Hamburger

[donalddohrman]

I make beef hamburger mixed with bacon about 60/40%. IT’s great.
One issue, the cure in the bacon turns the meat a grey color. It does not hurt the meat in any way, just looks grey. Is there a red coloring I can add to he meat while mixing to maintain the red color? Thanks Don

[JoeB]

I’ve used essence of paprika

[Joe Hell]

donalddohrman Beet powder might do the trick!

[johnsbrewhouse]

Tomato powder also

[Hawker]

I just add smoked paprika

[Hawker]

PS my mix is 80 20. Don’t like grease fires on my grill.

[Daniel Nolte]

as a old retired meat man with 50 years in meat operations. i would think that the season and smoke from the bacon is what is causing the meat to turn. as long as u keep the meat cold there should be ok. dan

[Pivodog]

Is it still grey after cooking or before?

[Jonathon]

donalddohrman I would say add more smoked paprika. I don;t know if the beet powder would work as the hamburger isn’t cured and the bacon is cured but cooked (138) already so I am not sure if it will work or not. If you mean that it turns it grey when you cook it that is just what a fully cooked burger looks like. If you are wanting the finished/cooked product you need to undercook it, which I don’t recommend. If you plan on not cooking a burger up to 160° then I strongly suggest you start with a whole chunk of meat, grind it and then go for it, when you are grinding it make sure EVERYTHING has been sanitized.

The reason a steak can be cooked to 130 inside and burger should be cooked to 160 is that very little bacteria or bad bugs live inside the muscle, almost all of it lives on the outside. So once you grind that, the things we are worried about are spread all the way through all the meat. In a steak once the inside is 130 the outside is well past 160

[JoeB]

Essence of paprika gives you the color without affecting the flavor… Easy to make w/olive oil or water and paprika Too much dry paprika can be bitter

[Jonathon]

Thanks JoeB didnt know that about the essence being better for this, appreciate it!

[JoeB]

Jonathon You do have to simmer the oil/pk mix then strain with cheese cloth /cool… I make it by the qt for coloring sausages. It’s also available commercial pre-made.

[Jonathon]

JoeB I kept reading that as oil/pork mix and I was super confused! Interesting, I just checked and it does get more expensive than just normal paprika, probably the extra processing, I guess that makes sense. I wonder what Paprika they use, is it the rejected stuff that they have found a way to process and make more money off of?

Can you give the oil to paprika ratio?

[JoeB]

Jonathon 1/4 cup Spanish PK (cheap) 1pt oil… Simmer slow and whisk. When you hit max dilution / extraction, the oil is the essence. Discard the PK. I store in a canning jar, the olive oil will not go rancid at rm temp. You can make it Light or dark, the darker you make it the less you have to use for coloring. Depends if you are working with light or dark meat batter and your personal goals

[Jonathon]

Thanks JoeB I am sure there are people here who can put that to good use! Since my failure on activated charcoal I have been thinking of what adding it to sausage would do for coloring. Not sure exactly why, outside of hallween, we would need to make a black sausage but I’m pretty sure this will work!

[Daniel Nolte]

use black cake color

[Jonathon]

Daniel Nolte Yeah, that would almost certainly work better wouldn’t it…okay so I guess activated charcoal was just a total swing and miss, no idea why I am so annoyed that it didn’t work but I am. I was really hopeful this would work.

[JoeB]

Jonathon happy it’s of use to you. I use it often for hotdogs & polish sausage. Darker without changing taste. As you Sausage warriors know Presentation is 59% of the win. It’s sometimes in the 5th or 6th line of ingredients for commercial products. May be called natural color and flavoring

[JoeB]

Hawker saves on gas