Steamed cheeseburger

A central Connecticut specialty in which a ground-beef patty is cooked in a stainless steel steam cabinet and topped with a slab of cheddar that has melted into a near-liquid pool. Born in 1930s Middletown and Meriden as Depression-era factory food, it survives mostly at Ted's Restaurant and K. LaMay's. Outsiders find the no-sear, no-grill technique baffling; Meriden defends it fiercely.