Sous Vide Smokey Burgers

Sounds really good. I love the combination of chipotles in adobo and bacon!

We have been doing seasoned ground burgers (chuck and neck meat ground at home)(Use a seasoned rub, salt and pepper) vacumn sealed using a moist setting so it doesn't get squished. I use 121 degrees F for 2 to 4 hours and they come out a beautiful rare. In the past, I used the broiler, the grill, and a saute pan to get the wonderful crust that I like. The broiler had worked out the best for me usually. However, my husband wanted onion rings the other night, so we dug out the deep fat fryer. While making the onion rings, it occured to me that the deep fat fryer might be fun to try to use for browning. What a treat. I used 375 degrees F and let them sit in there for 90 seconds. They came out a beautiful crusty brown with a wonderful rare edge to edge interior. I like cheese on my burger so I let them 'finish' in the oven for a 15 rest period at 170 degrees F while the cheese melted. Put green onions over the top of the cheese and served with lettuce and tomato and dijon musturd. John broke out the mayo too and the onion rings were great too.

Great, now I'm starving for hamburgers...might have to rethink dinner!

That sounds killer! I love doing burgers SV, but I cook them at 130-133 F. What a joy to get a burger that's pasteurized yet still medium rare! I have two main methods that I use:

1) SV the burgers @ 130, following the pasteurization guidelines in Baldwins book, followed by a brief sear in a screaming hot cast iron pan. This is about the best method for taste but generates enough smoke it's tough to do in the house. When the weather is nice I've done it outdoors but I lack a campstove with enough power to get the heat I need to get a proper crust.

2) Patty & season the burgers, then pop onto a preheated gas grill. I just cook them enough to get good grill makes and some smoke flavor but leaving them essentially raw- it helps to make the patties at least 1" thick. Then I let them rest on a plate til cooled enough to vac without risking melting the bag. Then SV as per Baldwin's guidelines. This method also works extremely well.

One trick I use is to fill a 2 gallon square Cambro (available at any restaurant supply house) and leave it in my fridge on the bottom shelf. Two gallons of water is 17 lbs of thermal mass @ 34 degrees. Drop your sv cooked food in there still sealed in the bag and you'll chill it a lot faster than in a bowl if ice water in the sink. So long as you don't try to shock ridiculous quantities at once you won't see the temp in your fridge rise by more than a degree, and that's probably attributable to opening the door.