I’m watching a show and it highlighting White Castle. On an old menu, hamburgers were 5 cents and a “suger roll” was 7 cents. What is a sugar roll and why was it more expensive than a hamburger?
Nobody knows?
If it’s from the '40s, it’s probably because sugar was heavily rationed for the war. For some reason, sugar was one of the last items to be removed from the rationing system.
But was suger?
It’s something that sugs, of course.
Pure guess, but I’m thinking that a “sugar roll” was also a hamburger, except served on a sweetened bun instead of whatever the regular bun was.
Not like White Castle hamburgers were ever that large. At 5 cents, that’s hardly the price of a cup of coffee back in the 40s.
So it could just be a regular sugar roll, i.e. a sweetened roll or bun of some sort, but more normal sized.
According to this site, it seems to be some sort of bun. But if this is the recipe they used, that’s pretty fancy for White Castle.
Another possibility is that it was just their name for a sweet roll.
It seems weird there’d be no mention of a menu item from what will become a very well known American fast food institution today, So then, we have to think entire thing could have been the whim of a smaller owner who offered a unique item.
But if you asked people if WC used to have fried egg sandwiches, hot dogs, and grilled cheeses, but didn’t have french fries on their menu they’d be surprised and you, probably, wouldn’t find much evidence of it on the internets.
Of course there is this,
{…} Unfortunately, World War II presented serious challenges to the chain. Sliders, Coke, and coffee made up more than half of White Castle’s menu at the time, but when the U.S. Government began rationing sugar, coffee, and meat during the war, it became difficult to maintain the old menu.
White Castle turned to other menu items to pick up the slack. In addition to sliders, customers could also order fried egg sandwiches, hot dogs, grilled cheese sandwiches, and baked beans, a Depression-era favorite dish. White Castle also offered french fries for the first time. {…}
I also wouldn’t be surprised if after a similar time period you might not find evidence that McDonald’s sold pizza . . . much to Ronald’s delight.
This was like a year and a half ago:
Yeah, I would have guessed it’s something like a King’s Hawaiian roll (served as a hamburger instead of a normal bun), but I’m not sure if that would be the terminology in the day or if such a thing was popular back then.
Ok, so we think it was still a hamburger but on a different kind of bun…
Thanks for the participation everyone!
And butter too?
Id say not a burger
Call them cinnamon rolls or hot cross buns sweet rolls or sugar rolls.hits the spot with coffee after an onion burger or a treat unto itself.
Its definitely a cake to go with coffee or tea. Its likely to be a Swiss Roll .
See its listed with the coffee and tea, not with the hamburgers.
https://www.reddit.com/r/vintageads/comments/lb6986/in_1952_a_song_cost_as_much_as_a_burger_at_white/
“### Leningrad survivors recall one of the most horrifying episodes …
26 Jan 2019 — “As for me, I always had a special dream about a sugar roll with cream.” Chernykh’s granny was the first to die. Honolulu Star-Advertiser …”
Polar in Singapore do sell Swiss Roll as “sugar roll” today
Ah ha. Yeah, definitely a dessert, then. And, yes, it looks likely it’s like a slice of a Swiss-type roll.
If you zoom in on the first picture, the menu includes the following:
Hamburger 10¢
Coffee lg 10¢
Pie 10¢
Sweet roll 10¢
Donut 7¢
Coca Cola lg 10¢
This picture has both the sweet roll and hamburger at 12¢. Probably was a good-sized sweet roll.
