Modernist Hamburgers****
So last night I did indeed make the Modernist Hamburgers! There are a ton of variations on this... and I didn't use most of them. But I will tell you what I did. This is something I definitely will make again, and I will certain refine it greatly. I took the base of the recipe from the Modernist Cuisine at Home book.
I bought 9 Angus Beef 1/2 pound premade patties at Smith's Grocery. I asked them if they could grind me a specific mixture of meat I wanted, but they needed me to buy 14 lbs of the stuff to make it worth while. So I'm going to have to invest in a grinder. Without that I just bought the premade patties.
I salted them and put them in refrigerator for 1 full hour (covered with saran wrap) while I heated the water bath to 55 degrees Celsius. I prepared 9 small zip lock bags, putting a teaspoon of vegetable oil in each one.
At the end of the hour... took the meat out of the refrigerator and put one each in the nine zip lock bags. I dipped the bags in a pot of water to get all the air out (this is explained in depth in the Modernist Cookbook). Then i put them right into the water bath. I let them list there for about 2 hours. It said it takes about 45 minutes for them to be done, but... i let them sit longer. It doesn't hurt. They can't get overcooked.
I got some buns, painted them with melted butter, and browned them under the broiler. I managed to overcook them slightly.
Then I pulled the hamburgers from the bags, dried them, and dropped them in a basket of boiling Vegetable Oil to deep fry them for 30 seconds. I took them out, patted them dry, salted them again, and put a piece of cheese on top (I used Tillamook Sharp Cheddar). Once all six were deep fried, I then put them under the broiler with the cheese for about 30 seconds to 1 minute. It melted the cheese nicely.
Then... we took them out and started building our burgers. The reviews were outstanding... but there are a few areas I want to explore to expand on the taste. First I want to grind my own meat and use my own meat blend. I want to season the meat as I want to season it. I want to make homemade hamburger buns as the Modernists suggest. I want to try grilling the meat instead of deep frying when ti comes out of the water bath. I want to use a Modernist Cheese making method for cheese! Yes, I know... quiet ambitious! We'll get there and I'll report on it all!
Till then, this version was fantastic. Perfectly cooked meat with condiments was just amazing.
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