On Thursday 24th August, Butcher’s Quarter – the boutique butchers and deli in Manchester’s Northern Quarter – will be celebrating National Burger Day by offering customers a two for one deal on burgers.

Butcher’s Quarter already sells 400 burgers a week, but the team will be upping production ready for the national celebration of beef on buns.

All BQ burgers are made in house. The recipe mixes 80 per cent chuck steak with 20 per cent aged meat to give the burgers their cut-above-the-rest taste.

The Butcher’s Quarter team will also be engaging with customers on social media on the day by running a poll on the best way to top a burger.

“We’re burger purists at Butcher’s Quarter,” says butcher Richard Silverman. “We believe the meat should speak for itself. If you have to have a topping, make it something simple like American cheese and bacon or mushroom and Swiss cheese. Our customers might disagree, though, so we’re taking the opportunity on the day to get a debate going.”

As an ode to the classic beef patty and bread creation, Butcher’s Quarter has also compiled the following burger facts, which are also available as an infographic.

Burgers by numbers

5 – the number of 107-gram burgers – on buns – eaten in one minute by Filipino Ricardo Francisco aka Rix Terabite – holder of the Guinness World Record for the most burgers eaten in 60 seconds.

5,000 – the number of dollars you’ll pay for what’s said to be the world’s most expensive regular-sized burger – the Fleur Burger. Served at Fleur restaurant in Las Vegas it’s made with wagyu beef, is topped with foie gras and truffle, and served with a bottle of 1995 Chateau Petrus red wine.

1,800 – the weight, in pounds, of what’s touted to be the world’s largest commercially available burger. It’s made at Mallie’s Bar and Grill in Detroit and costs $9,000. It may sound a lot of money, but it’s the weight of 10 people.

2.95 million – the number of pounds the UK burger industry is worth.

400 – the number of burgers sold by Butcher’s Quarter every week.

World’s weirdest burgers

For two weeks in summer 2018, Burger and Lobster in London’s Harvey Nichols store sold Double Drown Burgers, where the meat and cheese were sandwiched between two lobster tails instead of a bun.

In 2016 the BBC reported on how an Australian man had patented a burger/hot dog combo called The Hamdog. Part of the patent covered a specially shaped bun. Inventor Mark Murray pitched the idea to investors on the Australian equivalent of Dragon’s Den. He’s since developed a franchise based on the concept.

Maguire’s Irish Pub in Pensacola USA has a Hot Fudge burger on its menu. It’s made by topping a Black Angus beef burger with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and hot fudge sauce.

Slaters 50/50 in California sells a P.B and Jellousy burger that features a Black Canyon Angus burger, peanut butter and strawberry jam between its honey wheat bun.

Burger wars – who invented the burger?

There’s little agreement over who exactly invented the burger dish that the world knows and loves today. Depending on whose reports you read you’ll find one of the following credited with inventing the burger…

The Romans

A Roman cookbook called Apicius featured a recipe for a dish called isicia omentata that called for cooks to create a baked patty using beef, pine kernels, black and green peppercorns and white wine. No bread though.

Genghis Khan

Some food writers suggest that burgers were created by the armies of Genghis Khan. They suggest that patties of ground beef were created to make it easier for warriors to eat one-handed as they rode around. It’s claimed that they flattened the patties beneath their saddles as they travelled.

19th century Germans

Hamburg steak was popular in the German port of Hamburg in the 19th century. Taking the form of a patty of ground beef – but no bread – it was popular with sailors and travellers and the recipe is said to have been exported to America by German migrants.

Hannah Glasse

Brit Hannah Glasse was a cookery writer in the 18th century. Her cookbook Art of Cookery, published in 1745, included a recipe for Hamburgh Sausage made with ground pork, salt and pepper.

Louis Lassen

The Library of Congress supports the theory that Connecticut man Louis Lassen was the first person to slip a patty of ground beef between two slices of bread and serve it to the public. The hamburger shack where Louis first sold his burgers is still operating in New Haven, where it’s now run by fourth generation family members. There are only eight items on the menu – The Original Burger, potato salad, potato chips, homemade pie, Poland Spring, Pepsi, Snapple and Foxon Park Soda.

Fletcher Davis

Over in Texas, locals claim that America’s first ever burgers were invented and sold in small café on the Henderson Courthouse Square in Athens by a man called Uncle Fletcher Davis. According to legend, he took his recipe to the 1904 World Fair, where his hamburgers were reported on by the New York Tribune. The article did not mention Davis by name, though.