A Memphis Burger Joint Claims It's Been Using The Same Cooking Grease For 110 Years
Have you ever heard or seen something that has made you lose your appetite? It's the unpleasant conversation loudly discussed by the patrons behind you while you're eating. It's the sight of an insect scurrying across your plate of fries. It's biting into your fried chicken and finding that it's still pink in the middle. Sometimes, it's the revelation of how exactly your food was cooked that makes even the juiciest steak or the freshest salad look absolutely unpalatable. It all depends on your perspective.
Travel Food Atlas describes a delicacy found in certain parts of Canada and Alaska known as Jellied Moose Nose, which is the snout of a mouse cooked in a type of broth. Eater reports that parts of the American West and Canada enjoy a fancy-sounding dish known as Rocky Mountain Oysters — the deep-fried testicles of a bull calf, to be exact. These are only a few of the unexpected dishes and food combinations you'd never guess were enjoyed in the United States and all around the world. These dishes have roots in established regional traditions and practices and shed light on food culture in those areas.
Perhaps that same sense of perspective can be applied to a certain Memphis burger joint. While their meat isn't made from testicles or snouts, the restaurant is a firm believer in recycling a certain product for as long as possible.
Dyer's Burgers supposedly reuses the same cooking grease
Located on Memphis' famous Beale Street, you'll find a restaurant under the name of Dyer's Burgers. Known for their hamburgers, shakes, and deep-fried desserts, Dyer's has been around on the Memphis scene for almost 110 years. Unlike other restaurants, however, Dyer's prefers to keep a little memento of the past alive and well in their kitchen. According to the restaurant's website, the secret to their hamburgers is the fact that they are cooked in grease preserved since the first time the place opened in 1912. Each day, the century-old cooking grease is strained before being used to fry up their burgers, then re-strained and used again.
Roadside America assures would-be customers that some of that grease isn't exactly the same stuff used back in the 1900s. The staff sometimes adds fresh grease, so you're technically not eating 100% old grease every time you bite into a Dyer's burger. It seems that the method of reusing 100-year-old grease has some surprising benefits. Reviewers on Yelp seem to be willing to overlook the unorthodox cooking method thanks to how delicious their burgers were. Reviewers praise the burger's juiciness and tenderness (thanks to their unique cooking method), as well as the fresh-cut seasoned fries and onion rings.
If you want burgers that are as supposedly scrumptious as Dyer's, but lack centuries-old cooking grease, you can follow secret to juicy burgers.