Lol Wendy’s has a good point. Though I think this person just didn’t quite have the words to express what they were trying to say. Generally circular (or mishapen blob) shaped burgers are going to be most familiar to most people. people have been cooking circles for a looong time. Breads across cultures are often circular- tortillas and pita and naan and all manner of rolls and such. You don’t need special tools or really any tools besides your ingredients and the cooking source- you roll a ball of meat or dough and maybe flatten it out etc. and you get a circle or near circle. Of course “perfect” circular breads and patties and such are to some degree a mark of skill or quality craft.
It also works out that when you plan to make a sandwich, having the bread and meat the same shape and general size can be convenient and ensure some consistency bite to bite when it comes to meat and bread ratio. But those are ancillary and come in later.
A big reason why the circular patty came to be so common is asides generally being simpler to make “by hand,” rolling and flattening balls of equal amounts of meat, a square patty “by hand” is quite difficult to make let alone consistently. In a kitchen with minimal tools and especially where large amounts of burgers will be made quickly, weighing or pre allocating balls of equal portions of beef is more achievably accurate to tolerance and generally faster and easier than taking a giant ball of ground meat and rolling it out and then measuring and cutting, then gathering the excess at the edges as waste or to be added in to other meat to roll out again. Logistically it’s easier to do circle in a “simple kitchen” setting. If you are using dies (like cookie cutters) to get “perfect shapes” quickly and consistently then they are about even in logistics. In mass production like a factory the point basically becomes moot, though not entirely, but we will get there.
Logistics isn’t the main reason, although one might say it could be a reason for early adoption of round shapes before such tools would be available or practical etc. the simple science is that it is easier to cook a round patty evenly and consistently. A round party of even or near even thickness will- when positioned properly in relation to the heat source for the method of cooking, cook at the same rate across the entire party because the distance from any point on the edge to the center is essentially the same. A challenge with square patties is to completely cook the meat without bringing the corners or leaving them under cooked.
In the age of “fast food” and where things like tiny costs make huge differences, a circular burger which fits the same footprint as a square one will use less meat for the same thickness since there aren’t corners. I won’t get into buns because that’s its own discussion. Skipping that I’ll say there are certain considerations in mass production. For example, a tubular shape- a log which can be cut into consistently thick circular patties, is easier to extrude than a bar when working with a material like ground meat. The corners present a point where deformities can easily occur, jamming, catching, you have product moving at different rates as it is pushed through the mold as opposed to our circle where each point is the same distance from center.
But it isn’t worlds more difficult to mass manufacture square patties- in fact it can be easier even. There are factors like the methods used, scale, and of course wether there is existing infrastructure/inertia/economy in your methods.
So it is and generally has been through at least modern history and the age of “fast food,” most common to see round burger patties. Largely because they would most likely gain early traction due to their favorable logistics and their relatively simplicity where technology has not matured for patty making or industrial production. Square patties do have some advantages, when it comes to things like shipping containers such as boxes, “square” tends to be the norm. Easy and cheap to mass manufacture, strong, simple handling etc. for the same reason “box” is a common shape for transport methods like train car and truck. Cubic dimensions are fairly easy to work with and calculating weight by cubic unit or costs per cubic unit are generally simple. So squats burgers in square boxes in square trucks can theoretically or at least intuitively be one way to maximize the amount of product being moved per unit of space, and transport and storage costs usually depend on unit of space and often..
.. a figure of weight by a cubic unit. So square burgers can possibly be more efficient when simple packing methods and standard containers and transport or storage are employed. A big but intangible potential advantage is… they are somewhat novel. Being that round tends to be the norm, a square burger is distinct in a market where toppings and ingredients and such are pretty homogeneous. Wendy’s was aware of this and so the square burger is a component of both their branding and market strategy. A way to stand out in a market full of burgers where adding lettuce or tomato or onion or bacon or cheese or an extra patty etc etc. are easily copied and not terribly distinct.
The founder of Wendy’s has said that he chose the square patty because it was distinct, because it allowed the meat to hang over the round bun which he believed would appeal to customers, and because more burgers fit on a standard grill without wasted space if they are square.
Wendy’s has actually looked at going round but has always decided to stay square in part because it was their founders original vision and in part because it is so much of their brand identity. They often rely on the images of square burgers or square burger based puns and turns of phrase in their marketing.
Wendy’s is aware, they have done focus groups in the past, and they know that there is a general perception that square burgers look more “processed” and less “hand crafted” by a human. Of course the perfect circles of identical and consistent ground beef that form the patties of fast food rivals don’t exactly look like what most human cooks are turning out, especially “home made,” but it’s a perception..
.. issue. Funny enough Wendy’s has always made it a point to use “fresh beef” for their burgers, a claim McDonald’s can still only make on certain burgers on their menu and one they couldn’t make at all until the last several years or so. For much of fast food history Wendy’s Pattie’s have arguable been “less artificial” than most of their rivals. Of course there was the king standing and still sometimes encountered rumor that Wendy’s used worms in their patties, and the famous Wendy’s “finger chili” incident which ended up declared a hoax didn’t help the brand catapult to the front of the market space.
But regardless, that’s what’s up.
It also works out that when you plan to make a sandwich, having the bread and meat the same shape and general size can be convenient and ensure some consistency bite to bite when it comes to meat and bread ratio. But those are ancillary and come in later.
But it isn’t worlds more difficult to mass manufacture square patties- in fact it can be easier even. There are factors like the methods used, scale, and of course wether there is existing infrastructure/inertia/economy in your methods.
Wendy’s has actually looked at going round but has always decided to stay square in part because it was their founders original vision and in part because it is so much of their brand identity. They often rely on the images of square burgers or square burger based puns and turns of phrase in their marketing.
Wendy’s is aware, they have done focus groups in the past, and they know that there is a general perception that square burgers look more “processed” and less “hand crafted” by a human. Of course the perfect circles of identical and consistent ground beef that form the patties of fast food rivals don’t exactly look like what most human cooks are turning out, especially “home made,” but it’s a perception..
But regardless, that’s what’s up.