How to wrap like In-N-Out

January 22, 2009 11:03 PM

How do you half-wrap a burger with paper like In-N-Out?

I want to wrap a burger with parchment (or butcher) paper so that half of the burger is exposed, like In-N-Out does. All I could find on Google was how to wrap a burger/sandwich so it is entirely enclosed. I assume there's a trick to folding and tucking the paper so it doesn't fall open when picked up.

(FWIW, I know In-N-Out also sticks the wrapped burger into a pouch, but I won't be doing that.)

posted by BradNelson to food & drink (11 answers total)

Going to In-N-Out to get a subject to dissect sounds like the best way to learn this skill to me.
posted by 517 at 12:06 AM on January 23, 2009

517: I'd love to, but I live in Minnesota.
posted by BradNelson at 12:34 AM on January 23, 2009

I've heard them referred to as burger diapers. That's not bringing a lot up on google, but it does appear that Johnny Rockets' also serves their burgers that way, and they have a location at the Mall of America.
posted by katemonster at 4:04 AM on January 23, 2009

Would this be similar to the BurgerFuel doofer? Which comes as a piece of cardboard which you bend and slot together which forms a holder for the burger?
posted by chrisbucks at 5:00 AM on January 23, 2009

http://escapetokiwiland.blogspot.com/2008/09/burger-doofer.html

Even a link to a picture of one D:
posted by chrisbucks at 5:20 AM on January 23, 2009

I'm guessing 5 minutes with some sort of Hamburger sized dummy, and a few tries with fresh pieces of paper will get you close. This is the sort of thing that I expect will be very hard to explain but fairly simple to do.

Surely it's something like:

1. place burger near one end of the paper.
2. fold the other end of the paper over the top of the burger
3. gather and fold the sides down underneath the burger
4. make a cuff around the whole thing

I'm excited to hear from a MeFite who worked at In-N-Out.
posted by dirtdirt at 6:01 AM on January 23, 2009

If I had to guess off-hand, I'd do the following:

First off, use crinkly paper like all burger wrappers have. A paper with too much strength will resist staying in the wrapped position.

1. Fold square piece in half so that it's a triangle. Optionally, fold over narrow band along hypotenuse to make an aesthetically pleasing look.
2. Place burger along middle of hypotenuse.
3. Fold 2 "side" corners of triangle around burger so that they meet in the back, slipping one inside the other.
4. Fold "middle" corner under bottom, up, and over, tucking excess into the "waistband" of the wrap.
5. Consume diapered baby burger.
posted by explosion at 6:51 AM on January 23, 2009

Do you have a Hardee's joint nearby? I remember that Carl's Jr (West Coast equivalent of Hardee's) have burger diapers too, so theortically Hardee's should have them... unless it's just the West Coast.

Burger diaper = best phrase of the day
posted by curagea at 10:47 AM on January 23, 2009

Because you made me hungry... I give pictures and videos of my morning trip to In-N-Out. Including a kid in a stormtrooper hoodie, me getting busted for filming, and a demonstration of wrapping technique. Warning, the AVIs are 96MB and 14MB.
posted by zengargoyle at 12:21 PM on January 23, 2009

explosion, that's an extremely good set of instructions if you're just visualizing it in your mind's eye. Seriously, you have great spatial reasoning.
posted by Precision at 7:28 PM on January 25, 2009

Having just gone to an In-n-out burger in the name of science, explosion's description is correct, except that Step 4 might come before 3.

Also, after wrapping the burger, In-n-out puts it in a pre-made pouch.
posted by zippy at 1:19 PM on February 5, 2009