Tag Archives: Hamburger

Hamburger doesn’t have to be shoe leather — stick it in

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The editorial dudes at the N.Y. Times write in an, uh, editorial, that eating a hamburger should not be a death-defying experience.

Too often it is. As Michael Moss wrote in The Times recently, E. coli sickens thousands of people annually, including a young dance teacher named Stephanie Smith, who was paralyzed after eating a contaminated hamburger. Her case offers a poignant reminder that President Obama and Congress need to quickly fill the safety gaps in food production. …

Already too much of the burden for food safety falls on consumers who are advised to cook hamburgers into shoe leather to kill off any dangerous germs. But even that is not enough because it is too easy for raw ground beef to leave behind toxic traces in the kitchen.

Cross-contamination is a serious issue, as repeatedly pointed out on this blog and in our research. But no one has to cook to shoe leather. Live confidently with a meat thermometer, and stick it in until 160F.
 

Costco, Tyson, reach new deal on testing for dangerous E. coli

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The N.Y. Times is reporting in tomorrow’s editions that retail giant Costco has struck a new accord on testing for the pathogen E. coli.

Costco’s food safety director and seemingly decent dude, Craig Wilson, said the company would begin buying beef trimmings for making hamburger from Tyson, one of the largest beef producers, after an agreement reached with Tyson this week that allows Costco to test the trimmings before they are mixed with those from other suppliers.

The United States Department of Agriculture has encouraged such testing as a way to make hamburger safer, but some of the largest slaughterhouses have resisted the added scrutiny for fear that one grinder’s discovery of E. coli will lead to expanded recalls of beef sent to other grinders, The New York Times reported Sunday.

Costco is one of the few large grinders to test ingredients for the pathogen as they arrive at its plant, and Mr. Wilson said Tyson had declined to sell trimmings to the company, citing its testing.

A Tyson spokesman has declined to respond to the accusation, but said that the company did not prohibit grinders from testing and that some of its customers did conduct some of their own testing, beyond the testing that Tyson performs.

Our medium rare burgers are safe, hubris edition

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During my graduate studies Doug introduced me to the term hubris: overconfident pride and arrogance resulting in some sort of hardship.

I think hubris first came up when I scored a goal in a weekly pick-up hockey game, discussed how great I was, and then on the very next play gave up the puck resulting in a goal against.

As a response to Sunday’s New York Times article by Michael Moss profiling a 2007 ground beef linked outbreak of E. coli O157:H7, the Washington City Paper asked a few restaurateurs what they thought about the story. 

As part of the series of interviews, Mark Bucher, founder and co-owner of BGR: The Burger Joint offered up his hubris-y take on why his business was sure that their sub-160F burgers are safe.

Bucher: We source only Prime Beef, which is the top 2% of all beef produced in the U.S. Our beef comes from corn-fed Midwestern farms. The beef is transported to Baltimore for processing at a very small 3rd generation family-owned facility (that actually processes Kosher beef), so their standards are much higher than the USDA’s. Our processor only produces burgers for us and for no one else. It’s an artisinal process, from start to finish. We test our beef very frequently for bacteria strains.  As recently as last week, we tested our product as part of our normal quality control, and it came back completely 100% perfect.

Our beef is safe to eat, and our burgers are “gorgeous” at medium-rare. I have no issues or questions about the safety of our ground beef. I am 1000% confident of the source, the muscles used, and the processing techniques.

Can’t infrequently test your way to safe food Mark; no matter how many thousands or millions of percent you are confident in the source. Sure, testing is one step you can take to know more about your products but sampling is a bit of a lottery.  The only way to ensure safety is to stick it in.

Stick it in to tell if a hamburger is safe – with a thermometer; color and poking and pieces of metal are unreliable

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Sorenne did not sleep last night.

There was seemingly nothing to console her, and I was up much of the night.

But I’m getting some payback now as she enters the third hour of her nap, and decided a homemade hamburger with grilled corn and salad would make a decent lunch for myself. Coupled with the season premier of Californication on the recorderer, I was set.

Except I didn’t have Californication because I can’t tape it until tonight because Amy just had to watch and tape the season premier of The Amazing Race in case she missed a minute of the zzzzzzzzzzzz action.

And then I got this how-to-cook-a-hamburger advice by the geniuses at epicurious, forwarded by my friend Mike.

James Oliver Cury reveals his burger snobbery by suggesting those in search of a medium-rare burger – whatever that is – avoid “low-end” eateries because high-end eateries use higher quality beef and “preparation methods are superior: clean, safe, reliable.”

Guess he’s never heard of The Fat Duck.

In a linked story about burgers, the poke test for doneness is promoted:

“Medium-rare is softly yielding, medium is semifirm, well-done is firm."

 Another says he prefers the visual approach, judging by the juices:

"When they start to come out of the top of the burger, it’s medium. When the juices that have oozed out of the top get cooked (stop looking red and become a bit more clear), it’s medium-well."

A tip-sensitive thermometer is the only accurate way to determine whether a hamburger has been safely cooked to 160F.

Sorenne woke up before I could finish this, so I changed the TV in the background to something more child-friendly than, No Country For Old Men – Goodfellas was on AMC — and safely fed her some leftovers.
 

Hamburgers and how to tell if they’re done – the Netherlands version

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A bites-barfblog reader from the Netherlands sent along this 2008 video, which has an English-speaking bit with a self-proclaimed hamburger professor in New York (New Amsterdam?) demonstrating the touch-the-hand method of determining whether a hamburger is properly cooked (note: this technique is complete BS).

The technique in question appears about five minutes in.

http://player.omroep.nl/?aflID=8030954
 

Evan Henke: For the Jucy Lucy and stuffed burgers, the food safety jury is still out

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Evan Henke, a student at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health (right, sorta as shown), writes in this guest barfblog.com post:

During a recent trip to a Minneapolis restaurant, I ordered what is perhaps Minneapolis’s most significant contribution to the culinary world: the “Jucy Lucy.”

Legend has it that the Lucy, a hamburger with cheese stuffed inside of the beef patty before cooking (right, not exactly as shown), was invented in Minneapolis, although debate still rages as to which burger joint was the first to offer the Lucy to its customers. As I bit into the Lucy, I noticed that the center of the burger was quite undercooked, and I did not notice the use of a thermometer on the nearby grill. I immediately wondered what effect stuffing the cheese inside of the patty had on the survival of foodborne pathogens during the cooking process.

Maybe the added weight of the cheese would better insulate the side of the burger exposed to the surface grill compared to cooking a normal patty of equal thickness without flipping. Maybe any added moisture in the cheese would help kill any pathogen present in the beef, as long as the moisture was present.

But the true food safety implications of stuffing a ground beef patty with cheese or other ingredients are not well documented (left, not exactly as shown). The amounts of fat and water that escape from the cheese during cooking are not documented, and how those amounts affect the survival of foodborne pathogens present in the patty is unclear. It has been documented that E. coli O157:H7 shows increased resistance to heat in patties with higher fat and lower moisture contents[1]. It is possible that the composition of a stuffed burger, depending on the stuffing and fat and moisture content of the ground beef, could favor the survival of foodborne pathogens relative to a burger with no stuffing.

In a world of foods that taste delicious but can be deleterious to your health, the Jucy Lucy and stuffed burgers sizzle in mystery. How the addition of cheese to the center of the patty affects the survival of foodborne pathogens ought to be documented, not just for the health of my fellow Minneapolitans, but for the health of burger eaters everywhere. And of course, thermometer use is recommended whenever preparing ground beef.

The Make Your Own Jucy Lucy video is included below http://heavytable.com/make-your-own-jucy-lucy/. Warning: Conventional safe cooking technique not displayed in video.

Evan Henke is a student at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health pursuing a Master’s degree in Environmental Health. An avid fan of foodborne disease epidemiology and food safety, he spends most of his free time angering his friends with his knowledge of the food chain and careful scrutiny of food safety practices.

1. Ahmed, Nahed M., Donald E. Conner, and Dale L. Huffman. "Heat-Resistance of Escherichia Coli O157:H7 in Meat and Poultry as Affected by Product Composition." Journal of Food Science 60.3 (1995): 606-10.

 

Making Your Own Jucy Lucys from The Heavy Table on Vimeo.

Yahoo Food sucks at food safety advice

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Among the six most common ways to ruin a burger, which Yahoo Food is promoting ahead of Labor Day, is this nose-stretcher:

Overcooking: This should be a crime recognized by the federal government. For the popular medium-rare, grill the meat exactly three minutes on one side (keeping the grill lid closed) and two minutes on the other. If you’re going to add cheese, let it melt on top for another minute (and keep that cover closed!).  We like our burgers medium rare, so much we’ve even sent them back at restaurants when they go beyond medium.

Nonsense. Using time make no allowances for variation in grill temperature, thickness of the hamburger patty and composition of the hamburger. A tip-sensitive digital thermometer is the only way to get a burger to the correct temperature of 160F, without overcooking.

Thanks to the barfblog reader who sent along the tip.

France: Recall of Carrefour Discount brand frozen hamburger patties

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The bites/barfblog French team of correspondent Albert Amgar and Manhattan (Kansas) translators Abby Herald and Amy Hubbell have provided news of the latest E. coli related recall from France, this time in Carrefour Discount Frozen Hamburger Patties (right).

Product recalled by: Carrefour

Department: Food and Drinks

Brand: Carrefour

Product: Lot Number/Serial Number: The aim of this recall is for lot number IE 565 EC with a “best by” date of August 5th, 2010.

Reason for recall: Discovery of contamination by the E.coli bacteria

Recommendation: Consumers having bought this product are asked not to consume it.

Place of recall: Consumers who have purchased the product are asked to bring it back to the store where they will be reimbursed.

Additional information: Carrefour states that they have received no consumer complaints. According to the distributer this bacteria is destroyed at a temperature of 65° C (149° F) and the hamburgers are of no risk if they have been thoroughly cooked. The products related to this recall have been removed from Carrefour, Carrefour Market and Champion stores.

Consumer Hotline: For more information, call the toll free hotline 0 805 90 80 70

Again, the recommended cooking temperature seems low, and it’s really risky to say there’s no-risk with any product. Cross-contamination in any food preparation area is a huge issue. That’s why everyone tries to get the pathogens out, rather than blaming the cook.
 

Barth and the Health Inspector featuring Alanis Morissette

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Canadian actor Les Lye passed away in July at the age of 84, but Don Scaffner just sent me his classic bit, Barth and the Health Inspector featuring Alanis Morissette, from the Ottawa kids TV show, You Can’t Do That On Television.

For those unfamiliar, the premise of every Barth sketch is as follows: Barth is the proprietor of a burger joint, Barth’s Burgers, frequented by the show’s cast presumably by government mandate as Canada, of course, is widely known for its socialized burger program. The burgers are of such vile quality that the kids are compelled to speculate as to the source of the eponymous meat, to which the ill-sanitized restauranteur responds “D’Iyyyyyyye heard that!” then betrays his recipe as being primarily human-based. Then everyone vomits theatrically and with exaggerated gesticulations.
 

Stick it in for safety

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The first thing I bought when we arrived in Florida a couple of weeks ago was a meat thermometer: groceries, wine, toilet paper – and a digital, tip-sensitive meat thermometer.

Can’t cook burgers without them.

Yesterday I ventured from our Venice Beach hideaway to the University of Florida in Gainesville to hang out with my friend Michael Batz and deliver a seminar at the Emerging Pathogens Institute about food safety culture stuf.

Michael and I went to lunch at some Spanish/Cuban place that seemed quite friendly, so, being the nerd I am, I ordered a hamburger.

The server asked me how I would like it, and I asked, what are my options?

She said however I wanted it (that’s really what she said).

I said, 160 F.

She said, we don’t do that.

I said, well-done.

Stick it in.