Ground Beef Calculation for Grilled Hamburger Patties

How to calculate the amount of ground beef needed to serve 100 people with 3 oz grilled hamburger patties?

Given the data of serving 3 oz grilled hamburger patties with a 15% shrinkage, how many pounds of ground beef would be ordered to serve 100 people?

Answer:

To serve 100 people with 3 oz grilled hamburger patties factoring in a 15% shrinkage, approximately 22.1 pounds of ground beef should be ordered.

Calculating the amount of ground beef needed to serve 100 people with 3 oz grilled hamburger patties involves considering the shrinkage during cooking. The shrinkage of 15% means that the patties will lose 15% of their weight during the cooking process. To ensure each serving is 3 oz post-cook, the initial amount of ground beef must account for this shrinkage.

To begin the calculation, the weight of the patties after cooking must be determined. This requires adjusting for the 15% shrinkage and then multiplying by the number of people to serve.

Starting with the end weight of 3 oz, the pre-cooked weight can be found by dividing by the remaining percentage of the patty after shrinkage:

3 oz / 0.85 (100% - 15% shrinkage) = 3.529 oz (rounded to three decimal places)

Multiplying this weight by the number of people results in the total uncooked weight needed:

3.529 oz per person × 100 people = 352.9 oz

Finally, converting ounces to pounds gives the amount of ground beef that should be ordered:

352.9 oz ÷ 16 oz/lb = 22.056 lb

Therefore, approximately 22.056 pounds (rounded up to 22.1 pounds) of ground beef should be ordered to serve 100 people with 3 oz grilled hamburger patties while factoring in a 15% shrinkage during cooking.