Food - Drink
Is There A Difference Between A Patty Melt And A Burger?
By STEPHANIE FRIEDMAN
There is a longstanding question on whether a burger can be considered a sandwich, and the existence of the patty melt, a sandwich-burger hybrid, shakes up that debate. A hearty meal invented several centuries after the first burgers were eaten, the patty melt has a few qualities that sets it apart from its burger brothers.
Like burgers, patty melts include ground beef, cheese, and onions, but instead of a circular bun, patty melts are typically made using toasted rye bread. Two more key differences are that a patty melt’s meat is square shaped, and while burgers can go crazy with toppings, a patty melt's magic is in its simplicity.
From the outside, a patty melt looks a lot like a grilled cheese sandwich, which adds an asterisk to our original burger-sandwich debate: Is a patty melt a sandwich? It has burger meat and sandwich bread, so it's really open to interpretation here — we'll let you decide.