Whats the best burger in history? Lets talk about that. Good Mythical Morning. Heads up. A new episode of Wonderhole comes out today. Yes, six p.m Eastern, three p.m. Pacific time on the Rhett and Link channel. This ones called We Chop Down a Tree With Peanut Butter. What? Yes, we did. Here’s a little taste. From elementary school on, it was Rhett, Link and Ben. He was our third best friend. He died from testicular cancer. But in honor of his memory, we thought, what could we do that might make Ben laugh even from beyond. Looks like you have made us a peanut butter ax. It’s sharp, Link. Yeah, you know. I know. Do you know how big the tree is that we’re planning on cutting down? We found out too late. Peanut butter ax is doing something. Ben would love this. Every summer, we had spent almost every day doing something together. We were caring for him in the only way we knew. Oh, yeah. Force that butter in. Ben was this incredibly wise person. Oh, my goodness. It sucks that that was the last time we were together. Maybe he’s here right now watching us cut down this tree with an ax made of peanut butter. Timber! Go over to the Rhett and Link channel. Subscribe, please, and thank you. And watch it. Yes. Throughout history, mankind has pushed forward to innovate and create better, faster, stronger versions of our greatest inventions. Not least of all the hamburger. And the hamburger, beautiful of a creation as it is, actually dates all the way back to the first first century AD. That’s right. Picture the Romans in a Burger King. Yes. Nice. I guess you would call it Burger emperor. Oh, yes. So, today we’re going to try the most paradigm shifting burgers in history and determine if the burger we know and love today is the best or if a superior option might be in our rearview mirror. It’s time for A Taste As Old As Time Burger Edition. Wow. This looks very interesting. Yeah. You know what’d be nice? If we had some sort of historical burger tour guide to help us through this. That’s what I was thinking. I’m Josh. I’ll be your historical burger tour guide. I was fired from Universal for assaulting the Jaws animatronic, and now I am here. We’re glad to have you. If you can walk us through the history of burgers, starting with this flagged creature. Yeah, so, this flagged creature is known as isicia omentata. I’m using the classical latin pronunciation, of course. It actually comes from a cookbook called De re culinaria from Apicius, which was actually written in about the fourth century AD. But it is ground pork wrapped in caul fat, which is a fatty membrane surrounding the digestive organs of several mammals. We. What? Chose to use pork in this one. It’s seasoned with wine, a fermented fish sauce called garum that we once made in the parking lot from scratch here. But we’re using store bought, which is fine, according to Ina Garten, and seasoned with pine nuts and a little bit of grape must. Enjoy. I was excited. Grape must. I was excited until he told me what it was. I know. He said it was pork? Like a pork membrane? It’s like a weird sausage. Sausage. Well, the membrane kind of melts into the pork meat. Okay. It’s organy. The pine nuts help quite a bit. I’m a bit. Oh, gosh. Why I keep biting into parts that, like, are aromatically alternative to what I would normally eat in a burger? Aromatically alternative. You know, I appreciate the effort. And some had to. Burgers had to walk so other burgers could run. I’m just thinking about this. Would it help if I told you that often fresh tuna’s blood was added to the fermented fish sauce to give it an extra flavor? Yeah, put it at the bottom, Josh. Yeah. That’s gonna be the least good one so far. That is a cute tower that you’ve stood by there. Thank you. I carpented it myself. Yeah. We will be ranking the burgers throughout time here and see who ends up on top. I don’t think it’s going to be that one. Nope. Both you guys breathed like you were gonna say something. Yeah. And I was gonna make a joke about the Waterworld plane at Universal. Go for it. Yeah. Because I was like, yeah. You start. It’s happening. I was actually the first guy to jump the Waterworld plane over the wall in the Waterworld show. Oh, that’s my favorite part of Universal. Yeah, yeah. It was an accident the first time. All right, so this is the Hamburgh sausage. This is invented in seventeen forty-seven, or at least that is the first recipe that we have. This is from english author Hannah Glasse. What you would do is you would take ground beef, you would mix it with suet, which is kidney fat, add some more wine so you see the Roman influence. And then the recipe says, to wrap it in, quote, the biggest gut you have, the biggest one we could find was simply intestinal lining, and then you hang it in your chimney over sawdust to smoke. We just use normal mesquite wood chips. But this is the first time we really see a predecessor of the hamburger served on bread. This is served on a german piece of rye toast. German immigrants came to the Americas in the late nineteenth century due to upheaval in the confederation of States, and Hamburg was known for exporting the world’s best beef. Hamburg. Hamburg. There we go. Yeah. In a hamburger. But they didn’t call it a hamburger, did they? No, they did not. I believe Delmonico Steakhouse in New York might be the first to be credited with actually calling it a hamburger. Yeah. Is it? Much later? Much later. Much later. But seventeen forty-seven, the Hamburgh sausage was invented. Also, burger as a suffix is very strange because it’s completely lost context without the ham in front of it, because Hamburg is the city. So cheeseburger means nothing. It’s a cheese hamburger. Cheeseburger means nothing. I mean, he just said that. Cheeseburger means nothing. It’s a city. It’s the city in Germany. Hamburg. What is burg? Is this morally wrong? Ethically questionable? That is not how it would generally have been eaten, because they weren’t disgusting savages back then, like you. But I think that is perfectly fine. Oh, they would have done what I was doing, which is like, chop it and? Well, that’s what I’m. I’m gonna do it as they did it. I’ll do it new school. I’m gonna bite through the bread and find the sausage on the other side. And I’m using a eighteenth century fork. it’s an improvement. But saying it’s an improvement. I know that we got. We got places we need to go. Anything was an improvement. Yeah. But this is actually a significant step up. There’s just less guts in the meat, which is helpful. Can I set that right there for you? Yeah. Where you thinking about that going? Well, it. I think it’s just going above. We’re gonna keep the timeline intact. So far, things get better with time. Will that pattern continue? See, now. That’s a burger. This is a burger. That is a burger. And the reason you would look at that and call it a burger is because of the bun actually. That was the first major innovation. That happened in nineteen sixteen when a line cook named Walter Anderson in Kansas decided that the formerly ball like burgers were cooking too slowly. So he gently patted the spatula down and realized with the new disc shaped burger patties, you needed some bread to fit it in. They were formerly just served on sliced bread, so he contracted a bakery to form a circular bun, and the hamburger bun was born. He would go on to found White Castle, where he actually turned the burgers square to be more efficient so they would fit on the grill with no wasted space. He was all about efficiency. What was his name? Walter? Walter Anderson. Walter. Walter Anderson. He made a burger, and then he immediately Wendy-fied it by making it square. And he invented the burger bomb. Yeah. And then he actually made his name more efficient by just going by Walt Son. Now, I noticed there is no sauce. That’s correct. Typically, I mean, it took a while for people to come up with all these crazy condiments. No In-N-Out spread had been invented yet. None of that. So typically, you would just serve beef in a bun. Beef in a bun. Beef in a bun. All right. Okay. He would then go on to add onions at White Castle, and that was known as a big innovation, too. We didn’t even have chance to put the onions on the burger here. I mean, it’s so much better, man, than the first two. And, I mean, this is a big step forward. This is like sending a monkey to the moon. But, just the taste of ground beef by itself is so good. Yes. Add some bread. It gets a little bit better with handling it. I mean, I think we know where we’re going. We’re going. We gotta go up, up. Up. But let’s just. Let’s stick with the timeline. But this is the first time today that I’ve really enjoyed myself. Yeah. Today is the last day to enter the Golden Tee of Mythicality giveaway. Three lucky Mythical Beasts will win either a thousand dollar Mythical shopping spree, an all expenses paid trip to meet us and see the Good Mythical Tour, or forty thousand dollars cash. What? You do not want to miss your chance to win, so go to mythical.com Mythical! mythical.com I got to com. You got to com. mythical.com, today, September thirteenth. For terms and conditions, no purchase necessary. Void where prohibited. Yes. Oh, yeah. You boys might know this as a cheeseburger, but back in nineteen twenty-five, when Lionel Sternberger invented this at The Rite Spot in Pasadena, it was called the aristocratic burger, the original hamburger with cheese. Who knows why they shortened it? I like the original name, but his father owned this diner at Pasadena, and he decided one day to put cheese on the burger. Also, we’ve topped this with lettuce and tomato, which was known as a California burger back then because California has the best produce in the nation and still does one hundred years later. Wow. And I see mayonnaise. There is indeed mayonnaise on it. We actually found the original menu, and you could add mayonnaise along with lettuce and tomato to your burgers. Wow. And just right down the road in Pasadena. Right down the road in Pasadena. Is that place still there? It is not still there, but if you go to another place called Pie ‘N Burger, they also have one of the earlier cheeseburgers, and I love them. I love cheeseburger. I love cheeseburger. I’m so glad that we live in the time of condiments. So, it only. It took him nine years for somebody, Lionel, to start throwing some cheese and some. And some stuffs on it. Nine years. I mean, what was his name? Urb? Herb? The previous guy. Which one? Walt. Walt, son. Walt Son did all of this stuff in the moment. Burger, burger bun, and other stuff that we learned. Nine years later. All that stuff. Like, so much acceleration. It just like. It was like a dark time. I feel like. Well. And now the bright light of cheese. Nine years was a long time back then. Think about how things change so fast with the internet. Everybody’s trying to outdo each other, trying to come up with just crazy stuff to, you know, for marketing purposes. Nine years, people were satisfied with just burger on a bun. But that is so much better. So much better. Let’s skip it. Let’s skip one. You want to skip a whole generation? No way. No way. Dads are fighting again. No way. Well, see if we’re. We can always change it. Whatever’s going to happen next. We just witnessed the biggest innovation in burgers, period. That’s what I’m assessing. That’s what I’m asserting. Okay. So. I’m fine. We can always change it. You think that we’re. And I’m gonna show some love to it. We’re gonna go back. Yeah, leave it up there. And you’re saying from here on out, it gets worse? Not that it gets worse, but that the level of wonderful innovation is not gonna be nearly as drastic. That’s my prediction. Okay. We’ll find out. All right, so the actual start date on the smash burger is heavily contested, but we are going to give it to Bill Culbertson at Dairy Cheer out in Kentucky. One of his employees smashed a burger down very, very heavily with a giant can of beans and then scraped it off of the griddle and noticed that it actually gave the burger a better crust. Bill, look what I did. That’s a great, dramatic reenactment, which actually gave it more flavor because of the Maillard reactions. And then now, in the nineteen fifties, we are in the era of McDonald’s, of In-N-Out, of all these competitors who start using different condiments, like special burger sauces, like In-N-Out spread or McDonald’s special sauce. Yes. Enjoy. And now they’ve come back. I mean, that’s the thing, is that. I mean, they’re taking over LA right now. Yeah, this has kind of been the dominant hamburger for a while now. The way that Rhett tracked the burger being delivered to the desk before we started rolling was like you hadn’t eaten in days. And, like, the, like, love in your eye, the glint in your eye, just watching it come towards you. Oh, no. This one’s Link’s. Oh, look at this. It was just true love. Yeah. If you. Some people, this is just how they interact with food. If, you know, you know. I mean, I’ve had five burgers, or how I have lost track. I could eat this entire thing and this entire thing right now. This is so, so good. This is one of those places where I feel like. You talk, I’ll eat. I’m matching your enthusiasm, because I think this is my favorite food. A smash burger. Yeah, it is. It’s so good. I have about ten foods that tie at the top. Yeah. I call them the peaks. Okay, so where’s, say, in fifties, they started doing this in the diner. You’d sit down and they’d just. You’d watch them smash it, and then you’d watch them take that dome and put it over the bun so it would get all steamed. Now. It’s nice. You see what you’ve done here, Link? I’ve done a thing that we have to undo, posthaste. Yeah, you do. We got, this one is so, the innovation between this and nineteen twenty-five may not be as significant as the innovation between nineteen sixteen and nineteen twenty-five. Right. But this is so much better. This is the best. This is the best that we have had thus far, and I’m gonna finish that later. And, so the special sauce, the advent of that was in the fifties, too? Well, thousand island actually originally dates to the early nineteen hundreds, but the first recipe had, like, eggs, raisins, and almonds in it, and so you saw the rise in popularity. And this kind of relish, mayonnaise, and pickle or, sorry, relish, mayonnaise, and ketchup formulas start to come around in the nineteen forties with In-N-Out. Wow. They used to put raisins in thousand island? Yeah. I want off that island. For this grand finale round, we have asked Josh to predict where burgers are going, create it, and allow us to taste it. Gentlemen, I call this the Yōshoku Burger. Now, yōshoku is the Japanese word for western cuisine. As you’ve seen Japan come out of its isolationist feudal state into the Meiji Restoration in the nineteen hundreds, they sent emissaries around the world to find the best products and how to make them. It’s the reason that the Japanese make the best whiskey. It’s the reason the Japanese now have the best pizzerias in the world, using the Neapolitan technique. We’ve seen Japanese make the best egg salad sandwiches in the world. That is an American diner staple. I think they will next make the greatest hamburger in the world. We have ground Wagyu smash burgers. Instead of the Oklahoma onion style, we did a Japanese negi or green onion smash burger. A little bit of Bull-Dog tonkatsu sauce. It’s a Hokkaido milk. Bull-Dog? Bun. Yeah, they call it Bull-Dog sauce. It’s kind of like a sweet soy with generally some ground, like, stone fruit in there. And American cheese, because we perfected that. It’s a work of art. American cheese. So, it’s a smash burger still? I think, I think. Because I was anticipating, if he moves away from smash burger, we gonna. We gonna be upsetting this. It’s definitely smash burger, because that’s. That’s an innovation that we don’t wanna go back from. Correct. I think we’re post history when it comes to the smash burger, I think. Yes! Perfect. I love that. It’s like how Neapolitan pizza is the best, but the Japanese just made it better with playing with dough hydration. Okay. I’m just gonna stand here with my head out of frame and watch y’all. It’s hearty. That’s a good burger, Josh. Thanks, man. Wish I had a bite. I feel like I’m. I was fishing. Link’s looks, Link’s looks better. Okay. I feel like I’m gonna have to do a side by side. Link. Can you grab the? Or, Josh, could you grab the nineteen fifties burger? I love the story behind it, which helps it. I. You know, I’m just. It’s progressive. It’s what, the fruit sauce thing. What were you calling it? Bull-Dog sauce. Bull-Dog sauce. It takes a little getting used to. This is nostalgic. So, I’m loving it. But I’m also a bit torn. Like Natalie Imbruglia. He took a big bite. Have you ever. I don’t want to. This may be sacrilegious. But have you ever thought to yourself that sometimes, in certain applications and circumstances, that Wagyu beef is actually less preferable than non-Wagyu? Quite often, if I’m being honest. Yeah. It’s less fatty, right? Wagyu tends to be fattier. But it didn’t seem. It all depends on the type of muscle that you are grinding. We used about an eighty twenty grind here. But Wagyu, the fat actually melts at a lower temperature, which is what makes the breed of cow unique. This is incredible. This will sell. I don’t necessarily. Where? I don’t necessarily think that this isn’t where burgers are going to head. This is a great prediction, but if I had to choose which one I think is the burger king, which is not, not a sponsor. That’s not what we’re calling it. We’re calling it History’s Greatest Burger. We’ve already peaked. Yeah. I think we can’t go back. The fact that it was invented in the fifties, and now in twenty twenty-four, it’s having this resurgence, and everybody’s coming to their senses. It really shows us that we don’t need to iterate. We did that for the past couple of decades. Well, we need to. You know what? Just let us enjoy it for a few more years before we move on. You know what? Maybe twenty twenty-eight we move on. Just give us a few years, to really enjoy it. I totally agree. Make the announcement. All right. The smash burger is History’s Greatest Burger. You okay with that? I actually agree with you. Listen, I. We did our best, but like. You did great. I think they really did peak. And I’m gonna eat the leftovers of those. Link’s. Have at it. Fair. Thanks for subscribing and clicking that bell. You know what time it is. Hi, I’m Craig from Scotland. And we just finished doing the blindfolded burger taste test for my birthday. And it’s time to spend the Wheel of the Mythicality. The burger taste test for my birthday. Burger. Click the top link to see if we can rank fast food logos through time. And to find out where the Wheel of Mythicality’s gonna land. Today’s the last day of the Golden Tee of Mythicality. Go to mythical.com today for your chance to win.