Those are some good burgers, dude. J. Kenji Lopez-Alt reverse engineered In-N-Out’s legendary “Spread” and made himself a Double-Double.

I’ve been a rabid, if underexposed fan of the cult-ish fast food burger joint since I tried my first Double-Double (that’s two patties, two slices of cheese) a couple years back. As burgers go, it’s an oddity in my book, in that it’s not about the beef.



Sure, the fresh-never-frozen patties are tasty enough, but the sandwich is more than that. It’s the interplay between the ooey-gooey American cheese, the sweet, darkly-toasted bun, the juicier-than-average tomatoes, the crisp iceberg, the full, un-separated-into-rings slice of onion, and the all-important sweet, tangy, pickle-laden Spread. It’s a bomb that’s rigged to hit every pleasure center on my brain’s taste analyzation terminal (by which I mean my tongue). Salty, sweet, savory, soft, crisp, and fresh.

The Burger Lab: The Ins-n-Outs of an In-N-Out Double-Double, Animal-Style via Kottke