"cheeseburger" news and stories

Happy National Cheeseburger Day!

As an American mealtime staple, the cheeseburger needs no introduction -- beloved varieties exist from coast to coast, ranging from simple fast food bites to gourmet dishes, like Minetta Tavern's hailed $26 burger in New York City. Although the meaty sandwich figures into daily food culture, it's a relatively new creation, originating just over 100 years ago, at the 1904 St. Louisiana Purchase Exposition. Named for Hamburg, Germany, where sailors were thought to have imported the idea of beef tartare, before an unknown local chef eventually cooked the first burger, which, over time, was later embellished with cheese and other toppings.

For the ultimate burger entertainment, tune in to the finale of The Great Food Truck Race on the Food Network tomorrow night to catch the genius burgers builders of the Grill 'Em All truck go head to head witih the Nom Nom truck for the grand prize.

Become a member of the Slashfood Flickr pool to get a shot at having your photos featured in Feast Your Eyes.

It seems Carl's Jr. is about to escalate the fast-food sandwich wars (from KFC's Double Down to Friendly's Grilled Cheese BurgerMelt to Sonic's Footlong Quarter Pound Coney) to a whole new Freudian dimension. Call it a case of patty envy.

According to both the Orange County Register's Fast Food Maven and Eater.com, the chain is market testing a footlong cheeseburger at several locations in Southern California.

True, this is a chain whose flagship burger is called the Big Carl; they've got a reputation to live up to.

It's a soup! It's a cheeseburger! It's cheeseburger soup?

Kalie's Family Restaurant in Cleveland serves up cheeseburger soup, but the restaurant is not alone.

Food Network's Guy Fieri hunts down the meaty concoction at Grover's Bar and Grill in East Amherst, N.Y. on "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives." The episode, called "Dives Worth a Drive," is airing Nov. 6, 7 and 8 on the Food Network.

Click here for a cheeseburger-soup recipe.

Photo: Bill Mealbach

Go big or go home ... hungry.

That's the philosophy of Mallie's Sports Grill of Southgate, Mich., and its owner, Steve Mallie. The restaurant recently became the Guinness World Record holder for the largest commerically sold burger.

The aptly named "Absolutely Ridiculous Burger" is approximately 185.6 pounds, 3 feet tall and 26 inches round, Mallie told Slashfood.

It starts with 200 pounds of uncooked, ground beef (an 80/20 blend) and ends with a patty that takes a whopping 16 hours to cook and another eight hours of resting time. The bun takes an additional eight hours. Mallie's uses a large commercial oven for baking but does have a custom-made form to mold the patty.

Out of all the fast food restaurants, Carl's Jr. probably changes -- or at least augments -- its menu the most often. There's always some newish, vaguely titillating, really-bad-for-you item advertised with a giant banner outside.

On this go round through the drive-in, the wind-fluttered photos were pushing the Mint Oreo Shake, Farmer John's Jumbo Chili Dog, Carl's Catch Fish Sandwich, Crisp Burritos and the Kentucky Bourbon Burger.

While we could have made this a multipart series entitled "Lissa Becomes Quite Hefty Indeed," I decided to restrict myself to the latter two choices, the burritos and the bourbon burger.