Original Slider

Three bites, a pickle, and an unmistakable smell of steamed onions. The tiny square patty is not grilled but steamed on a bed of onions, so the onion flavour goes into the meat and the soft bun on top turns almost pudding-like. Judged as a normal burger it makes no sense. Judged at two in the morning, four of them at a time, it makes perfect sense.

The slider sold for five cents when White Castle opened in 1921, and the company built its early growth on the slogan “Buy ’em by the sack”. The five small holes punched through every patty came decades later, credited to an employee named Earl Howell in the 1950s: they let steam pass through, so the burger cooks without being flipped.