bakingbuyer - May 2011 - (Page 20)

BREADWINNERS Birth of the Slider Slider Buns are popular for mini hamburgers, pork sandwiches and even fish sandwiches served at homes and popular restaurants across the country. Did you know who invented the first slider? Following World War I, hamburgers became unpopular in the United State for a number of years, mainly because it was considered a German food. But then along came America’s first hamburger chain, White Castle, which popularized the miniature square hamburger, which soon became known as “slyders.” These burgers were just 2½ inches wide – less than half the size of a regular hamburger. A Kansas native fry cook named Walter Anderson, who co-founded the White Castle burger chain, is regarded as one of the first people to popularize the hamburger bun, which he shaped like a mini square. White Castle, founded in Wichita, Kansas, in 1921, punched five holes in each burger patty to help them cook evenly and eliminate the need to flip the burger. White Castle mini burgers sold for 5 cents in 1921. In December 1950, the price of their mini burgers skyrocketed from 10 cents to 12 cents. In later years, White Castle became the first burger maker to sell their hamburger “slyders” in grocery stores and vending machines. The chain was the first to sell a million 20 · BAKING BUYER · MAY 11 hamburgers and also the first to sell a billion hamburgers – as the first McDonald’s didn’t come around until 1940 in San Bernardino, California. Today, White Castle operates 421 restaurants in 11 states. On a Sweet Roll Another popular type of mini bun is the Hawaiian sweet roll, which is a variation of a recipe that borrows from the original recipe of Portuguese sweet bread, which – unlike most breads – contains milk and sugar to create a sweet and lightly textured loaf. Some popular variations of Hawaiian sweet rolls are made with dry potato flakes. Hawaiian sweet rolls are especially great for sandwiches because of the light texture. Japanese-American baker Robert Taira came up came up with the original recipe for the Hawaiian version of Portuguese sweet bread in the 1950s. He had discovered one day that Portuguese sweet bread could become hard and crusty after only one day. His quest during months of experimentation was to capture the delicious, sweet flavor of the Portuguese bread while giving it a lighter, softer texture that would still have a long shelf life. He used such non-traditional bread ingredients as eggs and creamery butter and developed a blend of flours to give the bread its light, cake-like texture. He knew he had achieved his goal when his Hawaiian sweet bread and rolls became so highly regarded that many of his customers bought it to give as gifts. The baker began to commercially produce his sweet bread and rolls in Hawaii, and it became so successful in Honolulu bakeries and coffee shops that he expanded plant production to California. King’s Hawaiian, the Torrance, Calif.-based company is the leading and original makers of Hawaiian Sweet Bread and demonstrates the quintessential American entrepreneurial success story – only this story began in Hawaii before that island paradise became a state. History of Burger Buns More than a hundred years ago, people ate hamburgers tucked between two slices of bread, not a hamburger bun. But in 1891 in the Heartland city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, history was changed forever by the founder of a local root beer stand that is still in business today. Weber’s Superior Root Beer Stand in Tulsa was the creation of Oscar Weber Bilby, who had begun experimenting with foods and drinks in the late 1800s. On the fourth of July, 1891, Bilby made his most significant contribution when he forged a piece of iron into a 4-foot grill. He then built a pit and heated the grill with hickory wood. His wife, Fanny, made sour dough buns,

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of bakingbuyer - May 2011

bakingbuyer - May 2011
EDITOR’S NOTE - The Bakery Showman
CONTENTS
INDUSTRY NEWS
APC/Crisco National Pie Championships
Caravan Launches New Website
National Honey Board Offers Bakery Formulas
Cake Boss Joins Get Back to Scratch
The Baking Channel
Preferment Primer
Birth of the Slider
Team USA Profile
Extremem Cakes
Macaroon Sushi
Think Outside the Bakery
Chocolate Mousse: Tips & Techniques
Get your Grill on
Effective E-Newsletters
"The Greatest Show on Earth"
Welcome Home
Getting to Know You
Brandon’s Cookies
Re-Cakes
Lessons Learned
Wedding Statistics
Efficiency in Motion
Syrups vs. Grounds
FEATURED PRODUCTS
PRODUCT SHOWCASE
MARKETPLACE NETWORK
AD INDEX
Baker's Dozen

bakingbuyer - May 2011