kyphysics said:
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I never understood their sliders. I dislike boiled burgers (like what the heck??) and find the tiny squares to be too bun-heavy and not enough meat. The bun should be secondary to a flavorful, juicy, and seasoned beef patty. Their burgers, to me, are like the opposite. Bland and thin piece of meat with way too much - cheap (making it worse) - thick bun going on.
I feel like they make the worst burgers on Earth (did they set out to do that?)!
There's some history here. White Castle was the first fast food chain in the world.
Before there was McDonalds, before Burger King, before Wendy's, before Taco Bell or Pizza Hut, there was White Castle. This is
"The Fast Food Thread," after all. So, like it or not, any fast-food related concept can -- if traced back far enough -- ultimately show some sort of loose connection to White Castle, even if only as a distant ancestor sort of way.
White Castle burgers weren't always as small as they are now. As a matter of fact, they were almost normal sized; just a lot thinner. Originally, they were thin, square patties that had the advantages of increased surface area, where more of the flavor is, and thinner patties made them fry quicker (i.e., "fast" food). White Castle eventually (in the 1950's) made a patent on placing several holes in the burgers to further increase the surface area and reduce the cooking time.
Originally, in the early 1920's, the burgers were sold for 5¢ each. This fact will become important later.
Many other companies and entrepreneurs tried to copy White Castle's success. Some of them succeeded, at least for a time. It has been said that "
plunging into the meat business was the Bitcoin of the 1920s." Eventually, more established competitors sprung up such as McDonalds and Burger King, etc., with somewhat different business models (e.g., real estate).
White Castle tried to differentiate themselves by the price of their burgers. Changing that "5¢" per burger price was a big deal that they didn't want to change.
Eventually they did change the price however: first to 10¢ then to 25¢. It was always a reluctant change though. Instead, to continue making a profit, they were much more willing to shrink their burgers, smaller and smaller, eventually calling them "sliders" when they got small enough. It stuck. After that, they became more flexible on simply raising the price.
Their burgers are not "boiled," (even if it might seem like that). They used to be fried and flipped like normal burgers, but eventually the process changed such that they are "steamed" atop a layer of onions on the fryer. That's from where are all the onion flavor comes.
