Custom Sous Vide Burgers – What’s Your Doneness?

Sous Vide is all the craze these days in the foodie world. From fine dining restaurants to those of us just wanting something different, all the while creating new textures with foods that have been on our menus for years.  I’ll show you how to cook your burger to the doneness you personally like. 

What is Sous Vide? 

Sous Vide is a cooking technique where you place food items into airtight sealed bags and when placed into a temperature controlled water /or oil bath set to an exact temperature of your choosing.  Sous Vide means, Under Vacuum

The very coolest part of Sous Vide cooking is that fact your food canNot be overcooked. You set the temperature and how long you’d like it to cook and that’s it, you reach repeatable perfection. 

Here’s What Our Sous Vide Setup Looks Like:

It consists of an Anova Sous Vide immersion circulator, 1 tub to hold the water. Be sure to use a temperature safe water tub.

Below is Butter N Thyme affiliate links to both the Sous Vide machine we like and the temperature safe water tub. Coolest feature is the Anova Sous Vide machine has an excellent App. Helps you set the temperature and cook timer, along with a ton of recipes with instructions right in the App. Want to know how long your cook is going to take or how much time is left, just look at the App.

The Anova App is great, very clear instructions and bluetooth controlled

Great Sous Vide Burgers can happen a number of ways. The texture of the ground beef is the key. Often cooks will “overwork” the ground beef and they end up with burgers that are tough. Be gentle with the ground beef and break it up with two forks.

Tips to Seasoning & Shaping Burgers So They Are Not Tough

1. Mix ALL your seasonings, onion etc once. Never mix twice, unless you forgot an ingredient.
2. Add egg to help bind the meat together. 1 egg per pound (whip the egg before adding to the ground beef)
3. Form the burgers quickly. Do not keep working the ground beef into shape. Get it over with already. The heat from you hands starts to break down the fat. IE the fat is melting.
4. Once the burgers are shaped. Always place them into the refrigerator to chill and set up. This will help make sure the burgers will stay in shape when you cook them.
5. When you can, grind your own beef for a luxurious-out-of-this-world-experience.

Our Selection Of Beef For Sous Vide Burgers – Sirloin Flap aka Bavette

– FAT IS FLAVOR –

Choose Which Kind Of Beef You Personally Love

A great choice from the grocery is Ground Chuck (80% / 20% blend) ( 20% is the fat content )

Butter N Thyme Article On Sirloin Flap aka Bavette

How To Grind Beef With A Kitchen-Aid Mixer

Unscrew and remove the protection cap. Attach the grinder to the utility port located at the front of the mixer. 

Putting the Kitchen Aid Grinder together is a snap. Start by placing the grinding gear into the middle of the grinder base, push all the way to the back to secure. Next add the blade followed by the extruder plate (the part the decides the size of the ground meat). Screw on the front cap and your all set to go! (See Below)

Secure the grinder to the kitchen aid with the front plate screw

Place the blade on to the Kitchen Aid grinder first followed by the grinder size plate

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

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

TIP: Never 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 with trying to use the small one first. Yeah, I made that mistake before 😞

Seasoning & Shaping The Sous Vide Burgers

• For Sous Vide Burgers add one egg per pound of ground beef

Add salt and pepper to taste. Per pound I would suggest at least 2 teaspoons of salt. I used Garlic Salt for a little extra flavor. The key is not adding too much to the ground beef or you risk hiding the natural flavor of the beef.

Shape the burgers. I like using a burger shaper. I helps with the thickness being consistent across all the burgers, so everyone gets a burger that looks like the 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 at the same time.

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

Place the sous vide burgers into the refrigerator for at least 15 minutes. This will help the burgers setup and keep their shape when you cook them. 

Setting Up The Anova For Sous Vide Burgers

Remove the sous vide machine from the 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. 

Place the burgers into single zip lock bags. Remove as much of the air as you can. It does not need to perfect for burgers. I would suggest not using a vacuum sealer as it could crush the burgers during the sealing process. Use the cheap plastic sandwich bags. 

TRICK: To help remove the air. Zip seal the bag 90% of the way. Then place them into the water bath. With the seal above the water press the bag down into the water never allowing the seal to go under the water. You’ll notice the air is removed by pushing the bag into the water. Seal the bag and your all set. 

Custom Sous Vide Burgers – What’s Your Doneness?

Temperatures to set your Sous Vide Machine To Reach Your Desired Burger Doneness

• Rare 128-130
• Medium Rare 133-137
• Medium 140-145
• Well Done 150-160

Here’s the key to sous vide cooking. The sous vide technique cooks your food beautifully. The finished product will look pink on burgers & steaks. This does not in mean in any way the meat is undercooked or raw. Its new to you so your brain is telling you one thing, but it’s just plain wrong. #NOTundercooked

Food doneness will always be controlled by what temperature you cook your proteins 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.  Welcome to Sous Vide 😊

What’s Your Sous Vide Burger Temperature?

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 40 minutes up to an hour. Enjoy

BONUS RECIPE:  Teriyaki Avocado Mayo

• 3 T of Teriyaki  Sauce

• 1 Large Hass Avocado

• 2 T Flavor Mayonnaise 

Crush the Avocado and add the Teriyaki and Mayo. Taste and make your adjustments. It’s crazy good. Just popped in my head.