The "Pop" Burger: Where It All Started

Shortly after I came up with the first recipe for Pop Sauce (just to have a condiment at home to put on whatever food I had delivered), I was curious to see what more public opinion of it would be. Lucky enough, I was one of the managers at the restaurant I lived directly over, and had for years created dishes for the restaurant's menu, many of them burgers.

One of the burgers I came up with was the "Pop" Burger, which originally consisted of a thick beef patty, dry-rubbed with salt, pepper, and brown sugar, grilled to temperature, and topped with a slice of grilled onion, American cheese, pickles, and that early recipe of Pop Sauce I had taught the kitchen staff how to make. It immediately became the best-selling burger besides their classic burger, and it signaled the first ideas I had that Pop Sauce could have more commercial appeal.

Four years later (and a perfected-for-wide-appeal recipe later) I still make my "Pop" Burger, this time with two "squished" (thinner) patties, flattop-seared burger patties, seasoned with just salt and pepper — as the Pop Sauce recipe's flavors are now more "robust" — and the same grilled onion slice, bread & butter pickles, and American cheese. I serve them at home with hand-cut vinegar fries (handcut, skin-on potatoes soaked/brined in water-vinegar solution, then double deep-fried on my stovetop), that Pop Sauce, of course, goes deliciously with as well. 

Martin's Potato Rolls are the perfect match for nearly any burger, and work perfectly on the "Pop" Burger, as Pop Sauce itself goes perfectly on any other burger as well. I just think that Pop Sauce deserves a burger of its very own.