Everyone should know how to cook burgers for a crowd, unless you’re absolutely sure you’ll never throw a backyard barbecue. Or, unless you’re absolutely sure you’ll never be at someone else’s backyard barbecue, and will want to tell them that they’re doing it all wrong. 😉

Social Learning:

What you’re creating with the baking dish, rack, foil, and oven is a make-shift steam table. It’s important that you get this right – hot liquid, a good seal on the foil, and an oven warm enough to create steam in the covered baking dish without raising the heat so high that you’ll bake the burgers. If you do get it right, when it’s time to serve the burgers and you remove the foil, obvious puffs of steam should escape. The burgers should be glistening with moisture, and they should feel obvious pliable as you lift each of them out of the pan to place on a bun. I strongly recommend you do a trial run with a few burgers, to practice this a few weeks ahead of time.

Everyday Cooking:

I’m serving burgers using this method for my annual summer barbecue this year, to 30+ guests. That’s a once-a-year thing for me, so I guess this recipe is, by definition, “special occasion.” But these aren’t really “special occasion” burgers. They’re everyday burgers – but very good ones. What’s special about this post is that I’ve borrowed ideas from the catering world that allow me to make very good backyard burgers for a crowd with logisitical perfection that does not require too heavy a lift. You certainly could fancy-up these burgers if you wanted to. I’d rather save that for a time when I have only a couple of guests.

You may feel strongly that the only way to correctly barbecue is to serve the burgers no more than five mintues after they leave the grill. I agree if the number of guests is equal to or lesser than the number of burgers you can grill at once. If it isn’t, you wind up either serving your guests in shifts. Or cold burgers. Or worse yet, having guests wait in line, looking over your shoulder, telling you just exactly how they want their burger done. You’ll get it the way I make them, folks. I do make them medium rare, and anyone who wants one done more, they’re welcome return theirs to the grill on their own for a few minutes. (I’ll do it for them, maybe. 😉 )

Burgers held in the oven this way are really good – not at all second-rate or “leftover.” There is no cost that I can perceive in terms of texture or flavor. As often as I’ve tested this, the burger that comes out of the oven two hours later is just as good as the one that comes right off the grill. This allows you to plan to finish grilling the burgers just as guests are expected to arrive, and serve them an hour later (with padding time in case you need it). 

The only caveat is that they need to be well-seasoned when they hit the grill. Make a trial run a few weeks ahead of time, to be sure you’ve got the seasoning right. 

Ingredients:

• You can make your own burgers and freeze them (which you should research before trying). You may be able to buy them pre-made fresh and freeze them. Or you can buy pre-made, already-frozen burgers.
• Grilling them frozen will make it easier to get a fantastic sear without overcooking the inside. Another advantage of grilling frozen burgers is that you can make or buy them way, way, way in advance – hopefully when you’ve caught them on sale, which for mid-summer, might be Memorial Day.
• It’d be nice if you could match your bun count to your burger count exactly, but I wish someone wold explain to me why frozen burgers come in six packs, while buns come in eight packs.
• If you are buying premade, frozen burger patties, consider having a few of those packs be turkey burgers. Some of your guests are likely to prefer it, and turkey is a lot less expensive than beef.
• If you’re making cheeseburgers, get two 24 packs of sliced cheese. American is the correct choice, but do as you will. Maybe swap out a small amount of that American with Swiss. I won’t fault you for that. Some people won’t want cheese, some people will want double cheese; 24 slices should take care of that. If you have leftover cheese, well, when was the last time you made yourself a nice grilled cheese?

Cooking Tips:

Whenever holding hot food for service, educate yourself about food safety and don’t rely on my opinion. 

Leftovers:

You should have leftover burgers when you’re done feeding your crowd. You never want to have exactly the number of burgers that you need, for fear that if you miscalculate, you could wind up with not enough food. Burgers actually leftover quite well. Refrigerate the cooked patties all by themselves, undressed, unbunned. When you’re ready, pop a bun in the toaster on a very light setting. While that’s going on, microwave a patty for 30 seconds, or as much as a minute, interrupting the microwave when it’s got about 10-15 seconds left to add cheese, if that’s what you want. You won’t be disappointed. It’ll be a bit more done than it originally was, but it beats a cold cut sandwich hands down.

Servings for 30 People:

For a large party, plan on 1.66 burgers per person, depending on how extensive the appetizers are, how many sides there’ll be, and how long you expect the party to last. Not everyone will eat two, but almost everyone will eat at least one. Here’s a sample breakdown for a 30-person party: multiply 30 by 1.66, round up, allocate 20% of the burgers to the 1-burger crowd, 25% to the 1.5-burger crowd, and 15% to the 2-burger crowd. Then, look it over, hem and haw a bit, and adjust the calculation if you know your guests well enough to make a better estimate.  

Guest Type	Estimated Consumption	Total Count
Light Eaters / Kids	1 Burger	10 (20%)
Average Eaters	1.5 Burgers	25 (50%)
Hearty Eaters	2 Burgers	15 (30%)
Total Recommended		50 Burgers

At a backyard BBQ, people tend to graze. Someone might have one burger immediately and then go back for a second “snack” burger 45 minutes later. Some people won’t. That’s how one-burger people turn into one-and-a-half-burger people.

If you have heavy sides (like potato salad, pasta salad, or baked beans), people will lean closer to the one-burger-per-person mark. If the burgers are the main event with just chips, definitely lean toward two per person.

Plan to leave 30 minutes to light your charcoal and get it to the right state for grilling. I grill my burgers five minutes on one side, 2½-3 on the other. (The second side always needs less time than the first side, unless you want your burger well done.) Obviously, these timings will vary, depending on the size, shape, and weight of your burgers, and the nature of your particular grill set-up. 

Andrew Weiler + 1, Erin Bennett + 2, Youlim Chung, Johan Botes, Jocelyn Swigger + 1, Mary Siciliano, McKenna Girdeen, Nick Phillips, Gayle & E.L., Maria Grant

You want fries with that?

Actually, no. I will have substantial sides, though: baked beans and pasta salad. I’ll also serve five family-size bags of chips before dinner, two watermelons with dinner, and I’ll have two large bags of ice around for beverages.

Burgers for a Crowd

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