The 3 Items The Original Burger King Specialized In

Many of America's popular fast food chains got their start in the mid-20th century, serving simple yet delicious fare at accessible prices. Among them was Burger King, which opened only a few years after McDonald's in 1953. The enterprise's earliest roots go back to a Jacksonville, Florida-based business called Insta-Burger-King, which franchised a year later in Miami, and then was renamed to the current Burger King.

During its initial years, Burger King specialized in three items, offering its own take on the pragmatic food style proliferating nationwide. The focus consisted of broiled beef burgers, cheeseburgers, and shakes. All three came priced affordably: The beef burgers and shakes cost 18 cents a piece, while the cheeseburger cost 23 cents — all prices under the $3 mark today, per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. To prop up such offerings, fries and soft drinks were available, too.

The food items were prepared via the eponymous Insta-machines, which automated both the burger and shake production. For burgers, the setup consisted of an innovative conveyor belt system, which aimed to minimize human contact during cooking, toasting buns and cooking patties. Meanwhile, the Insta-shake operated with a similar optimization, transforming pre-batched liquid into a frozen treat via a cooled mechanism. 

The classic Whopper, arguably the chain's best burger, would soon follow in 1957. While this offering came at a pricer 37 cents, it contained a quarter-pound patty on a five-inch bun — a size uncommon at the time. Predating even the Big Mac by a decade, this Burger King specialty went on to define the brand, propping up sales for decades.

Despite the intriguing mechanics behind Insta-machines, the setup didn't consistently function as intended. Breakdowns proved frequent – too often grinding operations to a halt. Subsequently, the chain's management sought out a replacement, implementing a new flame-broiler system in the late 1950s, which continues to cook dozens of flame-broiled patties simultaneously to this day.

Over the years, management has strayed from the streamlined menu, serving up abundant riffs on the classic Whopper dating back earlier than you may imagine. In 1963, a Puerto Rican Burger King operator invented the Whopper Jr., downsizing the dish. Into the 21st century, substitutions for the beef patty appeared. The Chicken Whopper came out in 2002, an extra-spicy Angry Whopper in 2008, and the plant-based Impossible Whopper in 2019. Clearly, Burger King has pivoted from its three-item focus — but traces of its template focused on flame-broiled hamburgers, cheeseburgers, and shakes still remain over half a century down the line.