The Cookout Grill Plan

A cookout planner for one grill: pounds turned into pieces, pieces counted onto your grate, rounds on a clock, charcoal for the rounds, and the price of a plate in whole packs

GrillStage's Meat Per Person Calculator answers in pounds, and its Charcoal Calculator knows your grate. The two never meet. Nobody grills a pound: you grill pieces, the grate holds a whole number of them, and the cookout takes as many rounds as the pieces need. The Cookout Grill Plan does that arithmetic. In the worked example, 24 guests of burgers is 12 lb, or 48 quarter-pound patties; the direct half of a 22 in kettle holds 6 in neat rows, so that is 8 rounds and, at a 15-minute round, 2 hours at the grill. The same 12 lb as third-pound patties is 12 rounds. Fueled for those 8 rounds rather than the 4-hour party, it is 59 briquettes instead of 99, one chimney instead of two, and swapping one patty for a sausage link saves as many rounds as a 26 in grill would. Every figure is computed by code from the site's calculators, and the prices, weights and sizes are examples. It gives no cooking times or temperatures: a food thermometer and the USDA minimums decide when meat is done. Included: 7 steps, 4 printable working pages, a pieces-per-round table for round and gas grates, a quickstart, and a personalised sheet worked from the numbers you enter in the calculators.

Look inside

Two full pages from the pack, exactly as printed. Click either to read it at full size before you decide.

What is in it

• The Piece Count Rule: the pounds our calculator gives, turned into whole pieces
• The Direct Half Rule: plan the rounds on the half of the grate over the coals
• The Neat Rows Rule: whole pieces counted in rows, and why a bigger patty means more rounds
• The Rounds Rule: rounds on a clock, and when the last one clears
• The Fuel the Rounds Rule: charcoal for the rounds, chimneys and bags counted
• The Menu Before Metal Rule: a menu change against a bigger or a second grill
• The Whole Pack Rule: the price of a plate from whole packs and bags
• Working pages: cookout count sheet, grate map, round sheet, fuel and shopping sheet
• Pieces per round for round grates from 14.5 to 26 in and three gas grates
• A quickstart that closes the score loop, plus a personalised sheet from your calculator inputs

The pack picks up where the free Meat Per Person Calculator and Charcoal Calculator leave off. One answers in pounds and the other knows your grate, and they never meet: the plan turns the pounds into whole pieces, counts how many fit on the direct half of your grill in neat rows, works out the rounds and when the last one clears, sizes the charcoal to the rounds rather than the whole party, and prices each plate from the whole packs and bags you really buy. It gives no cooking times or temperatures: a food thermometer and the USDA minimums decide when meat is done. Every figure is an example and it names no grill or brand.