Sissy Burger (hamburger with mayonnaise and without ketchup or mustard)

A “Sissy Burger” is a hamburger with mayonnaise and without ketchup or mustard. Dirty Martin’s (established in Austin, Texas in 1926) serves a “Sissy Burger” with mayonnaise, lettuce, tomato. Waynes Drive Inn (established in Lawton, Oklahoma in 1950) also serves a “Sissy Burger” with mayonnaise, lettuce, and tomato.
 
A December 19,2007 “Sissy Burger” entry in the online Urban Dictionary (below) from a contributor from Austin states that a Sissy Burger is “a hamburger with no onions.” While onions are not usually included, the defining ingredient of a “Sissy Burger” is the mayonnaise.
 
It is not known if Dirty Martin’s or Waynes Drive Inn first served a Sissy Burger. There is a 1941 “Sissy Burger” citation (below) from a San Antonio newspaper, but the ingredients of the hamburger are not stated in the article.
   
   
Urban Dictionary
sissy burger 
A hamburger with no onions.
“Give me a sissy burger and an order of fries.”
by Clinton Knight Austin, Tx Dec 19, 2007
 
Dirty Martin’s (Austin, TX)
Sissy Burger
mayonnaise, lettuce, tomato
$3.25
   
Waynes Drive Inn (Lawton, OK)
Hamburger  $2.29
Mustard, Pickle, Onion, Lettuce & Tomato
Sissy Burger $2.29
Mayonnaise, Lettuce & Tomato
   
26 January 1941, San Antonio (TX) Light, section 3, pg. 2, col. 4:
Try a Sissy Burger
(...)
There’s any sort of food on Broadway to entice the gourmet. He can go in for French food, Chinese food, Mexican food, Italian food, or kill himself on the burgers—the hamburger, the sissy burger, the cheese burger, the pigburger, but of course the hamburger is the rarest.
 
Google Groups: alt.food.barbecue
Newsgroups: alt.food.barbecue, alt.food.mcdonalds, alt.food.hamburger
From: “Jeff Wheeler”
Date: 1999/01/08
Subject: Re: Mustard on a Hamgurger?
   
Well yes..mustard on hamburgers is totally normal. In fact where I was raised if you wanted mayonnaise on a hamburger you was forced to order what was called a “Sissy Burger”. Ketchup was never standard on any kind of sandwich..burger etc. Was only used for fried potatoes.
     
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Newsgroups: soc.retirement
From: Bob
Date: 1999/07/13
Subject: Re: A Chocolate Malt
   
No, we “pure bred” Texans couldn’t eat a hamburger without mustard.  No ketchup either unless you’re at McDonalds.  Mayo makes what we call a “sissy burger.”
     
It’s All True…Mostly.
All I Wanted to Know Was How To Collapse a Trachea…
Jul. 5th, 2005 at 2:50 PM
Watched the documentary Hamburger America on Sundance—not only did it make me hungry, but it introduced me to some unique ways of making hamburgers: in 90 year old grease in Memphis, steamed in CT, the Gooberburger—a hamburger topped with peanut butter (that’s for you, cindyblue), a real Milwaukee butterburger (topped with, yes, a huge pat of butter), Texas’ Meers burgers, where they refer to any burger with mayo on it as a sissy burger (AGGGHH!),
     
Google Groups: houston.eats
Newsgroups: houston.eats
From: “Al”

Date: 25 Aug 2005 14:02:18 -0700
Local: Thurs, Aug 25 2005 4:02 pm
Subject: Re: Robb Walsh: 18 Hamburgers You Need to Try Right Now
   
I thought it was an amusing article… one thing… is it really a Texas thing to put both mayonnaise and mustard on a hamburger? As a fourth generation Texan all the burgers I grew up with mostly had just mustard on them, tho now and then there were mayonnaise ones. Don’t I remember mayonnaise burgers being called ‘sissy-burgers’?
     
The Phrase Finder
Posted by ESC on January 28, 2006
Phrases I’ve collected recently:
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COWBOY BURGER - Cowboy burger (with mustard), sissy burger (with mayo) and Yankee burger (catsup). Texan, 40s, relating phrases from a documentary. (Maybe: “Hamburger America” by George Motz?)
   
15 November 2007, Tulsa (OK) World, “Oklahoma 100: Meersburger” by Natalie Milkes, Lifestyle section, pg. F1:
You have to really want a Meersburger to eat a Meersburger.
 
But whether it’s a three-hour drive from Tulsa or an overnight flight from Japan (yes, Japanese tourists love the Meersburger, too), the first bite makes it all worth it.
 
At the Meers Store, near Lawton, burgers are served in tin pie plates with a fork, and unless there’s a special request, are topped with lettuce, tomato, red onion and mustard. You can order it with ketchup or mayonnaise, but there’s no telling what they’ll say about you behind the kitchen door. Owner Joe Maranto calls burgers with mayo “sissy burgers” and burgers with ketchup “Yankee burgers.” A burger with mustard? That’s a cowboy burger.
 
KillerFrogs.com 
MooseFart
Jan 21 2008, 01:25 PM
You don’t have to say #2 mustard burger. You just have to say #2, hold the yuns. #2 is a mustard burger while #1 is mayonaise. I don’t understand why they even have a mayo burger option. This is Texas. Usually a burger that is ordered in Texas that has Mayo is known as a sissy burger. And usually ordered in places like Plano or Frisco.
 
Chuck Newton
Cheeseburger In A Can - For Real
February 02, 2008
(...)
My favorite hamburger-chain-style cheeseburger is Whataburger.  Always on a wheat bun, lots of lettuce and tomato, muster (no mayonnaise or ketchup - no sissy burger for me), and lots of sliced jalapeños.