80/20 and why most kitchens land there
The number is the ratio of lean to fat. At 80/20 there is enough fat to baste the patty as it cooks, which is what gives a flat-top burger its crust and keeps it from drying out when it sits for thirty seconds under a lamp. Go leaner and you gain yield but lose forgiveness — an 85/15 patty held a minute too long is noticeably dry. Go fattier and you get flavour but more shrink and more flare-up on an open grill.
If you are running a smash program, 80/20 is close to mandatory: the fat is what lets the patty spread and caramelise against the griddle instead of steaming.
Chub or pre-formed
Forming your own is cheaper per pound and lets you control thickness, but it costs labour and portion drift is real — a cook running behind will hand-form heavy, and an eighth of an ounce across a busy week is money. Pre-formed patties cost more per pound and buy you consistency: every burger is the weight you costed.
Shrink is part of the cost
A raw patty loses weight on the griddle, and fattier blends lose more. If you advertise a quarter-pound burger, weigh a cooked patty from your own line before you decide a leaner blend is saving you money — a cheaper case that shrinks harder can cost more per finished burger.
Buying beyond burgers? See our full protein range, and if you run a burger-and-fry concept the burger kitchen page covers how we set the whole program up.
Tell us what you go through.
Send your order guide, or just a photo of last week's invoice. We price it line by line, tell you where we are stronger and where we are not, and bring samples before you commit to anything.
Common questions
What is 80/20 ground beef?
80% lean to 20% fat. It is the standard blend for restaurant burgers because the fat content keeps the patty juicy on a flat-top and produces a proper crust, without the heavy flare-up and shrink of a fattier grind.
Do you supply pre-formed patties?
Yes, in 4:1, 3:1, 5:1 and 6:1 counts plus smash-style thin patties. We also carry bulk chub if you form in-house.
Can I get a sample before switching?
Yes. We will bring your candidate blend and cook it on your own flat-top at your own thickness — that tells you more about shrink and crust than any spec sheet.