You bet your buns Seymour’s 200-pound burger is still happening
SEYMOUR - Hold the ketchup slide and the Bun Run, but the 200-pound burger is still on.
Much of the 32nd annual Burger Fest has been put on hold this year due to the coronavirus, but the tradition of cooking up a giant patty in the city that prides itself on being “The Home of the Hamburger” is a go for Aug. 8. It is, after all, the 150th birthday this year of Charlie Nagreen, the Hortonville native who, in 1885, had the idea of smashing a meatball between bread, calling it a hamburger and selling it at the fair in Seymour.
Instead of being served to festival goers, this year’s whopper burger will feed essential workers in the community.
“The first responders really deserve a little something. We can’t do much with a burger, but at least we’ll give them a little notoriety and some recognition for what they do, because they’re very essential,” said Jim Campbell, longtime supervisor of the six-person crew who will fry it up and a past Home of the Hamburger Inc. president. “It’s the least we can do.”
He’s hoping for a good turnout of invited workers, because 200 pounds is a lot of burgers — usually 500 to 550. If you’re quick with math, you’re probably thinking wouldn’t it be more like 800 quarter-pounders? But Campbell said the meat cooks down some through the process, and the way it’s cut up into individual burgers usually ends up being more than a quarter-pound per serving. Trust Campbell, he knows.
The burger is normally served free to festival goers in exchange for a donation to the local food pantry, but organizers wanted to find a way to still fire up the specially made outdoor oven without the crowds. The burger chefs will wear masks and gloves to safely prepare it and then will individually wrap each burger in foil for essential workers to stop by and pick up.
“I don’t want to have anything left over,” he said.
American Food Groups has donated the beef for the ceremonial patty since 1996 or 1997, Campbell said. A local bakery donates the bun, baked in a bread pan that’s 40 inches across and 6 inches deep — custom-made by Campbell.
The burger will be made on Depot Street, which is also the site of the Burger Fest car show that will follow the 11 a.m. Burger Fest parade. The cooking starts at 5:30 a.m. and is expected to be done by 1 or 2 p.m. People can stop by and take a look but are asked to social distance.
What’s there to see, you ask? “You know, we flip that burger. It doesn’t just fry like a meatloaf,” Campbell said. “It takes some manpower. We used to do it with two people, we’d flip it, and we’d just about kill ourselves. Now we have four that flip it. It works quite well. A lot of fun.”
This year’s Burger Fest won’t include things like the Bun Run, ketchup slide, burger-eating contest and hot air balloon rally, but organizers are already looking forward to their return in 2021. If you’re Campbell, the hope is the next one is always bigger and better, including the burger.
“Our next thing is to try to make a 10,000-pound burger with a bun, but I don’t think that’s going to happen in the near future. It would be a world record.”