page_title: Hamburger
section_title: United States and Canada
hierarchical_section_title: Hamburger / Variations / United States and Canada
caption_attribution_description: Burger
context_page_description: A hamburger is a sandwich consisting of one or more cooked patties of ground meat, usually beef, placed inside a sliced bread roll or bun. The patty may be pan fried, grilled, smoked or flame broiled. Hamburgers are often served with cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, bacon, or chiles; condiments such as ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, relish, or a "special sauce", often a variation of Thousand Island dressing; and are frequently placed on sesame seed buns. A hamburger topped with cheese is called a cheeseburger.
  The term "burger" can also be applied to the meat patty on its own, especially in the United Kingdom, where the term "patty" is rarely used, or the term can even refer simply to ground beef. Since the term hamburger usually implies beef, for clarity "burger" may be prefixed with the type of meat or meat substitute used, as in beef burger, turkey burger, bison burger, or veggie burger.
  Hamburgers are sold at fast-food restaurants, diners, and specialty and high-end restaurants. There are many international and regional variations of the hamburger.
context_section_description: The hamburger is considered a national dish of the United States. In the United States and Canada, burgers may be classified as two main types: fast food hamburgers and individually prepared burgers made in homes and restaurants. The latter are often prepared with a variety of toppings, including lettuce, tomato, onion, and often sliced pickles (or pickle relish). French fries often accompany the burger. Cheese (usually processed cheese slices but often Cheddar, Swiss, pepper jack, or blue), either melted directly on the meat patty or crumbled on top, is generally an option.
  Condiments might be added to a hamburger or may be offered separately on the side including ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, relish, salad dressings and barbecue sauce.
  Other toppings can include bacon, avocado or guacamole, sliced sautéed mushrooms, cheese sauce, chili (usually without beans), fried egg, scrambled egg, feta cheese, blue cheese, salsa, pineapple, jalapeños and other kinds of chili peppers, anchovies, slices of ham or bologna, pastrami or teriyaki-seasoned beef, tartar sauce, french fries, onion rings or potato chips.
  Standard toppings on hamburgers may depend upon location, particularly at restaurants that are not national or regional franchises.
  Restaurants may offer hamburgers with multiple meat patties. The most common variants are double and triple hamburgers, but California-based burger chain In-N-Out once sold a sandwich with one hundred patties, called a "100x100."
  Pastrami burgers may be served in Salt Lake City, Utah.
  A patty melt consists of a patty, sautéed onions and cheese between two slices of rye bread. The sandwich is then buttered and fried.
  A slider is a very small square hamburger patty, served on an equally small bun and usually sprinkled with diced onions. According to the earliest citations, the name originated aboard U.S. Navy ships, due to the manner in which greasy burgers slid across the galley grill as the ship pitched and rolled. Other versions claim the term "slider" originated from the hamburgers served by flight line galleys at military airfields, which were so greasy they slid right through you; or because their small size allows them to "slide" right down your throat in one or two bites.
  In Alberta, Canada a "kubie burger" is a hamburger made with a pressed Ukrainian sausage (kubasa).
  In Minnesota, a "Juicy Lucy" (also spelled "Jucy Lucy"), is a hamburger having cheese inside the meat patty rather than on top. A piece of cheese is surrounded by raw meat and cooked until it melts, resulting in a molten core of cheese within the patty. This scalding hot cheese tends to gush out at the first bite, so servers frequently instruct customers to let the sandwich cool for a few minutes before consumption.
  A low carb burger is a hamburger served without a bun and replaced with large slices of lettuce with mayonnaise or mustard being the sauces primarily used.
  A ramen burger, invented by Keizo Shimamoto, is a hamburger patty sandwiched between two discs of compressed ramen noodles in lieu of a traditional bun.
caption: A hamburger served in New York with arugula on a ciabatta roll
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