How Many Cows Equal One Giant Burger?

This giant burger, the one making an appearance at the Alameda County Fair on July 2, is totally preoccupying my brain. I can't wait to write about the cooking and eating of this quarter-ton monstrosity.

Click if you don't know what I'm talking about. Or .

But until I can get there on cooking day and see it with my own eyes, I will keep asking fair organizers questions about it. And until they get annoyed with me, they'll keep answering.

These answers are provided by Nick Nicora of Ovations, the organization that is building, cooking and selling bites of this burger:

Q: How are you going to make sure the burger cooks all the way through?

A: We are in the process of building a large steel jig that will be placed on the BBQ. This will make it easier to flip, so we will flip the burger every hour. (They plan to put the meat on the grill at 6 a.m. July 2, and cook it for about 10 hours.)

Q: What is the diameter of the burger?   

A: Five feet

Q: What is the thickness of the burger?  

A: Around 3 feet

Q: Do you know how many cows-worth of beef this is?  

A: This is one whole cow if you ground up all the meat, or two or three cows if you were just using the ground beef from the cow, taking away the new strips and prime rib and such.

Q: Is it just meat or are you putting something into the beef (like onions or spices, etc.)?   

A: We will be putting some egg, spices and olive oil into the meat to keep it firm and tasty. All of the other items — onions, tomatoes, lettuce, pickles, cheese, mayo, ketchup, mustard — will on be on top of the pattie like a normal burger.

So there you have it!

If you are just as curious as me and have other burning questions about this burger, email me at tanya.rose@patch.com and I'll add them to my always growing list.