Why you should sous vide your burgers

Turns out that the sous vide cooking method is more than just a fancy way to cook complicated meals.

It's actually a great precursor to throwing your burger on the grill.

For those who aren't familiar with sous vide, it's a hands-off way to cook meats, vegetables, and eggs. Sous vide translates to "under vacuum" in French, and refers to the fact that you're cooking food in a vaccum-sealed bag in a bath of temperature-controlled water.

Basically, you set your sous vide device to the temperature you want your food to reach, and it makes sure that the water your food is cooking in stays at that temperature. In other words, it will cook your food to its desired doneness, very, very slowly.

While you may think that making burgers is easy enough, the argument for using the sous vide method is that it is a type of precision cooking, and will ensure that your burgers are perfectly juicy every time.

Also, grilling burgers or cooking them in a pan requires a fair amount of flipping to ensure that the burgers are cooked evenly, whereas sous viding involves almost no effort, and takes care of the toughest part: getting your burgers to reach the doneness you like.

All you have to do is drop your raw meat patties into bags, and then drop those bags into a bath of water, letting them sit for 15 to 30 minutes, depending on how you like your burger cooked. ChefSteps has a great recipe for this that also explains what doneness corresponds to what temperature (133F is fairly pink, 158F pretty well done).

Once your burgers hit their desired temperature, throw them on the grill - or in a pan on the stove - for a little under a minute to lock in the juiciness with a nice sear, and then you're done.

Just think of all the other things you can do while your burgers are sous viding!