# Are you familiar with hubcap burgers? Seen any lately at restaurants? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 21, 2019, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-familiar-with-hubcap-burgers-seen-any-lately-at-restaurants/837406 "2019-07-21T19:29:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2019, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-familiar-with-hubcap-burgers-seen-any-lately-at-restaurants/837406/21 "2019-07-22T16:12:23Z")
I had no idea what a hubcap burger was before reading the OP. If it’s just a 6" burger, that’s basically a Whataburger. Love 'em, open 24 hours. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2019, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-familiar-with-hubcap-burgers-seen-any-lately-at-restaurants/837406/22 "2019-07-22T16:21:33Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > What matters most is what’s inside. Freshly ground meat and toppings. So… Any good burger? ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2019, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-familiar-with-hubcap-burgers-seen-any-lately-at-restaurants/837406/23 "2019-07-22T16:26:25Z")
Yes. A great burger. The extra size is just a bonus. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2019, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-familiar-with-hubcap-burgers-seen-any-lately-at-restaurants/837406/24 "2019-07-22T16:28:14Z")
I make burgers like that at home. I buy a one pound steak, trim any visible fat, then grind the meat. I make two 1/2 pound burgers and sous-vide them rare. Then I hit them with a torch to lightly sear the exterior. Delicious. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2019, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-familiar-with-hubcap-burgers-seen-any-lately-at-restaurants/837406/25 "2019-07-22T16:30:41Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > I think Kopps calls them butter burgers since they melt a pad of butter on the meat while it’s cooking. Culver’s picked up the name also. > Never hear of the hubcap term though. I’d swear there’s only butter on it about half the time. It may just depend on who’s working the grill and how they read my order\*. Also, they switched to a new bun that’s not nearly as good and butter or not, the new ones aren’t all greasy like the original ones that we’ve all loved. However, for a real butter burger look at Solly’s. Those are ‘butter dripping off your elbows’ burgers. They must use 2-3 tablespoons on each burger. Plus IIRC, you can ask for extra butter and they’ll score the top of the bun and dip it in melted butter. \*A hamburger with ketchup, to some means meat and ketchup. To others it means ketchup, along with the typical lettuce and tomato. Then there’s other people that seem to think ‘hamburger with ketchup’ means I meant to say ‘cheeseburger’. All the confusion and a busy restaurant, I can understand why, if butter is standard, they punt when they see my order. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2019, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-familiar-with-hubcap-burgers-seen-any-lately-at-restaurants/837406/26 "2019-07-22T16:42:48Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > However, for a real butter burger look at Solly’s. Those are ‘butter dripping off your elbows’ burgers. I’ve linked to this video before on here, but [check out the buttering of a burger at Solly’s here](https://youtu.be/avAglwPbDnQ?t=35) (at 0:35–though it should be linked to the correct time.) It’s crazy. “Not many restaurants use the big dollop of butter we use …” says the owner. Yes, I think that is safe to say. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2019, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-familiar-with-hubcap-burgers-seen-any-lately-at-restaurants/837406/27 "2019-07-22T16:50:55Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I’ve linked to this video before on here, but [check out the buttering of a burger at Solly’s here](https://youtu.be/avAglwPbDnQ?t=35) (at 0:35–though it should be linked to the correct time.) It’s crazy. “Not many restaurants use the big dollop of butter we use …” says the owner. Yes, I think that is safe to say. 🙂 O gods, you’ve given me a Solly’s craving again. It’s been about 9 months since my last visit there, I think. OMG OMG OMG ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2019, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-familiar-with-hubcap-burgers-seen-any-lately-at-restaurants/837406/28 "2019-07-22T17:40:22Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I’ve linked to this video before on here, but [check out the buttering of a burger at Solly’s here](https://youtu.be/avAglwPbDnQ?t=35) (at 0:35–though it should be linked to the correct time.) It’s crazy. “Not many restaurants use the big dollop of butter we use …” says the owner. Yes, I think that is safe to say. 🙂 That works out to about 80 sticks of butter, per day, every day. And that’s for a place that’s not exactly slammed all the time. If they were as busy as Kopps, there would be cars backed out on to the road and as often as I drive past it, I don’t think I’ve ever noticed their parking lot overflowing. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2019, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-familiar-with-hubcap-burgers-seen-any-lately-at-restaurants/837406/29 "2019-07-22T18:11:13Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Never heard of them. If the definition is just “very wide burger”, then I’ve had something similar, called an “elephant’s foot burger” Are you sure that isn’t an ingredient? ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2019, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-familiar-with-hubcap-burgers-seen-any-lately-at-restaurants/837406/30 "2019-07-22T18:52:34Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Are you sure that isn’t an ingredient? It’s very popular in Ukraine. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2019, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-familiar-with-hubcap-burgers-seen-any-lately-at-restaurants/837406/31 "2019-07-22T19:01:10Z")
> [@That\_Don\_Guy](#): > > I have heard this called “Jackson Hole style” - not after the city, but the burger restaurants by that name in Manhattan. Also, they’re not “hubcap size”; they put a 1/4-lb or so ball of meat on the grill, then cover it with a metal bowl. About 35 years ago, there was a place in Berkeley (long since turned into a Nation’s) that made them that way. There’s a diner about three blocks from me in Brooklyn that cooks a 1/4 pound burger on a red-hot grill under a metal bowl. The objective seems to be searing the burger fast, getting the interior done to medium-rare, and getting it out to the diner in a very short time. The bowls have little handles on top, are stacked next to the grill by the front window, and look like they’ve been in constant use for at least fifty years. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2019, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-familiar-with-hubcap-burgers-seen-any-lately-at-restaurants/837406/32 "2019-07-22T22:45:41Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > That works out to about 80 sticks of butter, per day, every day. And that’s for a place that’s not exactly slammed all the time. If they were as busy as Kopps, there would be cars backed out on to the road and as often as I drive past it, I don’t think I’ve ever noticed their parking lot overflowing. Meet you there for lunch someday soon? 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2019, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-familiar-with-hubcap-burgers-seen-any-lately-at-restaurants/837406/33 "2019-07-22T22:50:56Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > That works out to about 80 sticks of butter, per day, every day. And that’s for a place that’s not exactly slammed all the time. If they were as busy as Kopps, there would be cars backed out on to the road and as often as I drive past it, I don’t think I’ve ever noticed their parking lot overflowing. I always mean to go there every time I’m in the Milwaukee area, but the one time I did try, the place was absolutely packed, and we ended up going elsewhere. ☹ Wish I had remembered a couple weeks ago when we drove up to Elkhart Lake, but we stopped in Sheboygan on our return trip to grab some food at the Charcoal Inn and pick up some meat at Miesfeld’s – now _damn_ those are some good brats! One of these days…one of these days. It’s definitely on my bucket list. (And, looking at the burgers, may be the last item I check off my bucket list.) ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2019, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-familiar-with-hubcap-burgers-seen-any-lately-at-restaurants/837406/34 "2019-07-22T23:07:10Z")
> [@Royal\_Nonesutch](#): > > I assumed that “Hubcap Burgers” were burgers cooked under an actual car hubcap, which supposedly keeps in the moisture during cooking, making for a more juicy, flavorful hamburger. That sounds like the technique used at Sacramento’s famous\* [Squeeze Burger](http://www.squeezeburger.com/), home what they call the “cheese skirt”. Although they don’t use a hubcap but a hood that I assume is standard restaurant equipment. See the video on their website for a demonstration of the technique. \*Famous because they were featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. Although they had to move from their original tiny location because it didn’t meed ADA requirements since that segment was filmed, and changed their name from Squeeze Inn to Squeeze Burger. Regarding the OP, I correctly guessed that it was a larger than typical diameter burger. But I was picturing it as a ridiculously huge, finish it in one sitting and it’s free, publicity stunt burger. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2019, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-familiar-with-hubcap-burgers-seen-any-lately-at-restaurants/837406/35 "2019-07-22T23:13:31Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I always mean to go there every time I’m in the Milwaukee area, but the one time I did try, the place was absolutely packed, and we ended up going elsewhere. ☹ Wish I had remembered a couple weeks ago when we drove up to Elkhart Lake, but we stopped in Sheboygan on our return trip to grab some food at the Charcoal Inn and pick up some meat at Miesfeld’s – now _damn_ those are some good brats! > > One of these days…one of these days. It’s definitely on my bucket list. (And, looking at the burgers, may be the last item I check off my bucket list.) You can come too. Or we’ll hit one of the Charcoal Inns in Shebco. Or Randalls, even. ---
**Author:** ![Royal\_Nonesutch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecb155/32.png) [@Royal\_Nonesutch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Royal_Nonesutch)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2019, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-familiar-with-hubcap-burgers-seen-any-lately-at-restaurants/837406/36 "2019-07-23T07:49:54Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > That sounds like the technique used at Sacramento’s famous\* [Squeeze Burger](http://www.squeezeburger.com/), home what they call the “cheese skirt”. Although they don’t use a hubcap but a hood that I assume is standard restaurant equipment. See the video on their website for a demonstration of the technique. Jimani (in the French Quarter, on Iberville) uses actual, Honest-To-God hubcaps, albeit ones that likely might have been actually cleaner and more hygenic back when they were stolen off of a rusting, broken-down 1955 Buick after Hurricane Camille in the Summer of '69. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2019, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-familiar-with-hubcap-burgers-seen-any-lately-at-restaurants/837406/37 "2019-07-23T21:45:47Z")
Cothams gained its popularity when Clinton was running for POTUS, as it was a favorite lunch spot for him when he was governor. I would characterize the hubcap at Cothams as just okay. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2019, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-familiar-with-hubcap-burgers-seen-any-lately-at-restaurants/837406/38 "2019-07-24T15:50:00Z")
Have seen them, have eaten one! At the Clover Grill in New Orleans. Doubtless the hubcap was shtick, and the same culinary process could have been accomplished with a more specific piece of kitchen equipment, but the burger was delicious all the same. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2019, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-familiar-with-hubcap-burgers-seen-any-lately-at-restaurants/837406/39 "2019-07-24T19:26:30Z")
These larger burgers were the first time I’d encountered high quality burgers with fresh ingredients. Decades ago there just wasn’t much choice. The small independent places usually offered paper thin patties and the burgers were often boring. I remember when McDonald’s opened in my hometown and was surprised at the thickness of the quarter pounder patty. Today high end burger places are common. That’s a good thing. 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-familiar-with-hubcap-burgers-seen-any-lately-at-restaurants/837406.md?page=1)