Dyer’s Burgers is a popular Memphis eatery that has been frying its meat patties in the same grease for over a century, claiming it is the secret to its delicious-tasting burgers.

Elmer “Doc” Dyer founded his now-famous burger joint in Memphis in 1912, betting on his secret mix of seasonings to make the patties irresistible. It worked, people loved Dyers’ burgers, but it wasn’t until one fateful night when one of the cooks forgot to change the grease in the pan that they became to-die-for. Kendall Robertson, the current owner of Dyer’s Burgers, claims that the next day, someone came in, had a burger and said ‘That’s the best burger I’ve ever had in my life’. That skillet of grease has never been changed since, so all the burgers are still cooked in the original grease that made the restaurant famous more than a century ago.

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“It’s the same molecules from 1912, it’s never been changed,” Robertson recently told Southern Living Magazine. “We strain it through to get any particles out of it and then we season it.”

Dyer’s burgers start out as round balls of meat that are pounded with a wooden mallet before being dropped in large cast-iron skillets filled with the restaurant’s legendary century grease. The thin patties tend to shrink when fried, so most people usually ask for doubles, sometimes triples, “because a single doesn’t really fill you up.”

You’d think most people would be put off by burgers cooked in century-old grease, but Kendall Robertson says they know about the secret ingredient and are not only fine with it but some actually double-dip. They ask for their entire burger – buns and everything – to be dunked into the flavorful grease before being packaged.

 

Just in case you’re worried about Dyer’s Burgers running out of its special grease, don’t be. The specially seasoned ground beef always creates extra grease when cooked, which means the amount of century grease increases with each new batch of burgers. The place goes through 750 to 1000 pounds of ground beef each week, and Robertson claims he has about 10 buckets of the stuff stored away, in case something happens to the grease in the skillets.

Interestingly, using the same broth or grease for years, even decades is not unheard of. This Thai restaurant has been cooking noodles in the same broth for over 50 years, and Otafuku, one of the oldest noodle restaurants in Japan, has been serving up the same broth since 1945.