Moist and Flavorful Burgers That Are Also Safe to Eat

[Elderberry]

Thermoblog by Tim Robinson

Medium? Or medium rare? Anyone who takes steak seriously knows the answer to that question. Steaks cooked to medium rare (130° F, see Chef Recommended Temps) simply taste better and have a better texture.

So why do we cook our hamburgers to 160°? As the old A-1 commercial used to say, “What are hamburgers, chopped ham?? No, they’re chopped steak!” Wouldn’t hamburgers cooked to 130°F taste moister and more flavorful?? The answer is a resounding yes!

The painful truth is that we cook our hamburgers to 160°F because of bacteria.

As Chef Bruce Aidells points out in his book The Great Meat Cookbook, whole cuts of meat, like steaks, only develop harmful bacteria associated with raw beef like E. coli on their outer surface, which just happens to be the part of the cut that is exposed to the most intense heat in the grilling or cooking process. No problem.

But in the grinding process, that surface bacteria gets mixed throughout the hamburger meat. Hence the USDA recommends bringing the center of the burger up to 160°F, or well done, to kill the bacteria in the center of the burger.

There is a better way. Are you ready??

Option 1: Pasteurization

In his book Cooking for Geeks, Jeff Potter explains one way around this problem: “…if you have a way of cooking your burger to a lower temperature and then holding it at temperature long enough to pasteurize it, you could avoid denaturing the actin proteins while still pasteurizing the meat.”

Translation: if you can get your burgers to 140°F internal temperature and then hold them there for 12 minutes you can kill the bacteria without overcooking your burger (as recommended by the Hospitality Institute of Technology and Management).

Here’s how…

    Step 1: Turn on your oven and bring it to a warming temperature of 140°F

    Step 2: Grill your burgers to an internal temperature of 140°F (or even 138°F since the internal temperature of the burgers will continue to rise during the resting phase)

    Step 3: Place your burgers on an oven-proof tray, wrap them with tin foil and place them in the warm oven

    Step 4: Immediately after placing the foil wrapped burgers in the oven, turn the oven off, close the oven door, and let the burgers “rest” for 12 minutes before enjoying

Option 2: Grind Your Own

But for real meat lovers, 140°F is still too high.

The fact of the matter is you can actually safely grill and eat a moist juicy hamburger at 130°F internal temperature (medium rare) if you bypass what Bruce Aidells calls “the germ-filled environment of the butcher shop or packinghouse” altogether.

More: https://blog.thermoworks.com/beef/moist-flavorful-burgers-safe-eat-2/

I cooked burgers yesterday following "Option 1"  and they came out juicy and tasty.

I've ground a lot of my own ground beef, but I've never heard of the "blanching" step before.

[Cyber Liberty]

I'd Sous Vide the burgers at 130-135F for a half-hour, then hit them with a blowtorch to bring out the Malliard Effect for taste.

[Elderberry]

I'd Sous Vide the burgers at 130-135F for a half-hour, then hit them with a blowtorch to bring out the Malliard Effect for taste.

That would work.  I spiced mine with SEVEN -7- Steak Spice, grilled them over the coals to 138  and then covered them and into a 140F oven turned off for 12 minutes. Next time I grind my own, I'll cut down the temp and skip the oven.