Comment of the Day: The Sacrilege of Ketchup on a Burger

By Cathy Matusow Tue., Nov. 29 2011 at 5:00 PM

Here on Eating Our Words, the commenters absolutely make the blog, and our Comment of the Day honors the best of the bunch.

Every day, we read you guys and pick the commenter, or commenters, who made us laugh, cry, salivate over something delicious, or think about things in a new way.

In return, we offer them a virtual White Russian.

Today Christina Uticone wrote about how she's assimilating in Texas by learning to leave ketchup off her burgers.

Albert Nurick chimed in on why Texans do this:

On a high-quality burger, less is more.
Ketchup and mustard can hide all sorts of woes; neither are required if the beef is juicy, the right amount of cheese is present, and the veggies are fresh.

When I want to evaluate a burger joint, I order a cheeseburger with lettuce, onion, and pickles. The flavor of the meat is front and center.

Make sense to us!

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Odp207

So ketchup and mustard can hide bad meat but onions and pickles don't? I am not sure I follow this.

Bruce R

Agreed.

In summary, real Texans use mustard, pickles, lettuce, and onions. This allows the flavor of the meat to shine through. Yankees use ketchup because they eat low quality meat and can't afford tomatoes.

Jack Tyler

I never saw ketchup on a hamburger until my parents moved the family to southern Ohio in the late 50's. Until then, a burger "all the way" always included mayonaise, mustard, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles and onions. All of a sudden, my life changed and there was always ketchup and tomatoes were available at an extra cost. My parents told me that Yankees used ketchup on burgers because it was cheaper than tomatoes. I always like my tomatoes fresh and not processed into a sweetened mush.

Bruce R

McDonald's puts ketchup on their hamburgers. And they've sold billions of them.

Jack Tyler

Those of us who offer our opinions about food merely are offering our opinions. Food is a matter of taste and obviously, billions of sales of a food item that I don't care for are ample evidence that many don't share my opinion of Big Macs and Whoppers.

Burger Serf

Burger King Whoppers have kethcup on them by default. Are you saying you'd never eaten a Whopper?

Jack Tyler

I had never eaten a Whopper. The only experience I have ever had with Burger King was when we sold two lots we owned on Wheeler Street at Almeda to a guy to open a Burger King. Burger King was just a Florida operation until about 1959 when we moved to Ohio. I've tried them since and see no redeeming qualities there.

Jeff

Whatever. I like my condiments. I'm not interested in the high quality of the meat. I'm not putting condiments on there because they make a dry burger more moist. I do it because I like the way they taste.