Talk:Slider (sandwich)

Unhelpful pictures.

I see three pictures in the article, only one of which could even remotely be regarded as helpful, insofar as distinguishing a slider from a normal burger. I strongly urge that a photo be included of a person holding a slider, so the smallness is manifest, which it is not in these pictures. Unschool 04:29, 1 July 2018 (UTC)

Etymology

Why the fuck are they called sliders?

Because they slide right in, and then they slide right back out. 67.168.228.147 (talk) 15:33, 18 December 2019 (UTC)

A less snarky version of the above is generally believed to be true. The ones created by White Castle were said to "slide right through you", due to being highly greasy. What started as a joke, turned into the accepted name for them.

I'll find a source for this (it's covered in one of the Imponderables books, among other places), but the White Castle etymology #1 is incomplete. White Castle has small holes in their burgers and they grill them with the bun on top. Steam enters into the bun and softens it. This is why they slide, distinctively from burgers at other restaurants, aside from the size.

When you consider that the five holes in the patty also mean that the patty does not need to be flipped, then this also suggests another obvious etymology. Drsruli (talk) 15:16, 25 April 2023 (UTC)

It sounds a bit like commenters here think that adding further speculative explanations somehow lends plausibility to each explanation (as if they made for a cumulative argument). However, more isn't necessarily better, and especially not here.

Instead, three different unsourced etymologies, none of which is clearly much more plausible than the others, amount to no etymology.

FWIW, though, Barry Popik is generally considered an authority on these kinds of things, and he supports the first etymology here. --Florian Blaschke (talk) 05:49, 17 July 2024 (UTC)

• Imponderables* is a source, though. (Admittedly, the idea that the workers came up with the name themselves when they no longer needed to flip the burgers, is my own. (I think?) But the small moist burgers sliding down, is Imponderables. The series specialized in explanations regarding American fast-food.) Drsruli (talk) 14:11, 17 July 2024 (UTC)

Claim of invention

So, a place in Hackensack that was founded 18 years after White Castle claims to be the originator of White Castle's signature burger, and we're including this information here as if it were somehow true why? 67.168.228.147 (talk) 15:33, 18 December 2019 (UTC)

Alternative history?

In Without Remorse, a novel by Tom Clancy published in 1993 about the era of the American-Vietnam War (late sixties?), refers to sliders: "'Prisoners,'a bosun's mater third-class said, finishing his hamburger, called a 'slider'in the Navy" (p. 551 of the 1994 Berkeley edition). This seems to refer to an earlier use than the White Castle use, but it might also be3 an anachronism. In support of Clancy's use, I found this article saying the U.S. Navy used the term as early as the forties: https://www.thedailymeal.com/1184020/the-naval-origins-of-the-classic-slider/ . This site discusses both White Castle and the Navy: https://www.kitchenproject.com/history/Sliders/index.htm . A search using "Did the Navy call hamburgers sliders?" yields a number of other articles that could be culled through for accuracy. Kdammers (talk) 01:09, 24 October 2023 (UTC)

History

"Sliders" was first used on US Navy ships. The hamburger patties would slide back and forth on the griddle, during rough seas. Guess what hot dogs were called, in the same seas...rollers. Sliders and rollers were a menu item on certain days. 2603:9001:4300:C011:1996:2E10:4F54:2D0B (talk) 12:57, 23 October 2024 (UTC)

That's interesting, but we need Wikipedia:Reliable sources. Mgnbar (talk) 13:34, 23 October 2024 (UTC)