Cheeseburger: One of America's Favorite Foods

National Cheeseburger Day is celebrated every year on September 18. No doubt, plenty of cheeseburgers will be eaten on that day when restaurants offer discounts on one of America's favorite foods. Even when the delicious sandwich is not discounted, the price is affordable and consumers end up eating them often.

Origin of the Cheeseburger

One legend indicates that the cheeseburger came about between 1924 and 1926. According to a chef named Lionel Sternberger in Pasadena, California, a homeless man had collected enough money to order a hamburger at his restaurant. After he paid for a plain hamburger, he had enough money left over to request a slice of cheese to put on top of the hamburger. The hot hamburger melted the cheese.

The sandwich turned out to be so delicious that the chef called it a cheeseburger. He put it on his regular menu for a few cents more than a regular hamburger. People loved the combination. Thousands of cheeseburgers are sold around the world every day since it originated.

How Cheeseburgers Are Made

Everybody knows a cheeseburger is simply a hamburger with a slice of cheese on top of the meat patty. Other ingredients may be added to the hamburger patty and the slice of cheese. Usually, the cheese used is one that melts such as American, Swiss, cheddar, mozzarella, blue cheese, or pepper jack.

Cheeseburgers may also include lettuce, tomato, onions, pickles, and bacon. Condiments include mayonnaise, ketchup, or mustard. The combination is put on a bun just like a hamburger.

For those who are very hungry, extra hamburger patties can be used as well as an extra slice of cheese. Customers can request more than one patty on their bun at some restaurants at an extra cost. A double cheeseburger has two patties. A triple cheeseburger has three patties. Even though it is uncommon, there could also be a quadruple cheeseburger with four meat patties. Wendy's has a menu with one, two, and three meat patties. This writer sometimes purchases one cheeseburger with three patties and separates them into three sandwiches when she gets home.

Calories in a Cheeseburger

A hamburger has fewer calories than a cheeseburger. The average hamburger with one regular patty and condiments contains about 255 calories. The count could go up to many as 576 calories if you order a larger patty or double patties and all the toppings.

When one slice of cheese is added, the hamburger becomes a cheeseburger, and 50 extra calories are added. A cheeseburger made with a single patty and a single slice of cheese contains about 343 calories and 16.4 grams of fat. However, most cheeseburger lovers do not limit the sandwich to just one meat patty and one slice of cheese. They supersize the sandwich with other ingredients.

A quarter-pound of lean ground beef contains 193 calories. When other ingredients such as lettuce, tomatoes, onions, pickles, and bacon are added, the calorie count is increased. The bun adds 117 calories. Condiments such as mayonnaise, ketchup, and mustard increase the calories only slightly. It depends on what the condiment is and the amount that is added. Therefore, the average cheeseburger could contain as many as 480 calories with 24.1 grams of fat. If you make it a double with two meat patties, it could contain as many as 650 calories along with 35.3 grams of fat.

As you can see, a cheeseburger with just one meat patty and one slice of cheese is much lower in calories than when it is made with all the extras. If you want to decrease the calorie count, you could leave off some of the added ingredients, such as bacon.

Fun Facts About Cheeseburgers

The largest cheeseburger ever made was created in 2012 by Minnesota's Black Bear Casino. It weighed 2,014 pounds. It included an abundance of all ingredients, such as 60 pounds of bacon, 50 pounds of lettuce, 50 pounds of sliced onions, 40 pounds of pickles, and 40 pounds of cheese.

Approximately 40 percent of hamburgers served in the United States end up being cheeseburgers. Red Robin shared that over 70 percent of their customers would request cheese on their hamburgers.