…through science. If I had some liquid nitrogen, I’d give it a try.
12 thoughts on “Better Hamburgers”
If you attempt this, immerse the patty in LN2 for three seconds, not thirty seconds. Thirty seconds will freeze it solid as a rock.
Take Kobe chuck ($6.99/pound at Central Market) and cook it on a cast iron grill over a mesquite wood fire.
No liquid nitrogen required.
You’d also need a sous vide Supreme. Those are sort of spendy.
I happen to have a few liters of LN2 at home (made ice cream the other night). I’ll try it out and get back to you. I can improvise the sous vide, but I’ll need to get a deep fat fryer, though.
I’ve read that the more expensive kinds of beef, like Kobe and Wagyu, don’t make good hamburgers, but I forget the reason.
I cook sous vide on a regular basis (the Sous Vide Supreme is about $400, not cheap but totally worth it) and I am also the proud owner of Myhrvold’s Modernist Cuisine. The 5-volume book is *fantastic*, and if you are an engineer or even just science-inclined you will completely connect with their approach to cooking. And the vast majority of it is actually very practical, and does not require liquid nitrogen, rotary vaporators, autoclaves, or centrifuges, even though that is what all the press has focused on.
As for sous vide cooking, I predict that nearly every home will have a sous vide machine in the kitchen in 5-10 years. It is marvelous stuff.
Doug, I’d recommend *against* getting a deep fat fryer, unless you are going to get a commercial deep fryer, which needless to say is very expensive and won’t fit into a normal home kitchen. The electric elements drawing 1200W or so in the countertop/home units are not nearly powerful enough to maintain the high oil temperature during frying, and this is critical to good frying. Use any pot you have (a cast iron dutch oven is what I use, and is nearly ideal) on the stovetop. Only a gas burner can deliver the needed btu/hr.
Kobe and Wagyu can be fine for hamburgers (assuming it is not too lean, you want ~15% fat content in the meat), but I’d say it is just sort of pointless to use meat of his quality if you are just going to grind it up. All that nice marbling in the meat makes for a nice steak, but is completely pointless if you are just going to send it through a grinder.
Thanks for the advice, David. Alas, my gas range is in the garage, waiting for a gas line to be run to the kitchen, and I’m stuck with the electric range in my rental house. However, I do have a suitable pot, and I can borrow a couple of propane torches from the hangar to help it along…
If you are going to do something with propane (obviously outdoors or in a garage because of carbon monoxide issues) a good way to go are the “banjo” burners, a.k.a. turkey fryers. I use this one: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0009JXYQY. Over 200,000 btu’s per hour (typical gas stovetops only give you 5000-12000 btu/hr). It is great for deep frying of course (in this application there is normally no reason to turn it on anywhere near full blast), but also indepensible if you are a home beer brewer.
Just make sure you monitor the temperature carefully to keep the oil below the smoke point. I use peanut oil, which has a smoke point around 450 F. I also use a thermometer with an alarm on it that indicates when the temp is over your pre-set limit.
I’d say it is just sort of pointless to use meat of his quality if you are just going to grind it up. All that nice marbling in the meat makes for a nice steak, but is completely pointless if you are just going to send it through a grinder.
First, the ground chuck that sells for $6.99 a pound is not (obviously) the same as the Kobe ribeye sitting right next to it that goes for $24.99.
Second, you missed the more important part — mesquite wood.
I was not really impressed by the Kobe burgers I had in restaurants. They were okay, but I’ve had better at Fuddrucker’s. It wasn’t until I got my own hands on them that I discovered the magic.
Edward, the aromatic smoke from the mesquite wood no doubt does wonders, and I wouldn’t suggest otherwise. My comments just pertained to the beef quality.
What’s the point of comparing normal ground chuck to a Kobe ribeye steak? To make an apples to apples comparison let’s stick to the same cut of meat (ribeye vs. ribeye, chuck vs. chuck, sirloin vs. sirloin). If you are having a steak, sure, go for the Kobe. It is superior in this application because of the fat distribution (marbling). But grind it up and you won’t find any difference in taste or texture, assuming the same cut and total fat content, since you have semi-homogenized the meat in the grinding process.
The critical elements that could affect a difference in taste would be the diet and environment of the cattle. But you can get “regular” grass-fed beef that hasn’t been confined to a feedlot for far less than the Wagyu/Kobe equivalent. In my neck of the woods we can get Harris Ranch beef for just $5-6/lb. It would be next to impossible to tell the difference between “normal” ground chuck of this quality and Wagyu/Kobe ground chuck when cooked as a medium-rare burger. I’ve had $60 Kobe burgers, and while the particular burgers I had were truly wonderful, it wasn’t primarily because of the beef quality. The beef quality of such burgers is of course very, very good, but nothing magical compared to cheaper alternatives.
In my neck of the woods we can get Harris Ranch beef for just $5-6/lb. It would be next to impossible to tell the difference between “normal” ground chuck of this quality and Wagyu/Kobe ground chuck when cooked as a medium-rare burger.
The difference is I can cook a Kobe burger medium and it still tastes like a regular hamburger cooked medium rare, and more time on the grill means more wood smoke.
I wouldn’t call $6 a pound “normal” or “far less” than $6.99. Regular ground chuck goes for $2.50 a pound at Target.
Also, recognize those prices will vary depending on which neck of the woods you’re in. Online, Harris Ranch sells hamburger patties for $9.67 a pound, while Snake River Farms has American Kobe hamburgers for $7.
To put these prices into perspective, for a 1/3 pounds burger, I’ll use $2.33 worth of wagyu beef. You’ll pay twice that much for a burger at Fuddrucker’s. Honestly, I spend more on the rolls, sides, and fuel than I do on the beef.
If you attempt this, immerse the patty in LN2 for three seconds, not thirty seconds. Thirty seconds will freeze it solid as a rock.
Take Kobe chuck ($6.99/pound at Central Market) and cook it on a cast iron grill over a mesquite wood fire.
No liquid nitrogen required.
You’d also need a sous vide Supreme. Those are sort of spendy.
I happen to have a few liters of LN2 at home (made ice cream the other night). I’ll try it out and get back to you. I can improvise the sous vide, but I’ll need to get a deep fat fryer, though.
I’ve read that the more expensive kinds of beef, like Kobe and Wagyu, don’t make good hamburgers, but I forget the reason.
I cook sous vide on a regular basis (the Sous Vide Supreme is about $400, not cheap but totally worth it) and I am also the proud owner of Myhrvold’s Modernist Cuisine. The 5-volume book is *fantastic*, and if you are an engineer or even just science-inclined you will completely connect with their approach to cooking. And the vast majority of it is actually very practical, and does not require liquid nitrogen, rotary vaporators, autoclaves, or centrifuges, even though that is what all the press has focused on.
As for sous vide cooking, I predict that nearly every home will have a sous vide machine in the kitchen in 5-10 years. It is marvelous stuff.
Doug, I’d recommend *against* getting a deep fat fryer, unless you are going to get a commercial deep fryer, which needless to say is very expensive and won’t fit into a normal home kitchen. The electric elements drawing 1200W or so in the countertop/home units are not nearly powerful enough to maintain the high oil temperature during frying, and this is critical to good frying. Use any pot you have (a cast iron dutch oven is what I use, and is nearly ideal) on the stovetop. Only a gas burner can deliver the needed btu/hr.
Kobe and Wagyu can be fine for hamburgers (assuming it is not too lean, you want ~15% fat content in the meat), but I’d say it is just sort of pointless to use meat of his quality if you are just going to grind it up. All that nice marbling in the meat makes for a nice steak, but is completely pointless if you are just going to send it through a grinder.
Thanks for the advice, David. Alas, my gas range is in the garage, waiting for a gas line to be run to the kitchen, and I’m stuck with the electric range in my rental house. However, I do have a suitable pot, and I can borrow a couple of propane torches from the hangar to help it along…
If you are going to do something with propane (obviously outdoors or in a garage because of carbon monoxide issues) a good way to go are the “banjo” burners, a.k.a. turkey fryers. I use this one: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0009JXYQY. Over 200,000 btu’s per hour (typical gas stovetops only give you 5000-12000 btu/hr). It is great for deep frying of course (in this application there is normally no reason to turn it on anywhere near full blast), but also indepensible if you are a home beer brewer.
Just make sure you monitor the temperature carefully to keep the oil below the smoke point. I use peanut oil, which has a smoke point around 450 F. I also use a thermometer with an alarm on it that indicates when the temp is over your pre-set limit.
I’d say it is just sort of pointless to use meat of his quality if you are just going to grind it up. All that nice marbling in the meat makes for a nice steak, but is completely pointless if you are just going to send it through a grinder.
First, the ground chuck that sells for $6.99 a pound is not (obviously) the same as the Kobe ribeye sitting right next to it that goes for $24.99.
Second, you missed the more important part — mesquite wood.
I was not really impressed by the Kobe burgers I had in restaurants. They were okay, but I’ve had better at Fuddrucker’s. It wasn’t until I got my own hands on them that I discovered the magic.
Edward, the aromatic smoke from the mesquite wood no doubt does wonders, and I wouldn’t suggest otherwise. My comments just pertained to the beef quality.
What’s the point of comparing normal ground chuck to a Kobe ribeye steak? To make an apples to apples comparison let’s stick to the same cut of meat (ribeye vs. ribeye, chuck vs. chuck, sirloin vs. sirloin). If you are having a steak, sure, go for the Kobe. It is superior in this application because of the fat distribution (marbling). But grind it up and you won’t find any difference in taste or texture, assuming the same cut and total fat content, since you have semi-homogenized the meat in the grinding process.
The critical elements that could affect a difference in taste would be the diet and environment of the cattle. But you can get “regular” grass-fed beef that hasn’t been confined to a feedlot for far less than the Wagyu/Kobe equivalent. In my neck of the woods we can get Harris Ranch beef for just $5-6/lb. It would be next to impossible to tell the difference between “normal” ground chuck of this quality and Wagyu/Kobe ground chuck when cooked as a medium-rare burger. I’ve had $60 Kobe burgers, and while the particular burgers I had were truly wonderful, it wasn’t primarily because of the beef quality. The beef quality of such burgers is of course very, very good, but nothing magical compared to cheaper alternatives.
In my neck of the woods we can get Harris Ranch beef for just $5-6/lb. It would be next to impossible to tell the difference between “normal” ground chuck of this quality and Wagyu/Kobe ground chuck when cooked as a medium-rare burger.
The difference is I can cook a Kobe burger medium and it still tastes like a regular hamburger cooked medium rare, and more time on the grill means more wood smoke.
I wouldn’t call $6 a pound “normal” or “far less” than $6.99. Regular ground chuck goes for $2.50 a pound at Target.
Also, recognize those prices will vary depending on which neck of the woods you’re in. Online, Harris Ranch sells hamburger patties for $9.67 a pound, while Snake River Farms has American Kobe hamburgers for $7.
To put these prices into perspective, for a 1/3 pounds burger, I’ll use $2.33 worth of wagyu beef. You’ll pay twice that much for a burger at Fuddrucker’s. Honestly, I spend more on the rolls, sides, and fuel than I do on the beef.