Sous viding burgers is a great way to get burgers EXACTLY how you want them. No more poking, prodding, and second guessing yourself. You want it medium rare – just cook them at 130-132F. It’s that simple. (Remember – you can hack your own sous vide machine for cheap.)
I was pretty happy with the tasty sous vide lamb burgers I made last week so I decided to make some beef burgers tonight. The minor tweaks I made this time included decreasing the cooking temperature to 132 F and searing the cooked patties in a pan before using my kitchen torch to brown the edges.
Here’s a step by step look at how I made them:
I divided a pound of grass fed ground beef into 4 portions and gently formed them into patties. I seasoned both sides generously with salt and pepper.
I didn’t mix in the seasoning because I didn’t want to overwork the meat. Too much manhandling can lead to tough pucks.
I placed the seasoned burgers on top of a plastic-wrapped plate and covered the plate with another sheet of plastic wrap. If you don’t line your plate with plastic wrap first, it’ll be difficult to remove the frozen patties. I put the plate in the freezer and froze the patties (at least 2 hours).
Once the patties were frozen…
…hubby vacuum sealed each patty…
…and stored them in the fridge until he was ready to cook them.
He filled and preheated the SousVide Supreme to 132 F and dunked in the burger packets.
Burgers take at least 30 minutes to cook but you can leave them in the water for up to 12 hours.
When the burgers were finished cooking, I took them out of their packets and dried them with paper towels.
I heated a couple tablespoons of bacon grease in a large cast iron skillet and seared each side…
…for about a minute.
I put the burgers on a wire rack on top of a foil-lined baking sheet and used my kitchen torch to even out the browned bits.
See? It’s nice and pink from edge to edge.
I topped the burgers with my favorite toppings and served them over salad greens.
Maybe next time I’ll shallow fry the patties to get a nice crunchy exterior…
