Cheesy and Fondue celebrate National Cheeseburger Day. We learn about the history of the cheeseburger patty and the dispute over its origin. We hear about a cheese waste disaster, cow patties and manure lagoons. And of course, we tell a very cheesy joke!
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Why is cheddar the most dangerous of all the cheeses? Because it is very sharp!
Show Notes
https://nationaltoday.com/national-cheeseburger-day/
https://www.timesunion.com/shopportunist/article/national-cheeseburger-day-2025-deals-discounts
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11194417
https://burgercravings.com/burger-blog/the-state-of-burgers-in-the-u-s-2021/?utm_source=chatgpt.com
https://carnegiemnh.org/the-12000-year-journey-of-the-cheeseburger/
https://medium.com/@ubawany016/the-cheeseburger-history-from-origin-to-icon-f9b747e0685e
https://www.foodbeast.com/news/three-places-that-claim-to-have-invented-the-cheeseburger
https://www.denver.org/blog/post/cheeseburger-birthplace/?utm_source=chatgpt.com
This Week in Cheese
Episode Transcript
Just Cheesy, the podcastpresented by Just Cheesy Productions.
Hi there. I'm your host, Fondue.
I'm Cheesy.
This week we're celebratingNational Cheeseburger Day. A little
late, that's true. We'retalking the history of the cheeseburger
patty and the dispute over itsorigin. We hear about a cheese waste
(00:23):
disaster, cow patties andmanure lagoons.
What?
We're even gonna tell our verycheesy joke.
I love a joke.
Stay tuned for episode 201.According to NationalToday.com National
Cheeseburger Day is celebratedevery year on September 18th.
We're late again.
(00:43):
Better late than never, Iguess. TimesUnion.com says that we
as a nation devour anestimated 50 billion burgers every
year. This is according to theUnited States Department of Agriculture
and according topmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov that's a mouthful.
Any given day, 21.4% of thepopulation consumed a beef sandwich.
(01:06):
Holy cow.
And they say that thisaccounts for approximately 10% of
the population's mean intakeof vitamin B12 and saturated fat.
Burgercravings.com said thatbefore the pandemic, 84% of consumers
either loved or liked burgers.55% of consumers eat burgers at least
once a week. And apparentlythey eat them more often when fried
(01:29):
eggs show up on the burgers.
Yeah.
And while cheeseburger showsup on the menu in the 1920s and 30s,
they come along a little bit earlier.
Wow.
For many, the cheeseburgerbegins with the bun.
Oh, yeah.
According to carnegiemnh.org,a bun's main ingredient is flour.
And this comes from wheat.There are 25,000 different forms
(01:50):
of wheat.
Holy cow.
And they're all descended froma plant called emmer, which first
originated in the FertileCrescent within the Middle East.
And the earliest evidence foremmer that was grown on purpose by
humans for food was at least12,000 years ago.
That's not the 1920s.
No, it sure isn't. The burgerpatty comes from cows. Cows are descended
(02:11):
from wild oxen. They weredomesticated in about two or three
different places. The FertileCrescent, the Indus Valley, and possibly
northeast Africa around 10,000to 8,000 years ago.
Holy cow.
Cows were one of the firstmammals to be domesticated.
Really?
And they provide many usefulproducts for consumption. Meat, milk,
fat, tool making, like horns,hooves and hides. They were even
(02:33):
used to pull heavy objectslike plows for farming.
Oh, yeah.
Consider cattle to be sacredbuns and patties.
But what about cheese?
Duh. Of course, cheese. No,cheeseburger would be a cheeseburger
without cheese. And we knowthat the history of cheese making
began well over 4,000 yearsago. And of course, how it started
is unclear. There's a legendthat says there was an Arabian merchant
(02:54):
who accidentally created thefirst cheese. He put milk in his
pouch, which was made from asheep's stomach. As he went across
the desert, the milk sloshesaround and it turns into cheese.
Yeah.
I'm so sorry for the oversimplification.
Yeah.
The legitimate use of thecheeseburger happens around the 1920s.
I looked around on theInternet and I tried to find out
(03:15):
if this actually existedbefore, which I'm sure it probably
did on the Internet. It lookslike around the world there's some.
Some dishes involving mincedmeat formed into patties, often eaten
with bread. There's theHamburg steak from Germany, which
was meat patties. But therereally isn't anyone claiming to be
the first ever cheeseburgerexcept in the U.S. wow. And this
(03:35):
is where it gets interesting.
Okay.
The main players are LionelSternberger in Pasadena, California,
Kalyn's Restaurant inLouisville, Kentucky.
Got it.
And Louis Ballast of Denver,Colorado. Foodbeast.com says the
food historians at CarnegieMuseum of Natural History support
the leading claim that a 16year old named Lionel Sternberger,
(03:56):
he was working at his father'ssandwich shop called the Right spot
in Pasadena, California in1924, came up with the ingenious
idea of placing a slice ofAmerican cheese on a hamburger patty.
Genius.
But not everyone believes thisis the case.
Really?
According to wh1.com IrmaKalin, the daughter of Kalin's restaurant
owner Carl, knows the legendby heart. She said, mother was frying
(04:19):
hamburgers at the time, butthis one particular afternoon, we
made lunch for some schoolchildren and she had some cheese.
She was making cheesesandwiches. She was getting ready
to put it away, and daddysaid, will you put some cheese on
that hamburger and see what ittastes like? She did. And he said,
that's pretty good.
Yeah.
Apparently Carl, the owner ofthe restaurant, liked it so much
he put it on the menu. Itshowed up in 1934 at 50. And interestingly,
(04:44):
he thought it was so simplethat he never thought to patent the
idea or copyright the name Cheeseburger.
Oh, no.
(05:40):
Kaelyn's restaurant is not asponsor. But if it was, the ad would
go right here. Carl put thison his restaurant menu in 1934. But
just one year later, in 1935,the term cheeseburger was trademarked
by Lewis Ballast.
Wow.
Owner of none other than theHumpty Dumpty Barrel Drive in in
Denver, Colorado. Denver.orgsaid that ballast actually tried
(06:03):
peanut butter and chocolatebefore landed on cheese, but of course
the customers preferred thecheese. Yeah, he trademarked the
name and was the earliestdocumented case of legally protecting
a specific food.
Wow.
There's still a monument inDenver today. There's a couple of
honorable mentions here in LA.
Okay.
According to Wikipedia, in1928 at Odell's they listed a cheeseburger
(06:26):
smothered with chili. And thatactually predates the Louisville
and the Colorado claim.
Whoa.
I guess we'll never know.
Nope.
It's time for my favoritesegment this week in cheese. WGRZ.com
mentions a pretty significantwastewater accident that happened
a few weeks ago.
Oh no.
Great Lakes cheese facility inFranklinville actually had a wastewater
(06:47):
discharge that led to thedeath of tens of thousands of fish
and other wildlife in a creek.And they've got a temporary permission
to basically take their wastefrom the facility and transport it
to nearby farms by tankertrucks to be used in something called
manure lagoons.
Manure lagoon?
Yeah, that's right. There arethings called manure lagoons. You
(07:09):
know, not all patties thatcome from a cow are edible. A manure
lagoon, according to theLivestock and Poultry Environmental
Learning Community saidthey're basically giant earth built
ponds that farms use to storeand treat animal waste.
A poop pond?
Yep, a poop pond.
Ask me the gray poopon.
Apparently most are anaerobiclagoons, meaning the decomp happens
(07:31):
without oxygen. This helpsbreak down the mess and reduce how
much odor escapes when wellmanaged. And this keeps things more
stable until the waste can beput to use. And obviously if the
design or maintenance slips,the lagoons can turn into what they
call smelly trouble. Sludgebuilds up, odors get wild, and runoff
(07:52):
or overflow becomes a risk.
No whey.
It says here though, ifthey're kept up well, they're very
effective. They're cheap, longterm storage, they have less odor
and fewer shocks to the localwater or air.
I'm ready for a joke fondue.
Okay. Why did the cow blushwhen it saw the cheeseburger?
I have no idea.
It saw its buns. Oh, I lovethat one.
(08:13):
Yeah, it was good.
And it was definitely a littlebit cheesy. Thanks for listening
to Just Cheesy the podcast,episode 201 Patty.
Thank you.
Check out our YouTube andTikTok this week for a couple of
joke episodes regarding Patty
Patty,
I think you'll love them.
(08:34):
And stay cheesy everybody
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