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.