Another Bury’s Secret Hamburger Sauce Recipe
Bury’s on W. Philadelphia St., December 1941 (Sweigert photo)
Fellow blogger Jim McClure has included several recipes, all different, in his posts that people have declared were the authentic ones used by the Bury brothers in their York County restaurants.
I have decided to jump into the fray because I found several more today at the York County Heritage Trust Library/Archives in a file on Bury’s restaurants. They also varied from recipe to recipe. One especially intrigued me because of the secrecy involved and the simplicity of the recipe itself. A York Dispatch reporter received it from an “anonymous source” in 1993 when he was digging around, trying to get the “real” recipe. Shades of Watergate!
The recipe follows below. Is it the really real one? Those who know aren’t telling.
Bury’s Hamburger Sauce
1 small can tomato paste
1 small can tomato sauce
1 bottle of catsup
At least 5 cans of water
Salt and pepper
Mix together and simmer well. Steam hamburger patties in water. Drain and/or fry lightly. Simmer cooked hamburgers well in sauce.
Simple huh? I plan to give it a try. In fact I might try them all. By now we could possibly publish a cookbook of “authentic” Bury’s hamburger sauce recipes. I’d have to throw in our family recipe, known as “Grandma’s Burgers in Sauce.” My 97-year-old mother-in-law got it from a lady she worked with many years ago at Peoples in downtown York. It’s a winner.
Click here for more on Bury’s restaurants and their locations.
