Welcome To My El Reno Big Hamburger Day Gallery!
May 6, 2006
This is the 18th year for volunteers to cook the big hamburger that weighs 750 pounds and is 8 ˝ feet across. It contains 250 pounds of meat, a bun weighing 350 pounds, and 150 pounds of onions.
Firefighters use an 8 ˝ feet diameter, knee high, metal fire ring to build a fire using tree cutouts a foot wide.
Firefighters also help mix the dough used to make the bun that is cooked in a unique gas oven specially designed and built by vo-tech students. The bun is delivered to the site by a wrecker the morning of Big Hamburger Day after being cooked the day before.
Another specially designed tool used to produce the big hamburger is the saw used to cut the bun top away from the bun bottom.
The hamburger is cooked using two identical grills constructed and assembled to be bolted together, so when the assembled grills are raised into the air by the special built winch and flipped over the food will remain intact.
Upon completion of the burger, a team uses round cutters to cut the hamburger into 300 burgers which are given to the crowd.
During the cooking of the big burger a “King of the Big Burger” is crowned during a special ceremony. Craig Huber is this year’s King. Craig has given hundreds of hours helping El Reno’s Big Hamburger Day be successful since the beginning.
Also during the cooking of the big hamburger, adults as well as children may participate in burger eating contests.
The Burger Day festival is a daylong event that begins at 10:00 AM. Visitors to this festival enjoy many sights, sounds, and smells wafting from the many booths. The air is filled with the delicious mixture of smells such as onion burgers cooking, strawberry crepes, cotton candy, hot dogs, cheese fries, roasted corn, kettle corn, and funnel cakes.
Three blocks of streets that normally have cars driving to and fro are lined instead with classic cars and trucks for the visitors to view and drool over. Car enthusiasts can see classis Corvettes, Model Ts, and motorcycles all competing for best of show.
Classic planes zoom overhead courtesy of Oklahoma Commemorative Air Force.
Visitors who are craft minded can browse through 35 crafting booths. The children are delighted to pet animals in a petting zoo, enjoy a pony ride, several kiddy rides, giant slides, a bean bag toss, fish tank, and dunk tank.
Visitors in need of a few minutes rest can sit, watch,
and listen at several stages that have entertainment from country to hard
rock, and several children’s stages featuring local talented
school children including a local “Burger Day Idol” contest.
This year, a second grader won the Burger Day Idol contest by dancing a
Celtic Dance in costume.
Click Photo To See Enlarged Image
