Photo: McDonald'sHamburger
The smallest thing on the menu and the closest you can get to where it all started. One thin patty, pickles, onions, ketchup and mustard, no cheese. It is easy to dismiss and oddly good: without cheese the pickle and mustard come through clearly. Kids love it, and so do adults who want a snack rather than a meal.
The story
When the McDonald brothers reopened their San Bernardino restaurant in late 1948, they had cut a sprawling barbecue menu down to a handful of items and built a kitchen where every burger was made the same way, fast. The plain hamburger, priced at fifteen cents, was the heart of that system. Almost everything the company became grew out of it.
What’s inside
Make it at home
My copycat first, then everything I built on top of it.- My copycat
McDonald's Hamburger (Copycat)
Similar burgers at other chains
Built around the same things as the Hamburger.- Culver's · beef
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SignatureHamburger - Dom Dom Hamburger · beef
Hamburger - Krystal · beef
SignatureThe Krystal
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About McDonald's
Nobody sells more burgers. McDonald’s began as a single drive-in run by Richard and Maurice McDonald in San Bernardino, California, and became a burger machine in 1948, when the brothers threw out most of the menu and rebuilt the kitchen like a production line. Ray Kroc, a salesman who sold them milkshake mixers, started franchising it in 1955 and later bought the brothers out.
More than 40,000 restaurants in over 100 countries.
Not affiliated with McDonald's. Trademarks belong to their owners. The photo is credited under it and is used to illustrate this menu item; it comes down on request.