Hamburger

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Hamburger,_Michael :: Hamburger_SV :: Hamburger,_Aaron

A hamburger (in the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia, the patty alone is known as a beefburger or burger) is a sandwich involving a patty of ground meat that is usually beef. The meat can be grilled, fried, steamed, or broiled, and is generally served with various condiments and toppings inside a bun baked specially for this purpose. Burgers are often served with french fries or potato chips.

Hamburger can also refer to the meat itself. This type of meat can be used in boxed dinners such as "Hamburger Helper". Hamburger is actually a distinct product from ground round and other types of ground meat. However, ground beef of any form is often commonly referred to as "hamburger." A recipe calling for 'hamburger' (the non-countable noun) would require ground beef or beef substitute- not a whole sandwich.

Etymology and history

Precursors and origins

A common theory is that the word "hamburger" originated from Hamburg, Germany. In Hamburg it was common to put a piece of roast pork into a roll, called Rundstück warm, although this is missing the "essence" of the modern hamburger, which is ground meat. Yet another theory however states that also in Hamburg, Germany, meatscraps, similar to modern ground beef were served on a Brötchen, a round bun-shaped piece of bread. It is said that German immigrants then took the idea to the United States, where the bun was added, creating the Hamburger.

The hamburger as ground meat can be traced back to the time when the Mongols (c. 1209) carried flat patties of lamb or mutton as a food source. Mongol riders would place the meat under the saddle; the saddle would tenderize the meat and the meat would be eaten raw. It gave the Mongols the ability to carry food, and eat it, all without dismounting from the horse. When the Mongols invaded Moscow, the hamburger was also brought and in turn was adopted as a cuisine named "steak tartare" after the invading Mongols (who were also known as the Tatars). Later, the German port of Hamburg had ships that visited a Baltic (by that time Russian) port and thus brought with it the new "tartare steak" as they would later call it. Ships from Hamburg, Germany coincidently shipped to New York also, and brought what is now known as the Hamburg steak.

In the Middle Ages, Hamburg was an important center of trade between Arab and European merchants. The theory is that Arab traders introduced Kibbeh, which is ground lamb mixed with spices, often eaten raw. The locals then adapted the dish by replacing the lamb with pork and/or beef, and more significantly, by cooking it to make a fillet of ground meat, i.e., a "Hamburg Steak" or "Hamburger" as it eventually came to be known. From this they made a new and unique kind of Rundstück warm that came to be strongly associated with the city.

There is still a German tradition of making ground beef sandwiches, thought to descend from the original "Hamburg Rundstück," and which tend to be elongated like an American sub sandwich, and feature very different condiments than the typical modern hamburger. These are often referred to as "German hamburgers" outside of Germany, and are served in many German-food restaurants.

Within Germany, the specific connection between the food and the city of Hamburg became lost as the sandwich spread throughout the country and became a somewhat common dish. In other countries, the historical term "Hamburger" remained in popular usage to describe ground meat rolls and sandwiches. In modern times, the term hamburger may refer to the meat patty used to make the sandwich or to the sandwich itself.

Development of modern hamburgers

Although Hamburg, Germany is credited for the precursor to the hamburger, the origins of the first "modern" hamburger are often debated among scholars. ^* Of much debate is what exactly constitutes the "modern" hamburger, although there is general consensus that it refers to a hamburger patty's placement in a hamburger bun (not just any piece of bread). The hamburger bun is said to have been invented in 1916 by Walter Anderson, a short-order cook, who went on to co-found White Castle in 1921. Before the bun, hamburgers are said to have been served between two pieces of bread. In fact, a ground beef patty was known as "Hamburger steak" (first mentioned in an American cookbook in 1891); when this was put between bread or in a bun it was called a "Hamburger sandwich".

One claim of inventing the Hamburger sandwich comes from Charlie Nagreen of Seymour, Wisconsin, U.S.. In 1885, he tried selling fried meatballs at the Outagamie County fair, but customers found them hard to eat while walking around the fair, so Nagreen flattened it and made it into a sandwich he called the "hamburger". (Seymour is home to the Hamburger Hall of Fame and the world's largest hamburger, weighing in at 8,266 pounds kg.)

Hamburg, New York, U.S. also claims credit for the invention of the hamburger. This village celebrates a "Burgerfest" every summer, held to mark the anniversary of the hamburger's creation at the Erie County Fair in 1885 by the Menches brothers.

Another claim is made by a small lunch counter in the town of New Haven, Connecticut, U.S., named Louis' Lunch. It is sometimes credited with having invented this quick businessman's meal for busy office workers in 1900. Louis' Lunch was serving hamburgers from its closet-sized original location in the 1970s until it had to be re-located to 261-263 Crown Street to make room for a high-rise. Their burgers are made the same way they were since the beginning, which means toasted bread instead of a hamburger bun and no condiments; the only permitted garnishes are cheese, tomato, and onion.

Due to widely prevalent anti-German sentiment in the USA during the First World War, an alternative name for hamburgers ("salisbury steaks") became more common for the duration. Even after the war, hamburger's popularity was severely depressed until the White Castle chain of restaurants created a business model featuring sales of large numbers of small hamburgers (later sometimes called "sliders", "grease grenades", "gut bombs" and other dysphemisms, though "slider" is now a generic term for a small hamburger) in the mid-1920s. The original "Salisbury steak", however, was simply well-cooked plain, bunless hamburger, and was "invented" in 1888 by Dr. James H. Salisbury, an English physician. Today, Salisbury steak usually contains egg, bread crumbs or other extenders, and seasonings and is topped with gravy. A thin, fried, hamburger steak is sometimes referred to as a "minute steak". In many parts of the U.S., the same term is sometimes used for a thin, mechanically tenderized (nearly chopped) piece of round steak.

Hamburgers today

The fast-food hamburger began its ascent to modern popularity when Ray Kroc purchased the McDonald's hamburger chain from the McDonald brothers in California, and opened his first McDonald's franchise in Illinois in the mid-1950s. Richard and Maurice McDonald had started the chain in San Bernardino, California, in 1948.

The "cheese hamburger," now simply the cheeseburger, is said to have first appeared in 1924, and credited to grill chef Lionel Sternberger of The Rite Spot restaurant in Pasadena, California. The term "burger" has now become generic, and may refer to sandwiches that have ground meat, chicken, fish (or even vegetarian) fillings other than a beef patty, but share the characteristic round bun. By the mid 20th century both terms were commonly shortened to "hamburger" or simply "burger." A "hamburger" today can also be made with finely chopped beef as well as ground beef.

Hamburgers are generally served in fast food restaurants. The McDonald's fast-food chain sells a sandwich called the Big Mac that is one of the world's top selling hamburgers. Other major fast-food chains – including Burger King (known as Hungry Jacks in Australia), Whataburger, Carl's Jr., Hardee's, Wendy's, Jack-In-The-Box, White Castle, In-N-Out Burger, Fatburger, Burgerville, Back Yard Burgers, and Sonic – also rely heavily on hamburger sales. Fuddruckers is a popular hamburger chain that specializes in the mid-tier "restaurant-style" variety of hamburgers. The "slider" style of mini hamburger is still popular regionally in the White Castle and Krystal chains.

Often, hamburgers served as a common picnic and party food cooked outdoors on barbecue grills. Hamburgers are also very good for backyard grilling and for home use. Hamburger patties are raw when first bought and may contain harmful bacteria, therefore caution is needed when handling them. Hamburgers should be fully cooked to kill the bacteria.

Ingredients of the meat of the hamburger

In most countries, a commercial hamburger usually contains no ham or other pork product. It is made primarily of ground beef, although it may also contain spices and other ingredients. (In the 1930's ground liver was sometimes added to the mixture). This is also known as a beef hamburger or a "beefburger." A beef hamburger that contains no other ingredients besides the beef itself is often referred to as an "all beef hamburger" or "all beef patties." Some prepare their patties with egg, bread crumbs, onions or onion soup mix, Worcestershire sauce, parsley or other ingredients.

Contrary to this, countries like Australia, for example, have stores that sell 'Bacon Burgers' or 'Lot Burgers' which contain bacon.

Recent years have seen the increasing popularity of new types of "burgers" in which alternatives to ground beef are used as the primary ingredient. For example, a turkey burger uses ground turkey meat, a chicken burger uses either ground chicken meat or chicken fillets. A buffalo burger uses ground meat from a bison and an ostrich burger is made from ground ostrich meat. A bambi burger uses ground venison from deer. ^*

Veggie Burgers

A veggie burger, garden burger, or tofu burger uses a Meat analogue, a meat substitute such as tofu, TVP, seitan (wheat gluten), or an assortment of vegetables, ground up and mashed into patties.

Many of these other types of burgers are generally lower in saturated fat or calories than traditional hamburgers and are a much healthier way to enjoy a meal.

Serving style

Methods of serving hamburgers vary considerably in different countries.

United States

In USA restaurants, burgers can be divided into two main types, fast food hamburgers and ones served at sit down restaurants. The latter is traditionally offered "with everything" (or "all the way," "deluxe"(in New York City)" the works," or in some regions "dressed") which includes lettuce, tomato, onion, and often a pickle (or pickle relish). Cheese (usually American processed cheese but often cheddar, Swiss, or blue, either melted on the meat patty or crumbled on top), is generally an option. Condiments are usually added to the hamburger, but they may be offered separately ("on the side"), with the two most common condiments being mustard and ketchup. However, mayonnaise, other salad dressings, and barbecue sauce are also popular. Traditional "Texas" hamburgers and cheeseburgers usually eschew other liquid condiments besides mustard.

Other popular toppings include bacon, avocado or guacamole, sliced mushrooms or mushroom sauce, chili (with or without beans), salsa and other kinds of chile peppers. Heinz 57 sauce is popular among burger enthusiasts. Less popular ingredients include fried egg, scrambled egg, feta cheese, slices of ham and tartar sauce.

Standard toppings on hamburgers can vary by geographical region, particularly at restaurants that are not national or regional franchises. In the Upper Midwest, particularly Wisconsin, burgers are often made with a buttered bun, butter as one of the ingredients of the patty or with a pat of butter on top of the burger patty. This is called a "Butter Burger." In portions of the Carolinas, for instance, a hamburger "with everything" may be served with cheese, chili, onions, mustard, and cole slaw (usually a vinegar-heavy slaw with little or no mayonnaise), and national chain Wendy's sells a "Carolina Classic" burger with these toppings in these areas. In Hawaii hamburgers are often topped with teriyaki sauce, derived from the Japanese-American culture, and locally grown pineapple. Waffle House claims on its menus and website to offer 70,778,880 different ways of serving a hamburger. In portions of the Midwest, a hamburger served with lettuce, tomato and onion is referred to as a "California burger". This usage is sufficiently widespread to appear on the menus of fast-food restaurants, most notably in locations of the Dairy Queen franchise.

A hamburger with two patties is a "double decker" or simply a "double," of which the Big Boy claims to be the first commercially sold, while a hamburger with three patties is a "triple," with the Wendy's restaurant chain being among the first to offer this as a regular product. Doubles and triples are often combined with cheese and occasionally with bacon as well, yielding a "double cheeseburger" or a "triple bacon cheeseburger," or alternatively, a "bacon double/triple cheeseburger." A hamburger with one patty, bacon, and cheese is a "bacon cheeseburger;" hamburgers with bacon but no cheese are rare and unnamed. The Hardee's restaurant chain gained extensive publicity within the United States following its introduction of the Monster Thickburger, with two meat patties, three slices of cheese, six strips of bacon, 1,420 calories and 107 grams of fat. Some restaurants, like In-N-Out, have secret menus that offer multiple patties and cheese on a burger(ie. 4 X 4 which is 4 meat patties and 4 slices of cheese). One could order as many meat patties as desired.

A patty melt is a sandwich consisting of a hamburger patty, sautéed onions and cheese between two slices of rye bread. The sandwich is then grilled so that the cheese melts thoroughly. A patty melt can also be made with tuna salad in lieu of hamburger, yielding a tuna melt.

To decrease cooking and serving time, fast food hamburgers have thinner patties than their fancier counterparts. The Carl's Jr. restaurant chain acknowledged this with the introduction of the "Six Dollar Burger," featuring a patty the same size as those served by sit-down restaurants for a lower price. Hamburgers also tend to be described by their combined uncooked weight, with a single uncooked burger a nominal four ounces (a "quarter pounder"); so, instead of a "double hamburger" one might encounter a "half pounder" (i.e. eight ounces; burger weights are always specified in pounds).

Fast food hamburgers are usually dressed with a variety of condiments, and in order to get a fast food hamburger without one of these standard condiments a special order may be required. Due to the recent low carbohydrate fad (popularized by the Atkins diet), many restaurants currently offer their hamburgers without a bun, wrapping them instead with lettuce.

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom hamburger patties - usually known either as "beefburgers" or just "burgers" - are either specified as 100% beef (with seasoning) or they often can incorporate extra ingredients such as egg, onion, breadcrumbs and have a sausage-like taste and texture, similar to what is known in the United States today as a Salisbury Steak. The dressings used are usually lettuce, tomato and onion with various condiments including ketchup, mayonnaise, brown sauce, chili sauce or mustard or additions such as fried eggs, cheese or bacon. The use of pickles is less common outside of U.S.-dominated franchises such as McDonald's. As in U.S. hamburgers, burger weights are typically specified in pounds.

Hamburgers are often available from mobile kiosks, particularly at outdoor events such as football matches. These are often known colloquially as "wagons of death," due to the often poor standards of food hygiene. Burgers from this type of outlet are usually served without any form of salad - only fried onions and a choice of sauce (mayo, ketchup, brown sauce, etc.)

The term hamburger is sometimes used in the UK to refer to a burger made with pork meat rather than with beef.

Australia

Fast food franchises sell American style fast food hamburgers in Australia. The traditional Australian hamburger almost always includes tomato, lettuce, cheese, grilled onion and meat as minimum, and can optionally include beetroot (canned slices), a fried egg (usually with a hard yolk), bacon, and a grilled pineapple ring. The only condiments regularly used are tomato sauce, which is similar to ketchup but has less vinegar and more sugar, or BBQ sauce. A hamburger with all these toppings is called a "burger with the lot". Hamburgers in Australia tend to be less oily and fatty than their US counterparts, and are more likely to include a full salad if available. The McDonalds "McOz" Burger is partway between American and Australian style burgers, having beetroot and grilled onion in an otherwise typical American burger. The Hungry Jacks "Aussie Burger" has tomato, lettuce, onion, cheese, bacon, beetroot, egg, tomato sauce and a meat patty.

Hamburger meat is almost always ground beef. Outside of fast food restaurants, "home made" style burgers are usually bought from fish and chip shops.

China

In China, restaurants such as McDonald's and KFC have been proliferating all across this country. In many parts of China, small hamburger chains have opened up to capitalize on the popularity of hamburgers with children. Restaurants such as Peter Burger, although they attempt to copy McDonald's, use hamburger patties that are not 100% beef, although they claim to be.

In supermarkets and corner stores, customers can buy "hamburgers" (hanbao) off the bread shelf. These unrefrigerated so-called "hamburgers" are nothing more than ultra-sweet buns cut open with a thin slice of pork or ham placed inside without any condiments or vegetables. These hanbao are a half-westernised form of the traditional Cantonese "hamburgers" called "Char Siu Bao" (BBQ Pork Bun), see Chinese cuisine. The Chinese word for hamburger (hanbao) often refers to all sandwiches containing cooked meat, regardless of the meat's origin. This includes chicken burgers, as KFC is very popular in China.

Other countries

In Japan, hamburgers are almost never made at home as sandwiches, but more as something closer to salisbury steak, which is referred to as a hanbāgu (ハンバーグ) or a hamburg. Although this is also the case at many restaurants, a separate word, hanbāgā (ハンバーガー), is used for the sandwich. These are almost exclusively the realm of McDonald's restaurants in Japan, but there are some home grown hamburger chain restaurants (for example, MOS Burger) which serve what many consider to be excellent, if unusual, hamburgers. Several examples are MOS Burger's MOS Rice Burger, and the 1000-yen (US $10) "Takumi Burger" (meaning "artisan taste"), featuring avocados, freshly-grated wasabi, and other rare seasonal ingredients. In the last few years, McDonald's has been gradually losing market share in Japan to these local hamburger chains, due in part to the preference of Japanese diners for fresh ingredients and more refined, "upscale" hamburger offerings.

In several East Asian countries such as Taiwan, Japan and South Korea, some fast food restaurants offer a hamburger variation that uses rice instead of bread for the bun. The "bun" is made from glutinous rice, which has a sticky consistency allowing it to form the bun without falling apart. Lotteria is a big hamburger franchise in Japan owned by the South Korean Lotte group, with restaurants also in China, South Korea, Vietnam, and Taiwan. In addition to selling beef hamburgers, they also have hamburgers made from squid, pork, rice, tofu, and shrimp.

Not surprisingly, the Philippines, with American influences going back to US domination of the islands at the beginning of the 20th Century, retains a strong bond with American trends. A wide range of major US fast-food franchises are well represented, together with local imitators, often amended to the local palate. The famous chain McDonalds (locally nicknamed McDo), which is immensely popular with Filipinos, have a range of burger and chicken dishes often accompanied by plain boiled rice instead of french fries. The local palate also seems to favor greasy burgers liberally smothered in dressings, such as ketchup and sweet-mayonnaise mixed together, which often saturate the bun. However, such an assembly is likely to disinegrate into a sloppy mess on the eater's lap. Most popular of all with locals, the Philippines boasts its own burger-chain called Jollibee - which offers credible burger meals and chicken, including a signature burger called "The Big Champ". It is perhaps ironic, but very encouraging, that Jollibee now has a number of outlets in the United States. Expat burger-fans in the Philippines seem to prefer Carl's Jr, Wendy's, Burger King and similar chains, as well as diner-style sit-in 50's themed restaurants, where possible.

Hamburgers are often adapted to condiments that are already a part of the ethnic food of Mexico. Toppings such as jalapeños, bell peppers, cilantro, guacamole and chorizo are quite popular. Standard American dressings such as cheddar cheese and bacon are quite uncommon and have been replaced by mozzarella cheese and a slice of ham, the latter being almost unheard of anywhere else. In some parts of Mexico, the patty is made with baby shrimps, or surimi, and white cheese.

In Brazil a hamburger is served on a thin bun similar to a pancake. The bun is usually much bigger than the patty. A fried egg is added to the hamburger. Additional vegetables such as corn and carrots are common too.

In some parts of Eastern Europe and Russia, cheaper, non-chain fast food hamburgers are often made with ground chicken and/or pork patties, and are served with coleslaw and generous amounts of a sauce made by mixing ketchup, mayonnaise and sour cream. In addition to tasting nothing like most Western burgers, the large amount of sauce makes it a very messy food to eat, and these hamburgers are generally served in special paper or plastic pouches to avoid spilling the sauce on oneself. India, being a Hindu-majority country, where beef eating is a taboo among the Hindus, does not have hamburgers. Indian McDonalds restaurants do not sell hamburgers, but rather Chicken burgers and potato-filled veg-burgers.

Cultural associations

In the 1930s (and TV re-runs through the 1970s), the best-known association to the hamburger was Wimpy, a moocher in the cartoon Popeye who would "gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today". The character was the inspiration behind the name of the Wimpy hamburger chain.

Another character associated with the hamburger is Jughead of Archie Comics. He would often beg his best friend Archie Andrews to buy him a hamburger and was constantly seen hanging out at Pop Tate's restaurant. At one point in the series, Jughead even entered a hamburger eating contest. After defeating his opponent, his only thoughts were to eat more hamburgers.

In the mid-1990s, some American fast food restaurants such as Hardee's and Burger King began intensely marketing eating "large hamburgers" (of one half pound of beef or more) as a sign of masculinity. Using scantily clad women and images of construction workers eating hamburgers, they introduced the notion that eating large hamburgers is a sign of manliness.

Urban legends

There have been a great proliferation of urban legends related to hamburgers, specially with the McDonald's fast food chain.

References

- History and origins of the hamburger

External links

American cuisine | Sandwiches | Fast food | German loanwords

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