Sweet or dill, on the burger or on the side, pickles are a big business.

Pickles are a typical topping on burgers and have been for a very long time.  We’re not sure who the first person was to put a slice of pickle on a burger, but ever since then the use of them has been hotly debated.  Some people think that a burger just isn’t complete without those crunchy dill slices, and others feel like pickles should never dare to make an appearance, except for maybe on the side.  How do you feel about pickles on your burger?

At Gunther Toody’s we have burgers for both the lovers and the haters.  You can enjoy our classic Original Burger topped with tomatoes, pickles and onions, or leave them behind and order the Hang Ten Burger topped with bacon, teriyaki sauce and grilled pineapple.

Obviously pickles aren’t just for burgers, you find them both alongside and inside sandwiches, chopped up in tuna, egg and potato salads, and even battered and deep-fried.  So even if you don’t want them anywhere near your burger, there are still lots of ways to enjoy them.  Let’s honor this controversial little burger sidekick with some pickle trivia.  Maybe it will help people to appreciate them a little more.

  • Archeologists believe the Mesopotamians were the first to pickle around the year 2400 B.C.
  • In America dill pickles are twice as popular as sweet.
  • Americans consume 2.5 billion pounds of pickles each year.
  • American households buy pickles approximately every 53 days.
  • More than 67 % of all households eat pickles.
  • Pickling cucumbers are grown in more than 30 states in the country.
  • On September 3, 2000 the Philadelphia Eagles overcame record breaking heat to defeat the Dallas Cowboys, attributing their win to the fact that they drank large quantities of pickle juice to stay hydrated.
  • A good pickle makes a crunching sound that can be heard from 10 paces away.
  • Cucumbers are technically a fruit, although they are usually treated as a vegetable.
  • The phrase, “in a pickle” was first introduced by Shakespeare in this play The Tempest.

 

pickles photo

Photo by swong95765