Sous Vide Burgers | Control The Doneness

Cooking Sous Vide Burgers means one thing for sure, perfectly cooked juicy hamburgers. Sous Vide, otherwise known as precision cooking, is a technique that has gained popularity for home cooks and chefs alike.

From fine dining restaurants and those of us just wanting something different- all while creating new textures with foods that have been on our menus for years! I'll show you how to cook your burger exactly how YOU like it.

⬇️ Table of Contents

• 💭 Sous Vide Cooking
• 🧂 Seasoning & Shaping
• 📋 Sous Vide Burger Temperature Chart
• 📖 Grinding Meat For Sous Vide Burgers
• 🥘 Meat Substitutions
• 🍽 Machine Setup
• 📖 FAQ's
• 📖 Recipe Card

💭 Sous Vide Cooking

Sous Vide is a cooking technique where you place food items into airtight sealed bags, put them into temperature-controlled water, and set them to the exact temperature you select.
The coolest part of Sous Vide cooking is that your food doesn't get overcooked. You set the temperature and how long you'd like it to cook and that's it; you get repeatable, perfectly cooked food.

Ingredients

• 1 pound Ground Beef / Serves 4 burgers
• 1 Egg Yolk / never add the egg whites to sous vide burgers
• 2 teaspoon Kosher Salt / Or To Taste
• ½ teaspoon Black Pepper

Burger Buns

Either type of burger bun works excellent

• Hawaiian Kings Burger Buns
• Potato Burger Buns

Optional Ingredients

• Worcestershire sauce / Just do not add a lot. If more is needed, then add more after the cook and when you eat
• 2 teaspoon Minced Garlic / The finer the cut the better

🧂 Seasoning & Shaping

1. Add all of your seasonings like salt pepper at one time. Try not to over mix the ingredients with the meat. Work quickly to combine.
2. Adding egg yolks will help bind the meat together. 1 egg yolk per pound (whip the egg yolk before adding to the protein)
3. Form the burgers quickly. Do not keep working the ground beef into shape. The heat from your hands starts to break down the fat. IE, the fat is melting.
4. Once the burgers are shaped, place them into the refrigerator to chill and set up for 20-30 minutes. This will help make sure the burgers will stay together while they cook.
5. Excellent option: grind your beef for a luxurious-out-of-this-world experience.

Add salt and pepper to taste. I would suggest at least 2 teaspoons of salt per pound of ground beef. I used garlic salt for a little extra flavor. The key is not adding too much to the ground beef, or you risk masking the meat's natural flavor.

Shaping the burgers. I like using a burger shaper. It helps with the thickness consistent across all the burgers, so everyone gets a burger that looks like everyone else's. The main reason for the burger shaper is the even cooking it creates. If every burger is the same thickness, all the burgers will be done simultaneously.

Be gentle and do not press the beef into shape too hard, yet be delicate and lightly press down. Pushing hard and you will get tough gummy burgers.

Place the sous vide burgers into the refrigerator for 20 to 30minutes. This will help the burgers set up and keep their shape while cooking them.

Our Selection of Beef, Sirloin Flap aka Bavette

• Sirloin Flap is highly marbled - which offers more flavor

• Only 12 pounds per steer/cow (makes it special)

• Excellent for Fatijas

  Photo below the Sirloin Flap

Butter N Thyme Article On Sirloin Flap aka Bavette

📋 Sous Vide Burger Temperature Chart

Sous Vide Burger Doneness Temperatures

Burger Doneness	Sous Vide Temperature
Blue/Rare	125-128°F / 51.6-53.8°C
Medium Rare / Medium	129-135°F / 54.4-57.2°C
Well Done	136-140°F / 57.7-60°C

The sous vide technique cooks your food beautifully. The finished product will look pink on burgers & steaks. This does not mean the meat is undercooked or raw. It is just new to most people, so your brain tells you one thing, but it's just not the truth. The burgers will be cooked beautifully.

The doneness will always be controlled by what temperature you cook your proteins at and for how long. One of the features of sous vide cooking is you set the temperature, and the meat cannot cook to a higher temperature no matter how long you cook it.

This offers even, repeatable cooking. Zero rest time is needed.
Once the sous vide machine reaches the desired temperature, place your burgers into the sous vide water bath and set the timer for a minimum of 1 hour.

📖 Grinding Meat For Sous Vide Burgers

Using a Kitchenaid mixer, first unscrew and remove the protective cap seen in the photo below. Next, attach the meat grinder to the utility port at the front of the mixer.

Putting the Kitchen Aid grinder together is a snap.

Start by placing the grinding gear in the middle of the grinder base push it all the way to the back to secure. Next, add the blade followed by the extruder plate (the part that decides the size of the ground meat). Screw on the front cap and you're all set to go! (See Below)

Secure the meat grinder attachment to the kitchen aid with the front plate screw.

Place the blade onto the Kitchen Aid grinder first (below left)

Then followed by the grinder plate (below right)

Last, place the front cap on to secure everything into place.

To grind the meat, slice the meat into long strips to fit into the meat grinder. Run all the meat through. If you would like a typical ground meat size, remove the grinder plate, switch it out for the second one with the smaller holes, and grind with the smaller plate a second time. Use the long stick to help push the beef through.

TIP: With beef, do not try to grind with the small plate before using the large plate first. You need to tenderize the meat with the large one first. Plus, the machine will give you trouble trying to use the small one first. Yeah, I made that mistake before.

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🥘 Meat Substitutions

Ground Beef

• Classic burger option that is sure to be juicy
• Beef stands up to big flavors like onions, bacon, mustard, etc.
• Shop for beef labeled (80% meat / 20% fat) going even higher with the fat percentage is often used in restaurants.
• Tip: for more fat/flavor, grind-up bacon and add it to the beef)
• Grinding your meat is easy, plus you can blend different cuts of beef. Create a burger flavor profile like no other.
• Examples of Cuts-of-Beef to Grind: short rib, sirloin, brisket, flank, bison, skirt steak

Ground Chicken

• Most grocery stores sell either ground chicken or fresh chicken sausage. Option: you can remove the ground chicken from the sausage casing and form it into patties.
• Chicken is an excellent protein to grind yourself. 
• Adding additional fat is very helpful. I like grinding up bacon and mixing it in. Just be sure it is ground very well, so the bacon plays the part of a backup singer, not the lead.

Salmon / Fish

• Pulse fresh salmon in the food processor a few times to break the protein up. You do not want to puree the salmon. Pulse the salmon about 4 to 7 times, depending on your machine. You will want texture in the burger.
• Adding additional moisture to the burger: adding fat for extra yummy burger, and to help bind with binding ingredients listed below. The options: mayonnaise, bacon grease, sour cream, butter, ricotta cheese (try our homemade recipe) 
• Add more texture: options, cooked quinoa (learn to cook quinoa here), cooked barley, Ritz crackers.
• Once the salmon is cooked and out of the sous vide machine, I like painting on something like mayonnaise and then adding panko bread crumbs and finishing by pan-frying on a medium-low temperature for a few minutes to create a nicer presentation and added texture. 

Enjoy our post covering How To Sous Vide Salmon

🍽 Machine Setup

Remove the sous vide machine from its case. Place the attachment that holds the sous vide machine in place and connect it to the edge of the temperature-safe tub and screw it into place. Slide the sous vide machine in place and plug it in. Fill the tub with water to the indicated fill line. Make sure you fill it to the said level to protect your sous vide machine motor.

Our setup consists of:

• Anova Sous Vide immersion circulator
• Temperature-safe water tub.

Below you will find Butter N Thyme's affiliate links to chef-selected sous vide machine and temperature-safe water tub. One nice feature, the Anova Sous Vide machine, has an excellent smartphone app. This helps with setting the temperature along with a cooking timer. A ton of recipes with instructions right in the app.

The Anova app is great, with very clear instructions and Bluetooth control.

COOK LIKE A PRO - The Anova Precision Cooker allows anyone to cook a restaurant-quality meal at home. Our Sous Vide circulator is the perfect kitchen appliance for hands-off cooking of vegetables, meat, and much more with consistent control and precision. We're so confident in our product Anova backs it with a 2-Year Warranty.

Great Sous Vide Burgers happens from paying attention to a few things. Protecting the texture of the ground beef is the key. Often cooks will "overwork" the ground beef and end up with tough burgers. Be gentle with the ground beef and break it up with two forks.

📖 FAQ's

📖 Recipe Card