Not BBQ - Deep Fried Sous Vide Burgers

[Tatoosh]

One of my recent projects have been sous vide burgers. I make six ounce patties, seasoned with salt and pepper. Occasionally I'll add a bit of Worcestershire Sauce as well. Vacuum pack them and cook sous vide, which is the vacuum sealed part but in a water bath with a temperature controller that keeps them within 1 degree of the desired finished temperature. That allows for perfectly done burgers regardless of your preference. Just set that temp and let it go. Time in the bath is based on thickness of the patty.

When they are done, I pull them out of the bath and sealed bag. Pat them off and deep fry them in 400F oil for 40 seconds. Bingo, crispy exterior, moist juicy interior and done to whatever you like. I'm a 150F sort of guy, walking the line between medium and medium well but with a bit of list to the MW side.

The burger could be seared to finish and that would be fine. What I like about deep frying is the crispy exterior provides a crunch when you bite that gives way to a juicy interior. Just my thing.

I really need to get my camera fixed so I can document the process!

[LM600]

I LOVE the sound of this! Sous Vide cooking is something I am getting more and more into, albeit, in a Heath Robinson kind of way (no temp. control) and more for reheating already cooked food.

I have done burgers, but the opposite way round....cooked on the grill, cooled and then vac. packed. Just pull one out of the freezer and throw it in a pan of hot water.

[Tatoosh]

That sounds like a great approach, LM600. I wanted the hot exterior of the deep fry to melt the cheese slices on top. That was only partially successful. If I wanted to make burgers quick and convenient, I'd use your approach. In fact I may start doing that in the near future.

I did a stab at an appetizer based on this approach too. Braised some 1 ounce burger balls in enriched beef stock, all contained in a ziplock bag and heated sous vide. Then the cheese wrap and finally a wrap of brioche dough. Experiments showed that cooking in a toaster oven was the easiest way to finish the dough and to be sure the cheese was nice and melted.

My start with sous vide was an instant read thermometer and turning my crock pot on and off to try and stay within 5 degrees of my target temp.

[shirknwrk]

Sounds yummy. I've never done Sous Vide burgers, but I've done steaks, chuck roast and beef ribs... then finished on the grill or smoked for a short period of time. Don't have a Sous Vide Supreme or other controller but can maintain temps by using an 8qt pot on the warming burner of my smooth top range. Lid on the pot... up to 150 after a few hours. Lid off 125 max. Two chopsticks under the lid... 135. Can slide the lid a bit for more adjustment. Check frequently with blazing yellow Thermapen. Sous Vide works extremely well for beef ribs as you don't have the too dry/too tough delemma. Finish them "raised direct" on the Kamado and you have juicy, tender, nicely browned ribs.

[Tatoosh]

Thermapens are so so utterly necessary. I have two, a fantastic yellow one and beautiful red one. They are fantastic tools and I cannot imagine being without them. Which is why there is two. One went down and I shipped it to the States for repair, $25 and it came back in perfect working order.

I too admire, but cannot afford the Sous Vide Supreme and similar. I did manage to save enough for a Fresh Meals Solution controller that has converted my small crockpot to a pretty spot on SV machine, though limited by space. I have their heater/air bubbler unit on the way so I can convert a 5 gallon insulated water jug into a somewhat larger SV unit.

My first try at Sous vide was "Deep Fried Egg Yolks" which is some fun and an unusual appetizer for party or potluck. Check out the Seattle Food Geek's website for the recipe.

[cholloway]

Sounds interesting.
I saw a fellow on TV that dipped his grilled burger patties in a beer batter then deep fried.

[CarolinaQue]

How do you keep the burger meat from falling apart when you take it out of the vac seal? I'd imagine that without the direct high heat to give it a crust to help it keep it's shape, it would likely fall apart trying to get it into the fryer? Any kind of binder in the mixture?

[Tatoosh]

Well, what we do at my house is press the burger together into a patty, so it is not quite so crumbly. They are actually cooked but without the nice crust searing or frying gives when removed from their pouch. What actually causes a maillard reaction to give the browning or crust that adds so much flavor and a specific texture to the meat is the next step, the exterior is seared, deep fried, or even torched. Some however do the searing or torching prior to sous vide sealing and cooking.

I took six one-ounce burger balls and deep fried two then wrapped all of them in cling wrap prior to basting or poaching them in a beef stock. They and the beef stock were in a ziplock pouch. The pouch went into the sous vide water bath. I expected the ones that were not deep fried to become very crumbly, even with the cling wrap on them. They did not but rather held their round shape nicely when the cling wrap was removed.

[thoraudio]

How's the color? We often have my mother-in-law and sister-in-law over, and I've got to kiln dry their burgers to get rid of any color. If this browns throughout, that may same me from killing the burgers just for them.