Original Cheeseburger
The most-ordered thing in Milo’s history, by the chain’s own count: a grilled patty with American cheese, pickles and onions, soaked in Milo’s Sauce on a grilled bun. The sauce is the whole point, and there is so much of it that it runs everywhere, so this is a burger to eat over the wrapper. Get the orange-dusted fries and a sweet tea to have it the way Birmingham does.
The story
Milo’s Sauce is as old as the shop. Milo Carlton opened in North Birmingham in April 1946 after cooking for soldiers in the army, and from the start the question customers asked was what was in the sauce. The family has never said; the official history calls it a little of this and a little of that, cooked at just the right temperature. Until 1995 the menu was just burgers, fries and tea. It was not until 2020 that the sauce was sold in bottles, as a charity fundraiser during the pandemic, and it sold ten thousand of them in three weeks.
What’s inside
Make it at home
There is no copycat of the Original Cheeseburger yet. Until there is, these recipes on the site come closest to it, judged by what goes into the bun.
- Shares beef and cheese
Burger Sliders - Shares beef and cheese
TOP 2McDonald's Quarter Pounder with Cheese (Copycat) - Shares beef and cheese
Big Mac Taco - Shares beef and cheese
Big Mac Hot Dog
Similar burgers at other chains
Built around the same things as the Original Cheeseburger.- Good Times · beef and cheese
West Slope Burger - Hero Certified Burgers · beef and cheese
SignatureSignature Burger - Little Big Burger · beef and cheese
SignatureCheeseburger - Krystal · beef and cheese
Cheese Krystal
More from Milo’s Hamburgers
About Milo’s Hamburgers
Milo Carlton learned to cook burgers as a mess cook in the US Army, and on 16 April 1946 he opened Milo’s Hamburger Shop in a cinder-block building in North Birmingham, Alabama. It was just a kitchen and a takeaway window: Milo worked the grill while his wife Bea made the fries and shakes, and regulars phoned ahead in the morning to reserve their burgers before they sold out. The shop moved in 1963, and in the early 1980s the family sold its first franchise to Milo and Bea’s next-door neighbour.
About twenty restaurants, most of them around Birmingham, Alabama.
Not affiliated with Milo’s Hamburgers. Trademarks belong to their owners.