Cooking Hamburgers in a Concession Stand

[songofpraise]

Hi, just new to this site and have two days to come up with a way to cook frozen 1/4 pound hamburgers with only a microwave and a toaster oven at my disposal. The previous concessionier was selling horrible tasting hamburgers cooked strictly by throwing them in the microwave and nukeing them! I have to come up with something I thought perhaps someone has had some experience that might help me. Thanks for your help! I'm clueless.

 

[Lizannd]

can you find room for an electric griddle? otherwise

I don't see how the burgers can be improved with just micro and toaster. I would hesitate to try and broil the burgers in the toaster oven due to the amount of grease that would accumulate. It sounds like you will be making quite a few burgers and that means lots of grease.

 

[Caine]

Broil them in the toaster oven, using the broiler pan that came with it. You can line the bottom pan with aluminium foil to make cleanup easier.Just make sure you empty the pan frequently. To paraphrase Smoky the Bear, "Only you can prevent toaster oven fires."

Oh, and you can season them with a mixture of 2 parts onion salt, 1 part garlic salt, and 1 part pepper to give them a little flavor.

 

[bowlingshirt]

get an electric griddle

 

[jpmcgrew]

Or electric skillet they are cheap at walmart of course the best would be a portable gas grill maybe you can scrounge one up somewhere or borrow one.Is there such a thing as an electric grill?Also wouldnt a toaster oven be too small for making burgers at a concession stand timewise and still not very good.
Make sure to thaw some of those burgers so they cook quickly in the case you get swamped with orders.

 

[ChefJune]

Hi, just new to this site and have two days to come up with a way to cook frozen 1/4 pound hamburgers with only a microwave and a toaster oven at my disposal. The previous concessionier was selling horrible tasting hamburgers cooked strictly by throwing them in the microwave and nukeing them! I have to come up with something I thought perhaps someone has had some experience that might help me. Thanks for your help! I'm clueless.

sounds like you're in over your head! Where and for what are you going to be doing this? Are these burgers for sale? Is the place licensed? Do they have adequate insurance? Make sure you cannot be held personally liable if someone gets sick!

 

[bowlingshirt]

the best would be a portable gas grill .

You'd have to be careful with that as cooking burgers on a grill will produce alot of smoke. There could be a hood in the concessions stand for exhausting the smoke, but if all they have is a microwave and toaster oven, I would doubt it.

 

[TATTRAT]

If there was ever a reason to buy one of those Foreman grills.

 

[love2"Q"]

cook them the night before and reheat?

 

[TATTRAT]

that can cause problems though if not cooled properly and/or reheated properly. Potential liability case...not to mention, they might just turn to rubber pucks after reheating.

Just my$.02

 

[love2"Q"]

yeah .. thought about that , tat ...
was just thinking about how the ladies that run the
job site canteens do it ...

 

[TATTRAT]

heard that. Concession stands take a lot more effort to run then a lot of people realize. We ran one for the annual Harbor Fest and it was a chore! Not to mention the health guys seemed to be more into things then at any of my restaurants at the time. But that is a good thing.

 

[amber]

sounds like you're in over your head! Where and for what are you going to be doing this? Are these burgers for sale? Is the place licensed? Do they have adequate insurance? Make sure you cannot be held personally liable if someone gets sick!

I agree! Personally I would not want a burger that was nuked or cooked in a toaster oven.

 

[Caine]

I agree! Personally I would not want a burger that was nuked or cooked in a toaster oven.

I have frequently resorted to broiling burgers, and hot dogs, too, in my toaster oven. I didn't just buy it to make toast, after all!

There is no difference between broiling them in the toaster oven or under the broiler of your regular oven, except they get done faster in the toaster oven.

 

[turtledove]

I'm with Caine on using a toaster oven to broil. They do an excellent job. I had one that was big enough to cook a 12-14 lb. turkey and it did alright baking bread too. Wish I still had it.

 

[ironchef]

The only way I see you consistently being able to do this with the equipment at hand is to pre-cook the burgers using the toaster oven, then zapping them real quick in the microwave to order. For example, say you open at 11am for lunch. Start pre-cooking at 10am and keep them in a foil covered hotel pan or aluminum foil pan. When you get an order, nuke it for about 30-40 seconds. Depending on the volume that you'll be doing, only pre-cook enough to where the burgers will be at room temp. for 1 hour tops. If you're busy, you'll be constantly pre-cooking throughout the day. Make sure that you properly rotate the burgers (FIFO - First In, First Out) and switch/wash pans every hour as well. If you plan on doing these burgers to order there's no way in h.ell that you'll be able to keep up with just a toaster oven.

 

[mish]

I buy a box of the frozen White Castle Burgers. They are precooked with chopped onions and cheese - nuke 'em for a few seconds & they're done. Not bad tasting either. How they prepare and freeze them, I dunno. But, I would try making and freezing ahead of time. Just a thought.

 

[evenstranger]

If this is going to be something you are going to do on a regular basis, you might want to check out Smokaroma.com. They sell a product called Instant Burger. The device will fry 2 burgers in 25 seconds. Place two balls of ground beef on the cooking surface, close the lid and press the start button - electricity will pass between the two metal plates, cooking the meat in between them. I've seen these in action and they do cook that fast and the burgers are excellent. The trick is to have two burgers going while you're prepping the buns and keep 'em moving. Also, they require no hood or ventilation in most locations (check local regulations). I found one currently on Ebay starting at $500.

 

[jpmcgrew]

The thing is are you working for someone else?Then of course you dont want to invest in a good way to cook burgers but if it's your own business it's worth investing in.The other thing if thats all you have to work with do you really want to turn out crappy burgers for someone else and and possibly not get anymore jobs because people will think you are a crappy cook because they dont know you dont have the right equipment.If you are working for somebody else I would demand the right equipment or refuse the job.