV cooking for about 3 years but never tried hamburger. One thing I have noticed is you lose any salt, seasoning if you prep before putting meats in the SV. So I always season in the end. Using the about the same size pot you have. When you are concerned about submersion, rotate meats half the way through or every half hour.
When I do steaks, they have already been vacuumed packed and froze. 131 for 2 - 2.5 hours from frozen, these are 1 inch thick ribeye's, new york strips, flites 1.5 inch.
If you can get to a Sams, as they open on Wednesday am, they mark down steaks-ect. you can buy prime for about the same price as choice. Choice is at least couple bucks a lb less.

Stay calm and carry on.

edit: It is really not a good idea to eat raw meats. your body will tell ya, but agree with pork chops 140- 145, steak 140 -145, chicken 145, hamburger 150. My wife wants to cook the hell out of everything. yuck- dry and tasteless

[Davek8282]

This link has some great information on pasteurization of meat and how long your meat has to be a specific temperature to kill all the pathogens. https://douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html. There are a bunch of other charts and info available from a Google search. FDA says 2.5 hours at 131 to pasteurize your burgers, so your total cook time would be a bit low for killing 100%. Anyway it can be a pretty deep rabbit hole, I use my sous vide all the time

[RolfTaylor]

Thanks. I did read Meatheads guide. Not sure how I got confused as I am pretty sure it indicated I should have gone 2.5 hrs.

[fzxdoc]

Kenji wrote a great post on SV burgers--what they look like at various pasteurization time and temps. I follow it exactly. I also have Doug Baldwin's book, but Kenji's post is more accessible when I'm on a roll.

SV steakburgers are so delicious. Sounds like you did great with them. Perhaps next time that you've flash-chilled and refrigerated the burgers earlier you'll want to reheat them up in the SV just under the temp you SVd them at so they're not cold in the middle when you sear. They sear so quickly on a hot surface.

Also, you don't need a straw. Just gently lower the bag into the water, squeezing out the air as you go. Then clip the top of the bag to the side of the SV container. With a little practice, it will become second nature to you.

I stopped using spoons for weights inside the bag because they would either leave indentations or put marks on the meat. I put the bags in the water and then put a long metal spatula, metal tongs or metal cooking spoon alongside to hold the bottom edges of the bags down. Works just fine.

For SVing only 3-4 burgers, steaks, chicken parts, etc., I find that my round pots are not space-efficient if I don't want the meats touching each other. A rectangle-shaped container of the same volume is more space-efficient for positioning SV bags. I have 3 rectangular sizes of Lipavi containers--3 gallon, 4.5 gallon and 6.5 gallon. The 3 gallon size is perfect for the 3-4 burger, etc. cooks.

FWIW, I also have a customizable SV rack that allows you to slot your foods in the rectangular containers. It has an anti-float top.



Kathryn

[Davek8282]

fzxdoc this is the article I could not find when I did my post as it is easier to follow than the Doug Baldwin one I linked to. Good Job

[fzxdoc]

GolfGeezer, I have the metal rack too. I use it as well. It was the first one I got. Then a few years later Lipavi came out with the white one with the "anti-float" piece. So of course I had to get it as well. You and I have been bitten by the same bug.

It depends on which insert is best for the job based on the number of pieces of meat I'm SVing.

Kathryn

[RolfTaylor]

Kathryn - thanks for all your ongoing SV sharing. I just contacted Sous-La-Vide to beg them to offer the rings somewhere other than Amazon. I won't rant here, but just recently I decided I had had enough and will NOT be buying there.