Rotating Grill for Cooking Burgers

[bkstill]

Greetings, Pitmasters! I'm Looking to lean on the experience of anyone who has cooked on a grill like this.

I've been tasked with cooking 400 burgers and 300 hot dogs for a community event. I have pictures of the grill to be used, but won't see it in person until a day or two before the event. I'm hoping to do a bit of a trial run on it the day before to see how it runs, but so far this is what I have.

I will have several Blackstone griddles for bun toasting and perhaps some onions and peppers.

I'm looking to serve, hot and fresh burgers on a warm toasted bun and not lukewarm hockey pucks. So, I covet any advice anyone has on using this type of grill and/or keeping burgers hot and fresh when cooking for a large crowd.

Also, do grills with rotating grates like this have a well-known name? I can't seem to find one.

[CaptainMike]

That looks like a custom built one-of-a-kind setup, is there any way to do a practice cook with it? It looks like it would do the job, but I'd hate to have to learn it on a big cook like that, even as simple as burgers and dogs.

A cook like that would be better suited for an open, Santa Maria type of setup where you can regulate the grate height and have hot and warm cooking areas.

[bkstill]

Thanks for the thoughts. Yes, it is custom built by a local machine shop. Hoping to do a practice cook the day before and maybe pick the brain of someone that's used it.

[CaptainMike]

It looks like it would be a hoot to cook on, though! A lot of self-basting going on and I bet a heckuva chicken cooker.

[holehogg]

All I can offer is you going to have fun.

[bkstill]

Planning on it! Should have a fun crew helping, even if it is chaos!

[WI Bubba]

If you can get that grill to hold a reasonably steady low temp, I'd use it as a holding oven and cook everything on the flattops. If it were me, I'd add a couple of water pans to the rotating racks to keep moisture up and help even out temps.

Or, run the burgers in there until 90% done and then sear them off on the griddles. Griddles are designed for high volume cooking, so I would use them for their strengths. Don't make life harder than it needs to be, by trying to learn how to run and time things on a new to you cooker when there is real pressure to get it right.

[bkstill]

Good thought on the water pans! Searing them off and serving from the flattop may be better presentation too.

[CaptainMike]

This came to mind as well. You can crank out a lot burgers pretty quickly on a flattop.

[Greygoose]

By the looks of the racks on top it looks like a setup for cooking ribs and the such.
what’s the time frame for pushing out the 400 burgers ?
I think a fixed grate grill would give you better control.
Just a thought.

[bkstill]

Everyone will line up and we'll serve as long as there is a line. So, would be good to have some ready to start, but don't want them sitting around too long.

[jfmorris]

Yeah, that is basically a big rotisserie with hanging racks, made from wire of some sort it appears. I assume a motor totals things around while cooking.

To be honest, I am with the others here - use it as a holding/warming oven, with just a small charcoal fire maybe. It appears to be double sided, with 2 charcoal pans at the bottom and two rotisseries. It's NOT designed for grilling. It is designed for low and slow smoking or rotisserie cooks of chicken and ribs and such.

I've got a flat top, and if I do smash burgers following the Diner burger recipe on the free side, i.e. about 1/4 to 1/3 pound balls that I smash on the flat top, they cook in about 3 minutes per side, and I can probably crank out 30 burgers every 6 minutes, scrape the flat top off for a minute, and do it again. If you have several flat tops, I would do the burgers on them. Pre-toast the buns before you start cooking the burgers - before the flat tops get messing, then just put the buns back together in the bags, and set aside until assembling burgers - which will be someone else's job. If I were to use the big rotating grill for anything at all, maybe put the hot dogs in it - since those are basically a reheat thing, and are not the most ideal flat top cook. That said - I've done a lot of burgers and even brats on my flat top, since I didn't want to fire up a second grill for the July 4th or Memorial Day cooks. I bet you can lay a 100 dogs down easy on a Blackstone griddle and they would be done in 5 minutes, just roll them around a bit to get some sear on each side.

Back to the big cooker - I think at most use it as a holding/warming oven, with a small charcoal fire, in case you get ahead of things cooking the burgers and dogs on the flat top.

[bkstill]

Thanks for such a complete response and sharing your experience with the flat top. I like getting everyone's thoughts. Just what I was hoping for!

[pkadare]

I'm with everyone else here, use the flat tops. The rotating grills won't help with burgers. I suppose you could get 2 of the grills directly over the coals and turn off the motor but that thing looks pretty deep so you'd likely have a lot of trouble flipping on the grill in the back. You don't indicate the size of the Blackstones you'll have but I can fit about 30 burgers at a time on my 36 incher. I'd likely do the burgers on the flat tops and let the hot dogs go in the rotating thing.

[jfmorris]

No to mention those cooking grates hang by 1 point in the center at each end. Can you imagine trying to flip burgers on something that is swinging back and forth as you try to get under the burger?

[bkstill]

I was wondering about flipping too. It might work if you approach from the side, parallel to the grate, but that would be a bit awkward. But, leaning to not doing the actual cooking on the rotating grates, so less of an issue.

[scottranda]

My suggestion is to make sure you have enough helping hands. That is a lot!! Maybe you could do just hot dogs in the rotisserie pit and hamburgers on a flat top.

[bkstill]

I will have a lot of help! It's a big part of what makes live-fire cooking so enjoyable! But, that's also part of why I want a solid plan before the big cook. A lot of help yields a lot of opinions!

[jfmorris]

bkstill I want to make sure you realize something that dawned on me in a comment above. Those grates on the big cooker hang by a single point on each end. No way you can flip burgers on a grate like that, as it will be swinging back and forth while you try.

[bkstill]

Good point. Might need a helper with a glove holding it!

[bkstill]

I did some more asking around and discovered I know the guy that built it. He worked for the machine shop that owns it, but he retired a few years ago. He took me over to look at it. Turns out the other half has a fixed grate that, after some cleaning, should work fine for direct grilling the burgers.

So, would you still use the rotisserie side for a holding cabinet? How long can you hold a burger before it's toast?

​​​​​​Think the flat tops will be employed for bun toasting and grilled onions and peppers.

[Greygoose]

Looks like you have an upper rack on the grill side.
That would give you a spot to stack the grilled buns and keep them warm.

[Santamarina]

Cooking that many burgers I’d 100% do smash burgers on those flattops you have available. You can crank out burgers seriously fast that way!

[bkstill]

Good to know! Appreciate your thoughts. Still have some things to sort out, but I appreciate all the advice!

[WI Bubba]

I'd still play to the strengths of the flat tops, and crank out the burgers on them. How long you can hold a burger will depend a lot on what temp you're holding them at, and how fatty your burger mix is. A 75/25 patty will hold a lot better than a 85/15. Holding them in a high moisture environment will also give you more time between burger and hockey puck.

One thing that really makes a difference, is what kind of burgers are you making?

For thicker pub style burgers in the 5-8 oz range, then I'd smoke them on the rotating part shooting for a cook temp of around 300°, hold them on the grill side, sear and serve on the flat tops. This would let you have a good buffer of burgers precooked and ready to go before service starts.

For 2-4 oz burgers, I'd go smash style on the flat tops, and the whole charcoal rig would be used for holding. In that case, I would starts the burgers no more than 30 min before service. Either way, with everyone lining up at once, you are going to need a fair bit of stuff ready to go right from the beginning, or the last person in line may not be eating on the same day as the first person.

[bkstill]

Thanks for the thoughts, WI Bubba. It's most helpful. Taking all that into consideration. Need to do some more planning on the burger what type of help and how many flattops I can confirm and go from there.