The Pickled Hog @ Slater’s 50/50 | The Burger Crawl – Ep. 63

111 Slater's 50/50's August 2016 Burger of the month is the Pickled Hog. It is a burger inspired by a young lady known as Warrior Princess Phia. Keeping with tradition, the August burger at Slater's 50/50 is a charity burger. This year's charity is Sons of Charity out of California. They are raising money to benefit children with pediatric cancer. Princess Phia, a child suffering with cancer, had the opportunity to go to Slater's test kitchen and create a burger.

The story is that while Scott Slater talked with Phia in the test kitchen, she just kept eating pickles. So this month’s burger is very pickly: a pickle-infused patty, pickled bacon, American cheese, pickled red pepper relish, pickled jalapeños, fried pickled onion strings, pickled green tomato, dill pickle chips and pickled mayo on a pretzel bun. Just the lettuce isn’t pickled.

The pretzel bun is firm, which is rare at Slater’s, so I could lift it with one hand. The first few bites are very tangy. That tang hits the back of your taste buds, and the jalapeños add some heat. I thought the pickles might be too much at first, but once your taste buds adjust, it’s a solid burger. The bacon is delicious, tangy and bacony. The onion strings are thick and not very pickly, and the fried pickles are good.

It’s paired with Goose Island IPA, which gave me the hiccups. Billy was Snapchatting the whole thing.