CULINARY
MAY 5, 2021
let's talk about hamburger : the most popular sandwich
The hamburger, in form like we know today or other ones, has appeared since the 4th century. From Europe to US, hamburger rose to fame in America. Its story is long and old for this America’s favorite sandwich.
It was a popular culinary tradition in Europe before landed in United States. Some recipes date meat preparation from 4th century. A collection of ancient Roman recipes, the Apicius cookbook, details a preparation of beef called isicia omentata. Other historians believe it was the Mongols who spread the tradition back in the 13th century.
Human started to have beef meat as their meal when the domestication of cattle was lain in Mesopotamia around 10.000 years ago. Many civilizations and cities developed the technique around the world after that. In the 12th century the city of Hamburg, Germany was growing fast as an independent trading city and beef delicacies were popular.
In 1869, a very similar food to hamburger was popular in Hamburg. It was called “Rundstuck Warm”, meaning “bread roll warm” and recorded as a meal for German emigrants on their way to America.
Hamburg was known as an exporter of high-quality beef so restaurants began offering a “Hamburg-style” chopped steak.
In the United States, hamburger seems to have its form in the last decades of 19th century, around in the late 1800’s or early 1900’s. Wisconsin, Connecticut, Ohio, New York and Texas are the possibles sites of the hamburger’s birthplace.
The burger-on-a-bun was first found its wide audience at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair which also introduced new foods to millions of Americans.
After the World War II, many national hamburger chains were founded and came the booming years of burgers in America. McDonald’s and In-N-Out Burger (founded in 1948), Burger King (1954) and Wendy’s (1969) to name a few.
Both McDonald’s and In-N-Out Burger started their business in California at the time. McDonald’s launched their famous Big Mac hamburger in 1968. Wendy’s invented the square hamburger patty and opened their first outlet in 1969. Led by McDonald’s, the hamburger and American-style franchised fast food spread globally.
In 2001, burgers had 71 percent of all beef served in restaurants across America. Today, Americans eats more than 40 billion hamburgers annually.
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