When I was a kid in the 1950's, a burger at a family restaurant or what passed for fast food in those days was normally a 2 ounce beef patty. Even into my later teen years into the early and mid 1960's this was still the case. Friends and I used to go to a 24 hour burger place called "Burgerama" after late night poker games, or gather together very late on Saturday nights after we took our dates home (unless we got really lucky!) and have a few burgers and Cokes, and their burgers were still the same 2 ounce patty. But in 1971 we saw the birth of the "Quarter Pounder", which seemed huge at the time. Even though it was not really a quarter pound when you got it on the bun, it started out supposedly as 4 ounces of beef.
Somehow over the 49 years since then, we have gotten bigger and so have the burgers we eat. Many places today serve half pound burgers, and when I make my own at home, with my hamburger press that I put the ground beef into, the "normal" burger is 8 ounces. In fact, when I end up with a 7 ounce burger it seems pretty skimpy when I put it on the grill. Sometimes, depending on the amount of ground beef that I start with, some of my burgers end up as 9 or in some cases 10 ounces, and I have to admit that 9 ounce burger seems to be just about the right size. On my current diet, with my attempts to cut down on carbs, I grill a burger of 8, 9 or 10 ounces, slap a slice of American (fake) cheese on it, and eat it without a bun. Makes for a decently filling lunch without adding any carbs.
But this makes me wonder where this will end. Will a few years from now some restaurants start advertising "three quarters of a pound burger" or even "one pound burger" which starts to approach the size of a small meatloaf. My attitude toward these giant burgers is "bring it on!". Another good reason to be glad to be an American!
Somehow over the 49 years since then, we have gotten bigger and so have the burgers we eat. Many places today serve half pound burgers, and when I make my own at home, with my hamburger press that I put the ground beef into, the "normal" burger is 8 ounces. In fact, when I end up with a 7 ounce burger it seems pretty skimpy when I put it on the grill. Sometimes, depending on the amount of ground beef that I start with, some of my burgers end up as 9 or in some cases 10 ounces, and I have to admit that 9 ounce burger seems to be just about the right size. On my current diet, with my attempts to cut down on carbs, I grill a burger of 8, 9 or 10 ounces, slap a slice of American (fake) cheese on it, and eat it without a bun. Makes for a decently filling lunch without adding any carbs.
But this makes me wonder where this will end. Will a few years from now some restaurants start advertising "three quarters of a pound burger" or even "one pound burger" which starts to approach the size of a small meatloaf. My attitude toward these giant burgers is "bring it on!". Another good reason to be glad to be an American!
