DANGER: contains descriptions and pictures likely to make a dedicated and fervent vegetarian puke.

http://www.amazingribs.com/recipes/hamburgers/index.html

Yummy.

Interesting site, but I was surprised he doesn't say anything about bison burgers, which are exquisite IMHO

Now if I can just get a fire started!

Here's how I like to do my burgers:





I start with ground chuck. I patty it up about 1.25"-1.5" thick and cook it sous vide at 130 F for around 3 hours. This will pasteurize the meat completely, making it very safe even though it's cooked to medium rare. Another cool element is that sous vide cooked meat needs almost no resting; notice how the burger didn't "bleed out" at all when I cut it in half?

Next I get two pans screaming hot and sear the burger in one of them with the other pressing from the top, panini style. It only takes about 45 seconds to one minute to get a good sear. Be advised this will make a lot of smoke! Sometimes I sear with an Iwatani culinary torch. You can actually see the torch behind the burger.

Top it any way you like. The one in the pic was topped with scallions and dijon/mayo/shallot sauce.

Funny- I actually have two burgers cooking in my Sous Vide Supreme as I type this! They'll be done in about 50 minutes.

Thanks to your cruel post, I am now a hungry man who will have to go out into the night in search of a burger, knowing it will be inferior in every way.

Edit: Mission accomplished, enemy completely engulfed. Details too disgusting to report, except to note the right to die by eating a medium-rare burger is still prohibited in the no-man's-land we call California.

Maybe The French Laundry will make you one. I tell ya' as a chef (and knowing where burger comes from) I wouldn't touch medium rare store-bought burger with a ten foot spatula...unless you cook it sous vide. It's a great technique! You can kill the bugs by reaching 165 F for a brief amount of time, or by keeping the food at 130 F for a loooong time. The end result is a burger with a 6D/7D reduction in the numbers of Listeria, E-Coli, Salmonella etc. without cooking the snot out of your food.

It's really slick with chicken! You can vacuum seal chicken breasts and cook them at 140 F for three and a half hours or so and it's very safe. And you've likely never realized chicken could be that moist, juicy and...well, just sublime! Cooking meat at a temp lower than the point where the various muscle fibers begin to over-constrict (ballpark 150 F) you don't get tough meat and you don't wring the juices out of the product. You can start to render fat and melt the collagen without overcooking. Dark meat is also great done this way, but you have to go to about 148 F; lower will still be plenty safe, but dark meat has a "blood" or "raw" taste if cooked at 140.

and what is sous vide?

I had to google it myself, here is what I found.
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_18027956?source=rss

Thanks a lot, Phaedrus - you just made me very HUNGRY!

I'm a big fan of low temperature cooking, but I've got plenty to learn... Thanks for the inspiration.

As for the original topic - According to Bismark, you should not learn too much about the makings of neither sausages nor politics. I guess that applies to (some) burgers, too... Minced meat does not always imply actual "meat" - as in muscle fibers.

Sous vide = very interesting. Thanks!

A decent beefburger or hamburger is basically down to the quality of the ingredients and is easy to prepare and cook at home. They taste even better over a smoky beech wood fire out in the wilds. The source for the beef is traceable back to the farm from local independent butchers (although there are only about 10 of so left in my City) to ensure the best quality. The result is completely distinguishable from the McDs and BKs so why are these industrial global megacorp restaurants so popular? I've been in a McD's twice now, both times were a complete let down even compared to a deep fried battered Haggis from the local chip shop.

Haggis! Now we're talking! I've only had haggis once (in Contin, as I remember, but it was delicious....

I must whistle the play dead and show a penalty card: the words haggis and delicious must never appear in the same sentence.

I say this as one privileged to help prepare the wily haggis for a few Burns dinners as an assistant to a well-regarded player of the pipes and master of the haggiss trade. His secret to a decent haggis? Secret nontraditional ingredients, including spices, and strict instructions to only eat the haggis "piping" hot.

Nice taxonomy but it leaves out a true classic. To do it justice I'll need to provide a quote.

" Cheeseburger in paradise (paradise)
Medium rare with mustard 'be nice (paradise)
Heaven on earth with an onion slice (paradise)
I'm just a cheeseburger in paradise

I like mine with lettuce and tomato
Heinz 57 and french fried potatoes
Big kosher pickle and a cold draft beer
Well good god almighty which way do I steer for my

Cheeseburger in paradise!"

Please note that Margaritas are acceptable substitutes for the cold draft Beer.

- Eric

Related but unrelated:

http://scienceblogs.com/bioephemera/2011/05/starry_night_-_in_bacon.php

Is there nothing that bacon can't do?