I was planning to make burgers with my IC today. And i was thinking about using sandwich bags. I thought if i used them i could just fill bag and cut burger out when done. They wouldnt be round burgers but that dont matter to me. My only question is will 136° be too hot for the bags?
Well, they really won’t be burgers if you don’t form the patties first. You’ll just have big lumps of ground beef - it would be like carving wood in terms of how you would achieve a burger shape after the fact.
The BIG problem with sandwich bags is that they’re really thin. They’re prone to failure. Ideally, you should only be using freezer bags when doing sous vide cooks.
That being said, have I used them for small items for short cooks? Yep. But, I’ve also had the bags fail and make the contents a watery mess.
That is what i was afraid of. I will just use a freezer bag.
Yeah, I’d use a freezer bag!
Scott_Anderson - You can get large “freezer bags” (or good quality reusable silicone bags) and fill them with ground meat, then roll the bag gently to spread the meat equally inside the bag to your desired thickness, ex: 0.5", 0.75", 1.0". For example, by using the dimensions of American cheese slices, score your portions by gently pressing a ruler (or pastry scraper) to mark/divide each portion once you’re satisfied with the thickness. Scored portions are easier to retrieve once cooked. Just don’t use a sharp blade to avoid perforating your bag. When pressing and shaping the meat, you must absolutely do it “very gently” so that it doesn’t get hard once cooked. Over-pressed ground meat can get hard as rubber as you surely know. The same method can be used for “freezing” pre-portioned ground meat. Don’t forget to press a small cavity in the centre of each portion with your thumb. This will keep the pâté from curling.
Note: If you have a scale, weigh your first batch once it is shaped to your liking and note the weight. This will make it so much easier for repeated batches, and will subsequently help you buy meat by weight while knowing in advance the exact yield you’ll get.
As others have pointed out, regular sandwich bags are too thin for sous vide, (they are not hermetic).
I’ve been freezing my ground meat this way for years and haven’t found a better way to pre-shape square burger pâtés. I also bake my own square burger buns the same way, by scoring the dough after the second rise in a 12" x 12" mould (yields 16x 3²" buns or 9x 4²" buns). By scoring the dough in advance, they will be very easy to tear apart once baked (just like commercial goods). Burgers can be any shape you want, of course.
Tip: If you enjoy steamed hot dogs, you can “heat” burger or hot-dog buns separately by inserting them in SV sealed bags and immersing them in your Anova bath ±10 minutes before the end of your SV meat session. (Steamed buns are succulent and require neither butter, nor toasting.)