Hamburger


A hamburger, often known as a burger, consists of fillings—usually a patty of ground meat, typically beef—placed inside a sliced bun, sesame seed bun, or bread roll. The patties are often served with lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, bacon, or chilis. The filling of the burger can be topped with condiments such as ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, relish or a "special sauce", often a variation of Thousand Island dressing. A burger with the patty topped with cheese is called a cheeseburger. Under some definitions, a hamburger is considered a sandwich.
Hamburgers are typically associated with fast-food restaurants and diners but are also sold at other restaurants, including high-end establishments. There are many international and regional variations of hamburgers. Some of the largest multinational fast-food chains feature burgers as one of their core products: McDonald's Big Mac and Burger King's Whopper have become global icons of American culture.

Etymology and terminology

The term hamburger originally derives from Hamburg, Germany. However, it is contentious what the exact connection between the food item and the city is.
By linguistic rebracketing, the term "burger" eventually became a self-standing word that is associated with many different types of sandwiches that are similar to a hamburger, but contain different meats such as buffalo in the buffalo burger, venison, kangaroo, chicken, turkey, elk, lamb or fish such as salmon in the salmon burger, and even with meatless sandwiches as is the case of the veggie burger.
The term burger can also be applied to a meat patty on its own. Since the term hamburger usually implies beef, for clarity burger may be prefixed with the type of meat or meat substitute used, as in beef burger, turkey burger, bison burger, or portobello burger.

History

Versions of the meal have been served for over a century, but its origins are still unclear. The 1758 edition of the book The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy by Hannah Glasse included a recipe called "Hamburgh sausage", suggesting that it should be served "roasted with toasted bread under it." A similar snack was also popular in Hamburg under the name of "Rundstück warm" in 1869 or earlier, and was supposedly eaten by emigrants on their way to America. However, this may have contained roasted beefsteak rather than Frikadelle. It has alternatively been suggested that Hamburg steak served between two pieces of bread and eaten by Jewish passengers travelling from Hamburg to New York on Hamburg America Line vessels became so well known that the shipping company gave its name to the dish. It is not known which of these stories is the reason hamburgers got their name.
There is a reference to a "Hamburg steak" as early as 1884 in The Boston Journal. On July 5, 1896, the Chicago Daily Tribune made a highly specific claim regarding a "hamburger sandwich" in an article about a "Sandwich Car": "A distinguished favorite, only five cents, is Hamburger steak sandwich, the meat for which is kept ready in small patties and 'cooked while you wait' on the gasoline range."

Claims of invention

"Hamburger steak sandwiches" have been advertised in U.S. newspapers from New York to Hawaii since at least the 1890s, but the inventor is unclear.
The invention of hamburgers is attributed to various people, including Charlie Nagreen, Frank and Charles Menches, Oscar Weber Bilby, Fletcher Davis, and Louis Lassen. White Castle traces the origin of the hamburger to Otto Krause in Hamburg, Germany. Some have pointed to a recipe for "Hamburgh sausages" on toasted bread, published in The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy by Hannah Glasse in 1758, as a notable first source of the dish.
Hamburgers gained national recognition in the U.S. at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair when the New York Tribune referred to the hamburger as "the innovation of a food vendor on the pike." No conclusive argument has ended the dispute over invention. An article from ABC News sums up: "One problem is that there is little written history. Another issue is that the burger spread happened largely at the World's Fair, from tiny vendors that came and went instantly. And it is entirely possible that more than one person came up with the idea at the same time in different parts of the country."

Louis Lassen

The restaurant Louis' Lunch in New Haven, Connecticut, founded in 1895, has long claimed to be the "birthplace of the hamburger sandwich". Ostensibly, around 1900, Danish immigrant Louis Lassen found himself out of steaks when a customer ordered a quick hot meal. Taking ground beef trimmings, Louis made a patty and grilled it, putting it between two slices of toast. New York Magazine wrote in 1977 that, supposedly, "The dish actually had no name until some rowdy sailors from Hamburg named the meat on a bun after themselves years later". This origin story has been amplified by Connecticut Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro and the Library of Congress—notwithstanding earlier references to hamburgers elsewhere in the country.

Charlie Nagreen

One of the earliest claims of hamburger invention comes from Charlie Nagreen, who in 1885 sold a meatball between two slices of bread at the Seymour Fair now sometimes called the Outagamie County Fair. The Seymour Community Historical Society of Seymour, Wisconsin, credits Nagreen, also referred to as "Hamburger Charlie", with the invention. Nagreen was 15 when he reportedly sold pork sandwiches at the 1885 Seymour Fair so customers could eat while walking. The Historical Society explains that Nagreen named the hamburger after the Hamburg steak with which local German immigrants were familiar.

Otto Krause

According to White Castle, Otto Krause was the inventor of the hamburger. In 1891, he created a beef patty cooked in butter and topped with a fried egg. German sailors later omitted the fried egg.

Oscar Weber Bilby

The family of Oscar Weber Bilby claims the first-known hamburger on a bun was served on July 4, 1891, on Grandpa Oscar's farm. The bun was a yeast bun. In 1995, Governor Frank Keating proclaimed that the first true hamburger on a bun was created and consumed in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1891, calling Tulsa, "The Real Birthplace of the Hamburger".

Frank and Charles Menches

Frank and Charles Menches claim to have sold a ground beef sandwich at the Erie County Fair in 1885 in Hamburg, New York. During the fair, they ran out of pork sausage for their sandwiches and substituted beef. The brothers exhausted their supply of sausage, so they purchased chopped-up beef from a butcher, Andrew Klein. Historian Joseph Streamer wrote that the meat was from Stein's market, not Klein's, despite Stein's having sold the market in 1874. The story notes that, in this case, the name of the hamburger comes from Hamburg, New York, not Hamburg, Germany. Frank Menches's obituary in The New York Times states that these events took place at the 1892 Summit County Fair in Akron, Ohio.

Fletcher Davis

Fletcher Davis of Athens, Texas, claimed to have invented the hamburger. According to oral histories, he opened a lunch counter in Athens in the 1880s and served a 'burger' of fried ground beef patties with mustard and Bermuda onion between two slices of bread, with a pickle on the side. The story is that in 1904, Davis and his wife Ciddy ran a sandwich stand at the St. Louis World's Fair. Historian Frank X. Tolbert noted that Athens resident Clint Murchison said his grandfather dated the hamburger to the 1880s with Fletcher "Old Dave" Davis. A photo of "Old Dave's Hamburger Stand" from 1904 was sent to Tolbert as evidence of the claim.

Other hamburger-steak claims

Various claims of the invention relate to the term "hamburger steak" without mention of its being a sandwich. The alleged first printed American menu listing hamburgers is an 1834 menu from Delmonico's in New York. However, the printer of the original menu was not yet in business in 1834. In 1889, a menu from Walla Walla Union in Washington offered hamburger steak as a menu item.
Between 1871 and 1884, "Hamburg Beefsteak" was on the "Breakfast and Supper Menu" of the Clipper Restaurant at 311/313 Pacific Street in San Fernando, California. It cost 10 cents—the same price as mutton chops, pig's feet in batter, and stewed veal. It was not, however, on the dinner menu. Only "Pig's Head", "Calf Tongue", and "Stewed Kidneys" were listed. Another claim ties the hamburger to Summit County, in New York or Ohio. Summit County, Ohio, exists, but Summit County, New York, does not.

Early major vendors

  • 1921: White Castle, Wichita, Kansas. Due to books by Upton Sinclair and Arthur Kallet discrediting the cleanliness and nutritional value of ground beef, hamburger meat was unpopular with families until the White Castle restaurant chain took it upon themselves to market the cleanliness and quality of their food through scientific studies by preparing the food in full view of customers. The Company also reported in local newspapers how they carefully selected their meat, and opened the "Food Experiment Department" as a test kitchen and quality-control laboratory. White Castle marketed and sold large numbers of small square hamburger sandwiches, known as sliders, and created five holes in each patty, which helped them cook evenly and eliminated the need to flip the burger. In 1995, White Castle began selling frozen hamburgers in convenience stores and vending machines.
  • 1923: Kewpee Hamburgers, or Kewpee Hotels, Flint, Michigan. Kewpee was the second established hamburger chain and peaked at 400 locations before World War II. Many of these locations were licensed but not strictly franchised, and many closed during WWII. Between 1955 and 1967, another wave of Kewpee Hamburgers restaurants closed or changed names. In 1967, the Kewpee licensor moved the company to a franchise system. As of 2025, there are only five locations remaining.
  • 1926: White Tower Hamburgers
  • 1927: Little Tavern
  • 1932: Krystal
  • 1936: Big Boy. In 1937, Bob Wian created the double-decker hamburger at his stand in Glendale, California. Big Boy became the name of the hamburger, mascot, and restaurant. Big Boy expanded nationally through regional franchising and subfranchising. Primarily operating as drive-in restaurants in the 1950s, interior dining gradually replaced curb service by the early 1970s. Many franchises have closed or switched to being operated independently, but the Big Boy double-decker hamburger remains the signature item at the remaining American Big Boy restaurants.
  • 1940: McDonald's restaurant, San Bernardino, California, was opened by Richard and Maurice McDonald. Their introduction of the "Speedee Service System" in 1948 established the principles of the modern fast-food restaurant. The McDonald brothers began franchising in 1953. In 1961, Ray Kroc purchased the company from the brothers for $2.7 million and a 1.9% royalty.