Grilling frozen beef patties on a gas grill

[Lazarus52980]

Background: I volunteer at a ministry for my church were we fix peoples cars for them. It has been customary that at the end of the work day, someone "grills" (see burns) hamburgers for the workers before they leave. With a recent changeover of leadership, I have been asked to be the one to grill the burgers.

The question is this: How do I season and cook decent burgers in this scenario?

My plan is to bring my Tatonka dust to help, but can anyone give me some grilling advice? I don't normally do much grilling...

[Snarlingiron]

The biggest issue is to season them well. Salt, pepper, a little garlic powder. Tatonka dust is good. Don't over cook them. Paraphrasing Anthony Bourdain, the indication of a good burger is bloody grease on the plate after you take a bite.

[HawgHeaven]

When you see juice start to pool on the top of the burgers, flip them. When you see juice again, they are done. TD will rock those burgers...

[Lazarus52980]

Not that I will have a thermometer with me, but about how hot do I cook them, assuming I have "Low, low-medium, medium, medium-high, and high.

[chefrob]

cook them until they are done.....the last thing you want to do is to make someone sick.

[Snarlingiron]

Not that I will have a thermometer with me, but about how hot do I cook them, assuming I have "Low, low-medium, medium, medium-high, and high.

If you go in with high heat on frozen patties you will likely have burned exteriors in order to get the inside done. I would go medium and take a little more time to let them thaw a bit. This is probably why your predecessor burned them.

[Fishawn]

If you go in with high heat on frozen patties you will likely have burned exteriors in order to get the inside done. I would go medium and take a little more time to let them thaw a bit. This is probably why your predecessor burned them.

X2. Or indirect to thaw, then direct heat to finished temps, if you have that option.

[curious aardvark]

I ALWAYS cook burgers and sausages to temp these days.

I'm not a fan of raw meat in burgers (see the 'greasy blood' comment above) and if cooking from frozen you want to make sure there's no blood - it needs to be cooked !

Luke warm raw meat = meeting your meal again a short time later on it's way out !

Usually take them to 150f - you don't need a thermo pen - one of the cheapo $10 chinese jobs works fine. or better still - one of these :-)
Cheap enough that you can keep one by the work grill all the time.
In fact just ordered one as my thermopen has dodgy lcd.


Temp wise I tend to cook on a fairly high heat and flip frequently.
First two flips are longer than subsequent flips as you want to develop a slight crust and seal the juices. Also stops them sticking.

Alternative after developing the crust you can put them on a cooler section for a longer cook - just make sure they're cooked to temp. Blood from frozen burgers = ideal bacterial growing conditions.
It's not simply that I can't stand anthony bourdain (won't pretend otherwise, the man's a total arse) - but frozen food needs to be cooked all the way through - especially ground meat products.
The biggest causes of food poisoning are under cooked frozen burgers and sausages.

Always make my own burgers so have never needed to season the outside - but if you're doing that - do it towards the end. otherwise the spice will burn and become bitter.
Same deal with steaks - add salt at start and pepper etc at the end.


Commerical burgers will have loads of salt in anyway. Plus putting salt on the outside of raw burger draws the moisture out before you can seal it in.

And yes I do always cook my burgers on the bbq from frozen.
Just easier and gives a better result. That said my burgers are thicker than commercial burgers -so adjust according to thickness :-)

[Snarlingiron]

While i favor medium rare on me burger, it definitely does depend on the freshness and quality of the meat. Point well taken.

[PitRow]

If they're frozen I would tend to favor indirect heat until they're thawed, then direct heat as someone mentioned above. One word of caution is to make sure they're ready before you try to flip/move them. I have a friend how always grills those el' cheapo premade frozen burger patties and tries to flip them before they're even close to ready and they just crumble and fall apart.

If you can, I would start them off indirect, with the burners under them off and the rest on, until they're thawed, then switch so the burners under them are on and the rest off, or low. That way you can go from indirect heat to direct without having to move them and have them fall apart. Once they've had direct heat for a while they should firm up enough to start flipping as usual.

Edit to add: if they're pretty thin, you might think about starting them off on a griddle or pan. Otherwise as they thaw they have a tendency to start drooping through the grates and falling apart on their own.

[dsgarner06]

Medium to medium high heat always works well for me. For frozen patties, I would probably go with medium to ensure they get cooked on the inside and the outside isn't burned. Seasoning is important... salt and pepper at the very least... garlic powder adds nice flavor too. TD is typically what I like on my burgers as it rocks burgers like no other!

[IrishChef]

Seems like temps have been covered, but If you season a frozen patty, the seasoning won't stick as well as it would if it was a thawed surface. In addition, a frozen surface will cause condensation of all the vaporized grease and other volatile stuff(ie bad flavor) on the outside of the patty. If you can let those burgers thaw a bit before hitting the grill, you'd be doing yourself a huge favor....

Good luck!

[Fishawn]

Grilling frozen beef patties on a gas grill

Seems like temps have been covered, but If you season a frozen patty, the seasoning won't stick as well as it would if it was a thawed surface. In addition, a frozen surface will cause condensation of all the vaporized grease and other volatile stuff(ie bad flavor) on the outside of the patty. If you can let those burgers thaw a bit before hitting the grill, you'd be doing yourself a huge favor....



Good luck!

X2



I cook for family parties for 25-40 people usually..... I try to put off the grilling of the frozen Costco sirloin burgers as long as I can to help them thaw as much as possible.... Then, folks start asking "what time are the burgers gonna be done?"



So, you gotta start getting after it OR, you're gonna have folks hovering around the grill.... Not good!



Get them thawed oot if you can before you start



As IC mentioned, if you gotta start from frozen, season them after they start to thaw for best results IMO. Take note of hot spots on the grill. The gas grill I cook on for family events has its own hot spots (rear, its built into a concrete countertop) so rotating burgers is a must.



I did donate a sweet old 22.5" Weber kettle to the cooking cabana area, which was used for Filets only last thyme, as it cooks evenly and is more predictable

Started with 12, somebody wanted one at ULTRA RARE!..... I think it was aboot 115 IT

[Lazarus52980]

I just realized that I never got back to everyone here. I wanted to let you know that the burgers went over great! The only issue happened when they apparently leaked so much fat into the grill (they were 75-25 burgers) that the whole bottom of the grill was on fire. On the plus side, I cooked the last set of burgers with the grill turned off and just "coasting" on the internal flames.

[eccj]

Thumbs up!