On a typical day, Johnnie’s Drive-In serves up some 400 doughburgers.

Many of those burgers go to fans of Tupelo native Elvis Presley, who ate at Johnnie’s as a child. The booth he frequented is still in use today.

“Everybody who’s into Elvis is going to want the doughburger,” said restaurant co-owner Christi White.

Never mind the ribeye steak sandwiches, hamburger steaks or barbecue plates that are on the menu. It’s the doughburger that reigns supreme.

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The menu at Johnnie’s Drive-In in Tupelo remains as classic as the building itself.

But what exactly is a doughburger?

A doughburger by any other name

Doughburgers are originally products of the Great Depression, when cooks would stretch their pennies by mixing extenders like flour, potato flakes, corn meal or grits into ground beef or pork. The cooks would shape this combination into patties, fry them and then serve them on white buns with pickles, mustard and onions.

A culinary creation of the South, doughburgers have picked up a slew of colliquial names over the decades, including fillerburgers, cerealburgers and, most commonly, slugburgers, a name that referenced their cost — a nickel, or a “slug” – at the time.

Also, some say that it was John Weeks who created the slugburger in Corinth, tying the city to the dish. Each year, the city hosts a festival celebrating the slugburger, drawing thousands of fans to the area.

But is there a difference between a doughburger and slugburger? Well, that depends on who you ask.

“Slugburgers, I’ve always heard have pork mixed in; we don’t do that,” White said. “Ours have ground beef. And ours is cooked on a flat top, while slugburgers are deep fried.”

That hasn’t changed today, and the doughburger/slugburger can be found in restaurants across Northeast Mississippi and even parts of west Tennessee and northwest Alabama.

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Leslie Parker works on making customers doughburgers at Deb’s Diner.

Go-burgers

Doughburgers also can also be found being dished out from local food trucks like the one belonging to Stefani Tucker Shields and Eric Shields, Bamm’s Doughburgers. The couple operates the truck at festivals and special events throughout Northeast Mississippi.

Shields said she and her husband enjoy camping, and several years ago there was a large gathering at the campsite. But there wasn’t enough hamburger meat to go around.

“He said we have flour, we have eggs, and he used his nanny’s doughburger recipe,” she said.

Then two years ago, when Stefani was working with Saltillo’s Scarecrow Festival, several food trucks had backed out of the event. She turned to Eric to gauge his interest in cooking the festival.

“It was something new; we had never heard of anybody else selling doughburgers at a festival,” Stefani said. “We set up a tent, and we sold out.”

Bamm’s Doughburgers have grown so popular, the truck is booked at events through the end of July.

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Classic doughburgers take centerstage at Bamm’s Doughburgers, a food truck making the rounds throughout Northeast Mississippi.

“People grew up with doughburgers,” Shields said. “The prices are good too. You can eat with us for $10 for plate. We try to keep prices reasonable. And we can turn them out pretty fast. I grew up on Johnnie’s, and people tell us that really like ours. We’ve got the perfect recipe, I think, but the consistency is different from a Johnnie’s burger.”

Bamm’s also cooks their doughburgers a little differently. They’ll start them on a griddle, rolling them out like a biscuit, and one their brown they’ll drop them in a little grease.

“That way, you still have the soft middle, but it’s also crunchy on the outside.”

‘Any way you want them’

Doughburgers are cooked similarly to Bamm’s at Deb’s Diner in Booneville, where owner Debbie Bishop has been selling them for 14 years.

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Dough burgers cook on a griddle at Deb’s Diner.

She bought the place when it was Joe’s Burger Shop, and hasn’t changed the recipe. It remains a hit with locals and out-of-towners alike.

“A doughburger is ground beef and any filer you can use; for us it’s flour and a few other things,” she said.

Bishop has her own idea of what differentiates at doughburger and slugburger.

“Some put pork in a slug burger, some don’t put any meat in it,” she said. “I put hamburger in mine and call it a doughburger.”

She also starts her burgers on a grill but deep fries them afterward.

“About 90% of our customers say they want it crispy, so we drop it in the fryer,” she said. “But you can have them any way you want them.”