Burgers

At least six towns claim they invented the hamburger — and the one the Library of Congress actually crowned still won't serve it on a bun or with ketchup. Which raises the real fight we spend the episode having: what even makes a burger a burger? Just in time for the Fourth of July, we trace it from the Hamburg steak to the smash era, then go round after round on the things that actually matter — the bun, the cheese, the sauce, and the doneness most people get wrong. There's the counterintuitive salt rule that decides whether you end up with a burger or a sausage, three ways to cook booze straight into it, and a running argument that neither of us fully wins. For the glass, the American Trilogy — rye whiskey and applejack, two of America's oldest spirits, built like an Old Fashioned for the most American holiday. For the full recipes and more, become a premium subscriber at https://sauced.supercast.com/ Follow us on Instagram: @sauced.pod Thanks to all of this week's partners: Palomo Mezcal: https://pkgdgroup.com/post/palomo-who-we-are Underberg: https://underbergamerica.com/