Burger friends, I don’t know why we have to keep having this discussion, but as long as you keep mislabeling burgers I will keep ranting on this subject. Mini burgers and sliders are not necessarily the same thing.
As I mentioned back in my review of Mark (where you can also read the specs of an authentic slider), and as I go to great lengths to display in a tour of Detroit slider houses that I chronicled here, sliders come in all sizes. To my mind, Michigan is the leading state when it comes to producing great sliders (don’t have a fit New Jersey, you’re good too), and it produces some big ones. The burger above, from Bates Hamburgers, is the size of a typical fast food hamburger. What makes it a slider is how it was prepared, which you can see for yourself in this video. Hell, look at the slider they serve at Millers Bar. That thing is huge!
I understand why there’s confusion. Sliders were invented by White Castle, and White Castle makes tiny sliders. Sliders are often smaller than typical hamburgers, and are often eaten in sets of at least three. Further, slider is a more fun word to put on your menu than mini-burger and still get away with charging a non-mini price. And yes, eating a trio of small sliders is more fun for some than eating one, huge greasy slider on wax paper.
And still I plead with you, call your burgers what they actually are. If you’re serving Kobe beef mini burgers, call them that. I don’t want to think about you slathering american cheese, onions, and pickles on a small Kobe beef patty to make an authentic slider anyway! The mini hamburger has its place in the burgerverse, so let’s start calling it what it is. Words matter, so I hope you’ll join me as we take back the word slider.
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