Culver's Sourdough Melt Copycat Recipe: Homemade Sourdough Patty Melt

To make a Culver’s Sourdough Melt copycat at home, smash a 3.5 to 4 oz ball of 80/20 beef on a griddle at 450 to 480°F (230 to 250°C), season the raw side with salt and pepper only, then flip. Top it with aged cheddar and grilled red onions and close it between two slices of buttered, toasted sourdough. There’s no sauce. This is my homemade reproduction, not Culver’s official recipe: the chain publishes the components but not the weights, ratios or timings, so those numbers are my own tested estimates.

What is in Culver’s Sourdough Melt?

Culver’s Sourdough Melt is a patty melt: a fresh beef patty with melted Wisconsin aged cheddar and grilled onions on lightly buttered, toasted sourdough. In the chain’s own words, it is “a classic patty melt that begins with fresh, never frozen beef, seared on the grill after you order, topped with melted Wisconsin aged Cheddar cheese and grilled onions on lightly buttered, toasted sourdough bread” (Culver’s menu page, checked October 10, 2026).

It sits in the current ButterBurgers lineup next to the ButterBurger, ButterBurger Cheese, Culver’s Deluxe, Bacon Deluxe, Mushroom & Swiss and Wisconsin Swiss Melt (Culver’s ButterBurgers menu). Culver’s opened on July 18, 1984, in Sauk City, Wisconsin, and is headquartered in nearby Prairie du Sac (Wikipedia).

A Culver’s restaurant in Onalaska, Wisconsin. The chain was founded in Sauk City, Wisconsin, on July 18, 1984, and only operates in the United States. (Photo: Wikideas1, CC0 1.0 (Wikimedia Commons))

Map of Culver’s at 716 Phillips Boulevard, Sauk City, Wisconsin, the hometown of the chain, about 25 miles northwest of Madison. (Map: © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL 1.0)

Official components vs. my copycat

Every official component below comes from Culver’s or published ingredient lists. Every quantity in the right column is my own estimate for two melts.

Component	What Culver’s publishes	My homemade version (2 melts)
Beef	Fresh, never frozen blend of sirloin, chuck and plate, seared after you order	2 balls of 80/20 ground beef, 3.5 to 4 oz (100 to 115 g) each, chuck and sirloin if your butcher grinds to order
Seasoning	Salt and pepper only, on the raw side after pressing	Salt and black pepper mixed about 5 to 1
Cheese	Wisconsin aged cheddar (“natural-aged”)	2 slices aged cheddar, about 0.7 oz (20 g) each
Onions	“Grilled onions”; red onion rings in ingredient lists	Half a red onion, sliced into rings and grilled in butter
Bread	Lightly buttered, toasted sourdough	4 slices sourdough, about 1/2 inch (1.2 cm) thick
Butter	Used to toast the bread; amount not published	1.5 tbsp (20 g) unsalted butter for the bread, plus a small knob for the onions
Sauce	None listed	None

Sources: Culver’s ButterBurger story, Culver’s melts story, Chowhound, FastFoodNutrition, all checked October 10, 2026.

Ingredients for 2 sourdough patty melts

This sourdough patty melt recipe makes two melts in about 25 minutes, with one skillet or griddle.

• 7 to 8 oz (200 to 230 g) 80/20 ground beef, ideally chuck and sirloin, split into 2 balls
• 4 slices sourdough bread, about 1/2 inch (1.2 cm) thick
• 1.5 tbsp (20 g) unsalted butter, softened, for the bread, plus a small knob for the onions
• 2 slices aged cheddar, about 0.7 oz (20 g) each, plus an optional half slice
• 1/2 red onion, sliced into rings
• Fine salt and freshly ground black pepper, mixed about 5 parts salt to 1 part pepper

Culver’s doesn’t publish a patty weight. Third-party sources put it around 4.4 oz raw, or a third of a pound. I went a little lighter on purpose. At 3.5 to 4 oz the finished melt stays close to the 174 g single serving listed by FastFoodNutrition, and a thinner patty keeps the bread and the beef in balance.

Culver’s Sourdough Melt copycat, step by step

Grill the onions first, toast the bread second and smash the beef last, so the patty goes straight from the griddle onto hot bread.

1. Prep the onion and the beef

Slice half a red onion into rings about 1/4 inch (6 mm) thick. Roll the beef into 2 loose balls of 3.5 to 4 oz (100 to 115 g) without packing them, and keep them in the fridge until the pan is ready.

2. Grill the red onions

Melt the small knob of butter in the skillet over medium heat and add the onion rings. Cook 4 to 6 minutes, stirring now and then, until soft with browned edges but not jammy. Set aside.

Step 2: onion rings softening in a cast-iron skillet until browned at the edges. Use red onion and stop at 4 to 6 minutes for the Culver’s style, before they turn jammy. (Photo: Valereee, CC0 1.0 (Wikimedia Commons))

3. Butter and toast the sourdough

Spread the 20 g of butter over one side of each sourdough slice. Toast them butter side down over medium heat for 2 to 3 minutes, until golden and crisp. Keep them warm, toasted side out.

4. Smash and season the patties

Heat the griddle or cast iron to 450 to 480°F (230 to 250°C). Set a beef ball down, press it flat and thin with a sturdy spatula, then sprinkle the raw top with the salt and pepper mix. Sear 1 to 1.5 minutes, until the edges are deeply browned.

5. Flip and melt the cheddar

Scrape under the crust, flip, and lay a slice of aged cheddar on top right away, with the optional half slice if you want more pull. Cook another 1 to 1.5 minutes, until the cheese has slumped over the patty.

Steps 4 and 5: thin, pressed ground beef patties searing in a hot cast-iron skillet at 450 to 480°F. Season the raw side with salt and pepper, then flip after 1 to 1.5 minutes. (Photo: Valereee, CC0 1.0 (Wikimedia Commons))

6. Assemble the melt

Set each patty on a toasted slice, cheese up. Pile on the grilled onions and close with the second slice, toasted side out. Cut on the diagonal and eat hot. Give it 30 seconds before cutting, or the cheese ends up on the board.

Step 6: building the patty melt on sliced bread, with cheese laid over the grilled onions and beef. For the Sourdough Melt, use two slices of aged cheddar, about 0.7 oz each, on toasted sourdough. (Photo: Valereee, CC0 1.0 (Wikimedia Commons))

Why this recipe tastes like the original

This copycat sticks to what Culver’s states plainly: fresh beef seared to order, salt and pepper only, aged cheddar, grilled red onions and buttered, toasted sourdough with no sauce.

• The smash. Culver’s says “a little pressure seals in the beef” (Culver’s). At home, pressing hard on very hot iron is the closest I’ve found to that lacy, browned edge.
• The late seasoning. The patties arrive unseasoned and get salt and pepper on the raw side once they’re on the grill, just before the flip (Chowhound, The Daily Meal). I copy that timing exactly.
• The ratio. A manager quoted by Chowhound (June 2026) gave 5 to 1 salt to pepper; other employees on Reddit said 3 or 4 to 1. That’s reported, not official, so taste and adjust.
• No sauce. With no sauce in the published description or ingredient lists, the tang comes from the sourdough and the aged cheddar. Don’t add any.

I tried it with yellow onions once. It works, but it eats like any diner melt. The red onion’s sharper sweetness is what pulls it back toward Culver’s. And resist the urge to caramelize: twenty-minute onions bury the sourdough’s tang and turn this into the rye-bread classic.

Patty melt vs. burger: what’s the difference?

A patty melt is a beef patty with melted cheese and grilled onions served on toasted sliced bread, while a burger goes on a soft bun. That bread is the whole difference. Griddled in butter, it gives every bite a crisp, salty crust where a bun would stay soft and airy.

The classic American patty melt uses rye, Swiss and onions caramelized for 20 to 25 minutes. Culver’s Sourdough Melt swaps in sourdough and aged cheddar and uses quickly grilled red onions. Its sibling on the menu, the Wisconsin Swiss Melt, stays closer to tradition: red onions and Wisconsin Swiss between two slices of grilled rye (Culver’s).

	Sourdough Melt	Wisconsin Swiss Melt
Bread	Toasted sourdough	Grilled rye
Cheese	Wisconsin aged cheddar	Wisconsin Swiss
Onions	Grilled onions (red)	Red onions
Sauce	None published	None published

Culver’s Sourdough Melt nutrition

A single Culver’s Sourdough Melt has about 490 calories, according to the third-party database FastFoodNutrition. I couldn’t read Culver’s official nutrition guide, so treat these figures as approximate. They describe the restaurant version, not my homemade one.

Per single Sourdough Melt (174 g)	Amount
Calories	490
Fat	25 g
Saturated fat	11.5 g
Carbohydrates	42 g
Protein	26 g
Sodium	600 mg

Culver’s Sourdough Melt nutrition per single (174 g, 490 calories): 25 g fat including 11.5 g saturated, 42 g carbohydrates and 26 g protein. Third-party figures from FastFoodNutrition, checked October 10, 2026. (Chart: Burger Breton, data from FastFoodNutrition (fastfoodnutrition.org), rendered with QuickChart; original work, CC BY 4.0)

Allergens listed: wheat, gluten and milk. Source: FastFoodNutrition, checked October 10, 2026.

Make it a Culver’s ButterBurger copycat instead

Keep the same smashed, salt-and-pepper patty, change the bread and cheese, and you’re in ButterBurger territory. Culver’s 2023 menu lists ButterBurgers as single or double, with American, cheddar or Swiss and onions “grilled or raw” (Culver’s menu PDF). For a soft bun, bake my homemade burger buns and butter-toast the cut sides.

A Culver’s ButterBurger Deluxe on its soft bun. Keep the same smashed salt-and-pepper patty and swap the sourdough for a buttered bun to make a ButterBurger copycat. (Photo: JackFromWisconsin, CC0 1.0 (Wikimedia Commons))

Culver’s is a Wisconsin story. For butter burgers in its home state, start with our page on the best burgers in Milwaukee.

More fast-food copycats built the same way, from what each chain publishes: the Whataburger with Cheese copycat, the Shake Shack ShackBurger copycat, the Dairy Queen Original Cheeseburger copycat and the Carl’s Jr. Famous Star copycat. Browse them all on the recipes hub.

FAQ: Culver’s Sourdough Melt

Is there a sauce on Culver’s Sourdough Melt?

No sauce appears in Culver’s published description or in third-party ingredient lists. The flavor comes from the beef, aged cheddar, grilled onions and buttered sourdough.

Are the onions grilled, caramelized or fried?

The current menu says “grilled onions,” and ingredient lists specify red onion rings. An undated Culver’s page mentions crispy fried red onions, so the topping seems to have changed over time. I grill red onions for 4 to 6 minutes.

What beef does Culver’s use, and how is it seasoned?

Culver’s uses a fresh, never frozen blend of sirloin, chuck and plate, seasoned only with salt and pepper on the griddle. Culver’s doesn’t publish the patty weight.

Which cheese should I use: cheddar or Swiss?

Use aged cheddar for the Sourdough Melt, since Culver’s specifies Wisconsin aged cheddar. Swiss turns it into something closer to the Wisconsin Swiss Melt, which also switches to rye.

How many calories are in a Culver’s Sourdough Melt?

About 490 calories for a single, with 26 g of protein and 600 mg of sodium, according to FastFoodNutrition. Those are third-party figures, not Culver’s official data.

Can you get any Culver’s burger on sourdough?

Food sites such as The Takeout have covered the sourdough swap as a Culver’s ordering hack. Culver’s doesn’t list it as an official option on the menu, so ask at your location.

Where can I eat Culver’s?

Only in the United States. Culver’s had about 1,000 restaurants as of April 2025, according to Wikipedia, and has no locations outside the US.