Smoked burgers questions

[plawlor]

Hi everyone,

Reading some of the posts about burgers, I thought I'd give it a try myself.  I tried four very large burgers -- about 3/4 lb each.  I used extra lean ground beef and a recipe that included BBQ sauce, Worchester sauce, an egg, pepper, garlic salt, and onion salt.  Put the burgers in the Bradley at 225F with Maple smoke.  It took 3.5 hrs to get to an IT of 155F -- let the smoke flow for 2 hrs.  The temp stalled at 137F for a good 90 mins of that time.  I hear this is normal.  Is that right?  I then transferred to a hot BBQ where I put on some BBQ sauce and melted the cheese -- probably for no more than 10 mins.

The result was pretty good. Flavor was great. My only criticism is that they were a little drier around the edges than I would have liked. What should I do differently next time? Lower the target IT to 150F? Use beef with more fat content? Different recipe? Smaller burgers :(? Anything else?

BTW, I also smoked some extra thick cut uncooked bacon that was cut fresh from a local butcher alongside the burgers. Fantastic on top of the burger!

Thanks,
Peter

[manfromplaid]

i did burgers with a simular mix except just lean ground. used hickory smoke. when i did my mix brought meat to room temp in the microwave formed patties at about 1/4 lb got to IT of 155 in 1 hr. have 2 events planned for this weekend and getting ready to smoke 3 dozen burgers. hope they turn out as well as the first batch.

[Habanero Smoker]

The stall you see at around 140°F, generally is much shorter in time. This is when the proteins begin to denature and collagen begins to shrink; thus squeezing the cells and releasing a lot of moisture. I've never seen it last over 30 minutes, but that was when I use to monitor the temperature more closely, and it was solid muscle. Ground meat may have it's on particular properties, causing a longer stall.

If you are transferring to a grill to finish cooking them, try transferring them after you have applied the 2 hours of smoke.

[TedEbear]

What should I do differently next time? Lower the target IT to 150F? Use beef with more fat content? Different recipe? Smaller burgers :(? Anything else?

According to the USDA you should always cook ground beef to no less than an IT of 160*F.

Ground Beef and Food Safety

[BoxcarBetts]

I only did burgers once and although I'm not sure this was right (I queried the forum but didn't get an answer - probably because I bumped an old thread), I cold smoked mine for about 1hr20 then refrigerated them before I threw them on the grill.  I figure this is fine cos you keep them in the danger zone for less than 2 hours and being fairly raw coming out of the smoker, they cooked perfectly on the grill.

[WoodlawnSmoker]

I do burgers quite often on the Bradley with a similar recipe.  Although I grind my own beef for burgers, I have found that 1 1/2 hours of smoke is plenty, then finish up on the BBQ.  Maybe try a temp of 250 F in the Bradley to get them up faster.