Big-batch recipe · All meat
Twelve burger patties, cooked once
12 patties, 6 portions, about 46 g of protein in each. 20 minutes of hands-on work and 20 min of cooking.
Where it sits in the week
What this one is for
On the all meat track this is a Sunday cook — the long session, which covers Monday to Wednesday. Cooked once, portioned hot, and eaten across the days that session covers.
Two portions is about 92 g of protein — our own arithmetic on the figure above, not a separate measurement. Protein targets on this site are computed against goal weight or lean mass rather than scale weight, which is the whole of Real Fuel.
Part of the all meat meal plan, cooked in the two-session prep schedule.
What goes in
- 4 lb ground beef, 80/20
- 2 tbsp salt, 1 tbsp pepper
- Nothing else — egg and breadcrumb make meatloaf, not burgers
How
- Handle the meat as little as possible. Weigh 5 oz balls, press flat between two sheets of paper, thumb dent in the middle.
- Salt only when they hit the pan. Salted early, the surface draws water and will not brown.
- Screaming hot cast iron, three minutes a side, no pressing.
- Stack them with paper between and cool fast — a warm stack keeps cooking itself grey.
Keeping it: Fridge 4 days, freezer 2 months. Reheat in a hot dry pan for 60 seconds a side.
Nothing on this page is medical advice. It is a plan written for general strength training in healthy adults, and any condition or medication you are managing outranks it.
Doing it cheaper
Swaps that apply to this one
From the all meat track's budget version, filtered to the ingredients this recipe actually uses.
| Instead of | Use | Why it is worth it |
|---|---|---|
| Steak and ground beef | Chuck, shoulder, brisket point, pork shoulder | Long-cooked cheap cuts eat better than a mid-grade steak and cost a third as much. |
| Skipping organ meat | Liver once a week | The cheapest thing at the counter and the only item on an all-meat plan carrying meaningful vitamin C, folate and vitamin A. |
The prices behind these swaps, with sources, are in the protein-per-dollar table.
The rest of the all meat week
3 more big-batch recipes on this track, plus the seven-day plan they feed.