I have a lot of them. And the New York Times just poked at one. Previewing tomorrow's food section coverage, the Diner's Journal blog foreshadows some "slider" coverage:
Meanwhile, back in the home of the burger, its most humble version, the slider, has been getting a makeover. Florence Fabricant writes about how it’s become trendy, high-end bar food, as likely to be made with seafood, chicken or cheese as with beef.
I'm guessing this is going to be another one of those "slider" roundups we see every few months in various guises and in sundry publications. My ire is piqued here by the notion that sliders can be made with seafood, chicken, or cheese.
They can't.
I will also hazard a guess that even the beef-based sandwiches Ms. Fabricant ends up covering will be mini hamburgers rather than sliders.
People, a slider is something very specific. It is not just a mini hamburger. It's a thin, thin slip of beef, cooked on a griddle with onions and pickles piled atop patty. The steam from the onions does as much cooking as the griddle. The buns are placed atop the onions, absorbing the pungent aroma and flavor.
A slider is at once a hamburger and, yet, something more. (Maybe because you eat a bunch of them at one sitting.)
A mini burger is just a reduction of the same old thing we already know, however much we may love it.
I love the New York Times. With a few regrettable exceptions, it's smart, well-written, and well-researched. And as more and more people get their info from sketchy sources, it's all the more important that the Times remain a bulwark of reliability. And that's why it saddens me to see the paper's food section get sloppy with the burger terminology.
My guess is that the food section is already printed and ready to go, since its coverage isn't that time-sensitive. So the editors there probably can't make the necessary changes to Ms. Fabricant's piece.
That's fine. I've vented here. But I expect a correction in Thursday's paper.
Over the years, customers conied a multitude of derisive or sarcastic terms for the company and its hamburgers, including porcelain palace, and sliders. (After successfully dodging the term slider since the 1930s, White Castle finally embraced it and featured it in its advertising but changed the spelling to Slyder for copyright reasons.)
White Castle got the trademark on "Slyder" in 1994. It has been in business since 1921. As far as I'm concerned, they don't deserve to own the term in any form after having fled from it for 73 years. Furthermore, they do not own, nor did they coin the term slider, so I think we can avoid "mini burger" in reference to White Castle–style burgers.
KingBoo: I just realized, you tend to comment on slider posts. That's awesome. I think you and I are both fans of the style. It's safe to say that this site wouldn't exist were it not for the slider. I wanted a place to blab about them, as they're my favorite form of burgerage.
Agree whole heartedly with the description of sliders, the frying onion juice HAS to permeate the beef.
Your choice of "newspapers" is a bit puzzling. You can get as much ACCURATE info from the NY times as you can from the National Enquirer, with one big exception, the Enquirer will NOT be going out of business soon, the same CANNOT be said for the "times.
This kind of reminds me of the time Savage Love banned all "porn" spellings of various acts and fluids from his column.
@capicola (aka gabagool) National Enquirer is doing badly, because it is owned by American Media, which is actually in bad financial shape. It already closed Weekly World News, the greatest paper in its stable. One might compare Amer. Media's decision to "upmarket" Star to NYTimes decision to buy about.com--misguided attempts to join the media market of the future.
I agree with your definition Adam. I was thinking the very same thing last weekend while eating Little Owl's "sliders" which clearly belong in the mini-meatball category rather than mini-burgers.
--Guttergourmet
Mostly agree with your description - I haven't decided about the onion-steaming thing yet. I'd say that a mini-hamburger is still a slider.
Just read the NYT article though, and boy does she get it wrong. My favorite: "The Rhode Island-style Lobster Roll Slider." Huh?
And much as I like the burger at BLT burger, you have to question a chef who is making sliders and has never heard of White Castle. Laurant Tourandel is quoted as saying, "[The Slider] is something that is served in fancy places at the bar, not in fast-food places."
Way to go, LT.
Another big NYT article about burgers in Paris demonstrates that the French really have no clue what makes a hamburger. Of the three recipes in the article featured by Parisian chefs, two of them have you knead the meat with a bunch of mix-ins (pine nuts, sun-dried tomatoes, capers, etc.), and the other one doesn't even have a bun...
So according to this description, I've never had a real slider. I need to remedy this ASAP! Where can I get the real-deal onion-steamed pickle-topped slips of beef in NYC?
Actually, if we're going to be picky ... a slider is Navy slang for a hamburger. Has nothing to do with size. The nickname originates for the burgers sliding across the grill during heavy seas. The nickname made it into the general public following WWII with the return of sailors to the homefront.
Thanks for this. Good to know there are other folks who share my nostalgia for the premise that, at least in the food, world, words have specific referents.
I think if you wan't to stick to the strict definition and thus the original form of sliders as the basis on which all other forms are judged then the same should be applied to burgers. In this case I could fairly say if you are going to use the same logic on burgers, and use the Charlie Nagreen or Louis Lassen standard as an eample, you will end up slashing most of your favorite burgers and end up coining a new word for them. One should not be puritanical when it comes to burgers or sliders, but instead focus on the essential factors defining them and allow for continous innovation. Try telling a billion Big Mac fans that their beloved Big Mac is not a burger, but a fancy triple decker hot sandwich.
AK, I do love me some slider action, that's for sure! They are my favorite iteration of the form.
I like BurgerBelly's note on this. Language is not static and is mostly dependent upon current usage (I was an English major with a minor in Linguistics in college, so I do know a bit about language). If you say just slider, most people with think of just a small hamburger patty on a very small bun that can be eaten in a couple of bites. The only major distinction people make is in the actual meat used. While purists may differ on opinions I think the usage of slider in something like the New York Times is accurate for their readers.
With no White Castle here in Seattle, it's been a long long time since I was in one of their joints. Used to go to one in Queens growing up, but it's been about 20 years since I moved away from the East Coast.
Actually, I grew up in the west, so I had no idea about Crystal/White Castle until I was much older.
When I was in the Navy, the term 'slider' refers to all burgers, regardless of size/thickness/origin, mainly due to their tendency to 'slide' around the grill while the ship is rolling or pitching.
So, to me, when someone says 'slider', I don't think of a small burger, nor do I think of Crystal or White Castle, I just think 'hamburger', period. A 'slider' is completely non-specific.
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18 Comments:
If you are getting that nitpicky about it shouldn't they all be called mini burgers since a true slider is actually a Slyder from White Castle?
KingBoo at 4:02PM on 07/15/08
I don't recognize the trademarked term Slyder and don't allow its appearance on AHT except in meta-discussion of the term (as now). To quote from Selling 'Em by the Sack: White Castle and the Creation of American Food, by David Gerard Hogan:
White Castle got the trademark on "Slyder" in 1994. It has been in business since 1921. As far as I'm concerned, they don't deserve to own the term in any form after having fled from it for 73 years. Furthermore, they do not own, nor did they coin the term slider, so I think we can avoid "mini burger" in reference to White Castle–style burgers.Adam Kuban at 4:37PM on 07/15/08
KingBoo: I just realized, you tend to comment on slider posts. That's awesome. I think you and I are both fans of the style. It's safe to say that this site wouldn't exist were it not for the slider. I wanted a place to blab about them, as they're my favorite form of burgerage.
Adam Kuban at 4:39PM on 07/15/08
Agree whole heartedly with the description of sliders, the frying onion juice HAS to permeate the beef.
Your choice of "newspapers" is a bit puzzling. You can get as much ACCURATE info from the NY times as you can from the National Enquirer, with one big exception, the Enquirer will NOT be going out of business soon, the same CANNOT be said for the "times.
gabagool at 5:09PM on 07/15/08
This kind of reminds me of the time Savage Love banned all "porn" spellings of various acts and fluids from his column.
@capicola (aka gabagool) National Enquirer is doing badly, because it is owned by American Media, which is actually in bad financial shape. It already closed Weekly World News, the greatest paper in its stable. One might compare Amer. Media's decision to "upmarket" Star to NYTimes decision to buy about.com--misguided attempts to join the media market of the future.
NYminknit at 5:17PM on 07/15/08
Well, sounds like you know what happening. In that case, I would have NO PROBLEM saying bye bye to BOTH rags.
But, damn how do you know this stuff??
PS: Capicola.............you're sharp.
gabagool at 5:22PM on 07/15/08
I think NYminknit has been watching the Sopranos. ;)
Adam Kuban at 5:34PM on 07/15/08
I agree with your definition Adam. I was thinking the very same thing last weekend while eating Little Owl's "sliders" which clearly belong in the mini-meatball category rather than mini-burgers.
--Guttergourmet
guttergour at 9:22PM on 07/15/08
Mostly agree with your description - I haven't decided about the onion-steaming thing yet. I'd say that a mini-hamburger is still a slider.
Just read the NYT article though, and boy does she get it wrong. My favorite: "The Rhode Island-style Lobster Roll Slider." Huh?
And much as I like the burger at BLT burger, you have to question a chef who is making sliders and has never heard of White Castle. Laurant Tourandel is quoted as saying, "[The Slider] is something that is served in fancy places at the bar, not in fast-food places."
Way to go, LT.
Another big NYT article about burgers in Paris demonstrates that the French really have no clue what makes a hamburger. Of the three recipes in the article featured by Parisian chefs, two of them have you knead the meat with a bunch of mix-ins (pine nuts, sun-dried tomatoes, capers, etc.), and the other one doesn't even have a bun...
kenjialtci at 9:46AM on 07/16/08
So according to this description, I've never had a real slider. I need to remedy this ASAP! Where can I get the real-deal onion-steamed pickle-topped slips of beef in NYC?
butterface at 10:02AM on 07/16/08
Actually, if we're going to be picky ... a slider is Navy slang for a hamburger. Has nothing to do with size. The nickname originates for the burgers sliding across the grill during heavy seas. The nickname made it into the general public following WWII with the return of sailors to the homefront.
dauerad at 11:38AM on 07/16/08
Thanks for this. Good to know there are other folks who share my nostalgia for the premise that, at least in the food, world, words have specific referents.
The Gurgling Cod at 12:51PM on 07/16/08
I think if you wan't to stick to the strict definition and thus the original form of sliders as the basis on which all other forms are judged then the same should be applied to burgers. In this case I could fairly say if you are going to use the same logic on burgers, and use the Charlie Nagreen or Louis Lassen standard as an eample, you will end up slashing most of your favorite burgers and end up coining a new word for them. One should not be puritanical when it comes to burgers or sliders, but instead focus on the essential factors defining them and allow for continous innovation. Try telling a billion Big Mac fans that their beloved Big Mac is not a burger, but a fancy triple decker hot sandwich.
Q80 BurgerBelly at 1:30PM on 07/16/08
AK, I do love me some slider action, that's for sure! They are my favorite iteration of the form.
I like BurgerBelly's note on this. Language is not static and is mostly dependent upon current usage (I was an English major with a minor in Linguistics in college, so I do know a bit about language). If you say just slider, most people with think of just a small hamburger patty on a very small bun that can be eaten in a couple of bites. The only major distinction people make is in the actual meat used. While purists may differ on opinions I think the usage of slider in something like the New York Times is accurate for their readers.
KingBoo at 2:26PM on 07/16/08
"Slyder" -- wasn't he a character in Lord of the (onion) Rings?
Stushi at 3:20PM on 07/16/08
@Stushi: LOLZ
Adam Kuban at 3:31PM on 07/16/08
With no White Castle here in Seattle, it's been a long long time since I was in one of their joints. Used to go to one in Queens growing up, but it's been about 20 years since I moved away from the East Coast.
Stushi at 3:39PM on 07/16/08
Actually, I grew up in the west, so I had no idea about Crystal/White Castle until I was much older.
When I was in the Navy, the term 'slider' refers to all burgers, regardless of size/thickness/origin, mainly due to their tendency to 'slide' around the grill while the ship is rolling or pitching.
So, to me, when someone says 'slider', I don't think of a small burger, nor do I think of Crystal or White Castle, I just think 'hamburger', period. A 'slider' is completely non-specific.
HardwareLust at 10:09PM on 07/16/08