Place: Burger King
Lunch: Mushroom & Swiss Big King, onion rings (w/zesty sauce), Coke
BK's 2 for $5 "King Collection" lineup has a new sandwich, a double decker Mushroom & Swiss. I don't think I've ever seen a double decker mushroom & Swiss before. Then again, I'd never seen a double decker chicken sandwich until BK put one out there last Spring. It's still available. I guess BK is trying to maximize use of the triple bun. I just got one with onion rings because I don't think I could get through two burgers today, even though they're smallish.
Anyway, this is perfectly decent. Mushrooms, Swiss, and mayo. Works well with the charbroiled patties. Score one for the double deckers.
Pardon me, sir. What exactly is a double decker?
What? You've been reading this blog for how many years and you don't know this?
Well, you've never really taken the time to explain it specifically.
I haven't?
**searches blog**
Oh. I haven't.
Right. Let's do a brief history on the double decker.
Yay! Jolly good!
A double decker is a three-bun burger. There's the bottom bun, a burger patty, a center bun, a burger patty, and a top bun. You know, like a Big Mac. But the Big Mac is hardly the original.
The story as I know it is that Bob Wian created the sandwich at his diner in 1936 when challenged by a customer to create something different. He cut up a bun into three pieces and stuck two patties in between. It was a hit. He labeled it the Big Boy and started franchising the sandwich itself to others.
The general rule with double deckers is that they have lettuce, cheese (maybe one or two slices), and a special sauce. A few might have onions or pickles, but not all. Most Big Boy's used thousand island dressing as their special sauce. But Frisch's Big Boy of Cincinnati, who today operates independently of Big Boy International, uses tartar sauce instead. (They always have, even when they were a Big Boy franchisee.)
It was the Frisch's version that Burger Chef probably copied when they brought the double decker to the quick serve level with their charbroiled Big Shef. It used a "special sauce" that was essentially a spiked tartar sauce. (Hardee's occasionally rolls out a "Big Shef" in Indianapolis and St Louis to keep the Burger Chef trademark in their paws, but it's not the same sandwich. It's not even a double decker. It's a double cheeseburger with mayo.)
Then, of course, came McDonald's with the Big Mac, which has dominated the double decker segment ever since.
Sandy's had the Big Scot, which had the distinction of having cabbage instead of lettuce and a yellow special sauce that was a mustard-mayo based mix. Sort of like Burgerville's "Burgerville Spread". I have a copycat recipe of the sauce and made some Big Scots a few years back. It was pretty decent if you like cabbage. I'm not fond of cabbage, but the flavor made more sense with the sauce than lettuce would have.
My favorite of the double deckers is Arctic Circle's Ranch. AC uses ketchup and white sauce (their proprietary version of mayo) at company stores, but some franchises actually use fry sauce instead. I don't know why I like theirs so much, but I do.
Actually, I wouldn't turn down any of them. I still enjoy a Big Mac once in awhile.
And the occasional Big Boy.
