The 3 Beef Cuts Culver's Uses To Make Its ButterBurgers

You already know what makes butter burgers special — it's the delicious layer of butter that slicks the buns. A Culver's ButterBurger is a magical thing, indeed; Reddit reviews have dubbed it the best fast food burger around. But Wisconsin dairy isn't the only component of Culver's burgers that sets them apart. Per the chain's own website, a ButterBurger is composed of no fewer than three cuts of beef, each bringing its own benefits to the finished patty. The cuts are sirloin, chuck, and plate. Notably, the beef is never frozen!

Beef cuts vary based on the part of the cow from which they are cut ... and, yes, this makes a big difference. In any animal, diverse body parts are exercised with different frequency and intensity, which contributes meaningfully to the leanness or fattiness of the meat and the concentration of flavor. Sirloin, for instance, is a leaner cut. It's sourced from a section towards the back of the cow and has a milder taste than other cuts of beef. This makes it a great workhorse product that forms a worthy basis for building flavor. Chuck, on the other hand, comes from the well-exercised shoulder of the cow and is imbued with rich, beefy flavor. Beef plate, from the lower belly of the cow, provides fat and even more flavor. As the best burgers involve an ideal ratio of meat to fat, you can see that Culver's took great pains to mix up its blend in order to hit all the right notes.

It's true that, for burgers cooked at home, many amateur cooks grab a pack of 80/20 chuck from the meat case and have at it. With proper handling and grill technique, this will produce a perfectly delicious meal. Why, then, do pro burger fanatics — like the geniuses behind the Culver's ButterBurger — invest more effort in creating a blend of beef cuts? It's indubitably more work and costs more to source the right meats for the job, after all.

The answer is something that you might have figured out when we enumerated the strengths of each beef cut: no one cut can bring everything to the table. Go with just one, and you end up sacrificing something. Chuck is cheap, for instance, and it's suitably fatty for juicy burgers, but you're losing out on richness. You wouldn't want an entire sirloin burger, either, due to its lack of fat, but it shines when paired with a more unctuous cut (like chuck and plate). 

Experts have determined that beef contains several essential flavor notes, such as umami, gaminess, and grassiness, and that true beef nirvana is achieved when you can balance those flavors. Unsurprisingly, a beef blend is the only way to max out all those notes. Many burger gurus swear by a blend that includes brisket, but Culver's stands out for bringing in beef plate, which doesn't get as much mainstream love. With every ButterBurger you eat alongside cheese curds and luscious custard, you're enjoying a product with a lot of thought behind it ... which might be the ultimate ButterBurger difference.