Posted on 07/28/2022 1:04:02 PM PDT by Red Badger
If you have a hankering for a hamburger, math may have some timesaving cooking tips for you.
Increasing the number of times a burger is flipped from one side to the other reduces its cook time by up to nearly a third, theoretical calculations suggest. But cooks at home probably won’t see much benefit out of more than three to four flips, mathematician Jean-Luc Thiffeault reports June 17 in Physica D.
Thiffeault used math to model how heat moves through an “infinite” slab of meat, which cooks continuously on only the bottom side and cools on the top until the meat is flipped. Flipping heated the meat evenly, speeding up cooking, the analysis showed. And more flips led to a faster cook. For example, flipping this theoretical 1-centimeter-thick patty just once gave it a cook time of 80 seconds, while flipping it 10 times at intervals ranging from six to 11 seconds resulted in a cook time of 69 seconds. Continuing to flip the burger led to a maximum decrease of 29 percent in cooking time.
But the timesaving benefit seemed to diminish as the number of flips increased beyond a certain threshold, says Thiffeault, of the University of Wisconsin–Madison. “After three or four flips, the gain in time is negligible.”
Thiffeault’s findings align with what chef and food writer J. Kenji López-Alt has observed in the kitchen. In a 2019 article for the food and drink website Serious Eats, Kenji López-Alt compared how long it took for a burger’s internal temperature to reach about 52° Celsius, or 125° Fahrenheit, based on cooking method. Flipping a burger every 15 seconds — as opposed to flipping the patty just once — shortened cooking time by nearly a third.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencenews.org ...
Not sure I could explain the physics of it, I was trained as a 15 year old by Hardees when the burgers were charbroiled grilled by hand. At lunch rush, I could have 30 burgers going at once. These were frozen beef patties so that may have something to do with it. But like other have said, you would put them down and wait until the juice was flowing out one side, then flip them and wait till the other side was sweating.
Its probably sacrilege to a purist, but I prefer to start with the frozen patties. When I make my own from fresh ground beef, they tend to fall apart.
You dont need to flip it to get the cross pattern, just turn it.
I agree. My grill has a thermometer built into the top lid, and it’s amazing how much heat is lost and how quickly as well. Leaving that lid on as long as possible will finish them faster.
My burgers have no centimeters.
Ain’t taken no grillin’ advice from some egghead college mathlete....thanks anyway 👍
Why not just rotisserie cook them for continuous flipping?
“At 11 second intervals 110 seconds “
Intervals ranging from 6 to 11 seconds.
I just read a release from McDonalds with their earnings report where they said automating the fast food system isn’t looking like a good economic payback, FWIW.
“I want an outdoor gas griddle”
Been considering that myself.....was at lowes today.....they’re proud of ‘em that’s for sure.
Dang it, y’all are making want to go spend a little money! I have 3 general types of outdoor cooking appliances. Why not a fourth!?
That’s what I do, too.
That’s what most people do but the cook/chef that was teaching Mike Rowe did it this way. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TePYZWgtaak (1 minute vid)
Maybe the chef knew about the faster cooking by flipping thing.
This was for steaks, not burgers but it should apply to either.
Yep that’s the way I was taught!
Or put ‘em in a fish grilling basket, that way you can flip ‘em AND get the grill marks all at the same time.
If I flip too soon, the damn things fall apart.
Between a burger press and a grill basket, you'd be all set.
Burger Press:
https://www.amazon.com/Non-Stick-Aluminum-Hamburger-Essential-Accessories/dp/B081NTHV8K/ref=asc_df_B081NTHV8K?tag=bngsmtphsnus-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=80882941400084&hvnetw=s&hvqmt=e&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=&hvtargid=pla-4584482468539730&psc=1
Grill Basket:
https://www.amazon.com/Corona-Accessories-Hamburger-Locking-Grilling/dp/B072QLBTT1
IR laser in the 40 watt range.
Gentle touch to determine how soft they are, which tells you how cooked they are.
A friend has one and he uses it all the time. He was cooking burgers one night, a bear came out of the woods and made a beeline for the grill. His Rhodesian Ridge hounds went nuts and the bear made a hasty retreat.
So the griddle is bear approved. We have a bear on the property with cubs so I figure my grill is probably due to be destroyed.
I worked in a restaurant in college and food on the griddle is better than a grill with just a few exceptions. You cook with the fat on a griddle. Grilling with gas has never impressed me that much.
Secret I learned from a soda jerk in his 80’s. Boil your hot dogs for a few minutes then roll them around on the griddle.
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