Cheeseburger
A cheeseburger is a hamburger that contains cheese. The cheese is usually sliced, melted, or grated and then added a short time before the hamburger finishes cooking to allow the cheese to melt. The cheese that makes up a cheeseburger is usually American cheese, but there are other variations.
History
In 1924, Lionel Sternberger grilled the first cheeseburger in Pasadena, California. The date and place of this event has been called into question.[1] When Sternberger died in 1964, Time magazine noted in its February 7 issue that:
…at the hungry age of 16, [Sternberger] experimentally dropped a slab of American cheese on a sizzling hamburger while helping out at his father's sandwich shop in Pasadena, thereby inventing the cheeseburger…[2]
Others have claimed the invention of the cheeseburger as part of their local legend. Louisville, Kentucky-based Kaelin's Restaurant has claimed to invent the cheeseburger in 1934.[3] The following year, the mark for the name "cheeseburger" was awarded to Louis Ballast of the Humpty Dumpty Drive-In in Denver, Colorado.
Variations
A cheeseburger can be served with toppings such as pickles, tomatoes, lettuce, onions, bacon slices, mustard, ketchup, mayonnaise, and barbecue sauce. A double cheeseburger is a cheeseburger consisting of two pieces of meat with two slices of cheese in between.
A Jucy Lucy is a type of cheeseburger, developed and popularized in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where the cheese is placed inside the raw meat and then cooked until it melts.
References
- ^ "Who Invented Hamburger Sandwich? And What About the Cheeseburger?", Metropolitan News-Enterprise, January 2, 2004, retrieved 2007-11-08
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link) - ^ "Lionel Clark Sternberger Obituary", Time, February 7, 1964, retrieved 2007-05-18
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link) - ^ "Louisville Facts & Firsts - LouisvilleKy.gov". City of Louisville, Kentucky. Retrieved 2006-07-29.