Can you use baking soda for hamburger patties?

If you’re looking for a way to save money while cooking, then you might want to try using baking soda instead of salt. It’s cheap, easy to find, and has a variety of uses.

Baking soda is an ingredient that you’ll find in almost every kitchen. It’s used to make bread rise, clean ovens, and even remove stains from clothing.

But did you know that you can also use it to make hamburgers taste better? You probably already have some on hand! In this episode of Apartment Therapy’s YouTube channel, host Sanjay Sarma shows us how he mixes up his own homemade burger mix with ingredients like baking soda and spices.

He says the burgers are so good they actually inspired him to quit buying store-bought ground beef and go all natural at home. Plus, we learn about other ways to add more flavor to your food without relying on expensive seasonings or sauces.

Can Baking Soda Be Used in Hamburger Patties? Yes, you simply immerse the meat in a baking soda solution for a few minutes to raise the pH of the meat. By doing so, the surface of the meat collects and retains water while cooking, speeding up the Mailliard reaction.

Baking soda is well-known for its ability to tenderize tough meat. This means that you can use baking soda to enhance the flavor and deliciousness of hamburger patties.

Baking soda is an alkaline powder that is white in color. Sodium bicarbonate is the active element in baking soda. It reacts by creating carbon dioxide, which aids in the tenderness and fluffiness of meat or cakes.
Nothing beats a well-browned patty, and when preparing hamburger patties, baking soda will bring this science to the kitchen.

This is the cameralization precursor, and the baking soda ensures that the ground beef remains moist and soft when cooked.

Using a baking soda and water solution to tenderize meat works differently than using brine. Baking soda neutralizes acid and raises the pH level on the surface of the meat, leading the meat to become more alkaline on the outside. This chemical reaction makes it more difficult for the proteins within the flesh to tighten up, and when proteins are unable to join together, the meat remains soft when cooked rather than constricting and toughening.

Using a baking soda solution to tenderize your hamburger is faster than using a saltwater brine. Meat only needs to be immersed in a baking soda solution for 15 to 20 minutes, but a brine solution can take up to 30 minutes to begin functioning. Furthermore, soaking the meat in baking soda for an extended period of time will not harm it, whereas over-brining meat can cause it to become stringy and mushy.

Read Also: What can I use instead of offset spatula

How to use baking soda to make hamburgers?

There are two ways to apply baking soda to ground meat. The first is to produce a baking soda solution and slather it over your meat.

Allow for a 15-minute resting period. Alternatively, you can rub the baking soda powder into the meat.

Allow it to sit for a few minutes or place it in the refrigerator. Make careful to thoroughly clean your meat before cooking to remove any baking soda.

To produce a solution for 12 ounces of beef, combine 14 teaspoon baking soda and a pint of water.

Why does adding baking soda to hamburger speed up the cooking time?

The baking soda (which is quite basic) elevates the pH of the meat, preventing the proteins from attaching excessively (and hence squeezing water out); this maintains everything tender and avoids that pool of liquid from forming. The drier the pan, the faster your food will brown, but alkaline surroundings are considered more suitable for the Maillard reaction—the “chemical interaction amino acids and reducing sugars” that gives browned food its look and flavor.

Baking soda can also be added to slices of meat. ATK advises 1/4 teaspoon for 12 ounces of ground beef and a whole teaspoon every 12 ounces of sliced meat.

Mixing the baking soda with a tablespoon or two of water will help disperse it more evenly (especially if you’re dealing with sliced stuff), but I found the “sprinkle and run” method to be pretty successful with ground items.

Toss the raw meat with the bicarb (I just pushed it about with a wooden spoon), wait 15 minutes (additional time will not increase the baking soda’s effects), then cook as usual.