Fresh Meals Magic: Turkey Burgers Sous Vide

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As part of a newer, healthier Pablo, I am on the hunt for making a delicious turkey burger.  The biggest challenge with turkey burgers are flavor and lack of moisture.  Or, said another way: the lack of fat that makes a turkey burger healthy, also makes it suck.  As far as flavor goes, I mixed the ground turkey meat, soy sauce, salt, pepper, ramp and garlic powders.  I also figured this would be a good application for sous vide. 


You are probably asking why there is a ring mold in the bag.  This was done to maintain the shape of the burger during the vacuum sealing process.  Even on a weak sealer, a burger will end up tapering on both sides.


As we can see in the picture above, tapering makes your burger look like a flying saucer.  This is less visually appealing, but there is a very utilitarian concern here as well.  If it is not flat on each side, then less surface area touches a grill or griddle.  While a ring mold gives us something that looks a little more manufactured, it is at least somewhat familiar looking.

Finally, while the pic doesn't show it, there are actually two burgers in the ring mold separated by a piece of parchment paper (the ring mold was pretty thick).  While it was in the bath, I started to heat up my trusty grill pan.  After it came out I gave it a quick spin on the grill pan to give it some texture and additional color and flavor.


After a quick turn on the grill pan, I put it on a bun with some lettuce, tomato, asiago cheese and ketchup.  The final product is below.


It was a decent first try.  Next attempt will include the following changes:

  • Add a little bit of oil.  It was still more dry than I would like.  A little olive oil won't kill me.
  • Make the burger thinner.  This should also reduce the impact of dryness.
  • Add more herbs and spices to the turkey mixture.  Needs heat and more garlic.  Maybe some smoked paprika as well.

Comments

  1. Vasu TummalaOctober 18, 2011 at 1:41 PM

    Could I get some more info in the cooking? How thick we're the patties, how long did you cook them and what temp was the water bath?

    ReplyDelete
  2. pescolarOctober 18, 2011 at 1:57 PM

    @Vasu:

    Check the blog in a couple of days, I'll get you some more info.

    ReplyDelete
  3. pescolarNovember 17, 2011 at 12:28 AM

    Ok, I suck. I do have a new turkey burger post coming, but in the meantime, you can just use the times established in Douglas Baldwin's guide for pasteurization. I used 140F for ~1.5 hours for a patty that was was less maybe 20mm thick.

    ReplyDelete

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