Should I boil beef for burgers before marinating? [closed]

Do you have a fridge thermometer? Confirm that your fridge is below 40°F (~4°C). Preferably around 37°F (~2.5°C), or, if you're primarily storing meat, colder (you can actually go slightly below freezing). If your fridge is too warm, things will spoil much faster.

That said, when meat is ground, all the contaminants on the outside are mixed in. So the shelf life is quite limited. And as you work with it, you'll want to keep it cold (e.g., make sure your marinade is cold when you add it). That said, unless you have a really cold fridge (around 30°F/-1°C gives you another few days), ground meat should only be stored for a day or two. Of course, you can put it in a ziploc bag, and put that in an ice bath in the fridge to get almost that cold.

You should not boil the burgers, that will certainly make it safer, but the taste will be pretty bad. If you have a low-temp (sous vide) setup, you could pasteurize the formed patties at around 57°C, that should be fine. But you don't want to bring them to 100°C, that's certain!

If your marinade contains water, you can get it cold by substituting ice for some of the water (equal amount by weight).

So, my suggestions would be:

• check your fridge temperature
• buy the ground meat (or grind it yourself, whichever) on the day you plan to use it.
• If you want to marinate for more than a few hours (normally not needed with burgers, but...), make sure the marinade is cold. You need to keep everything below 40°F (4°C).
• If you really want to push it to keep for more than 2 days, store it in an ice bath in the fridge.

If you have the equipment, you can use low-temperature pasteurization to make it keep much longer. And also to safely serve a medium-rare burger.

Your question deals with food safety, more than anything else. Ground meat, should be kept only for a short time (1-2 days). If you manipulate it, do so just before cooking.

If it smells bad, you risk food poisoning or, in the least, a bad taste experience.

You can flavour (marinate) the ground beef before you shape the burger. That way, you add moist.

Do not boil (cook in water) a burger patty. You should grill or cook it in a frying pan with very little oil. The method is to get the grill (frying pan) hot, put the patty on for 3 minutes on each side. After that, you can lower the heat until the meat is done to your liking.