Hamburger- Food for the poor

The Poor Man’s meal isn’t fancy or winning any awards, but it’s one of the most simple and delicious comfort foods around. The earliest hamburger relative, meat tartare, was born far, far away from the United States. Urban legend contended that Mongol horsemen first ate a similar style of beef, steak tartare, in the 12th century. The trend made its way through the trade routes via Russia before landing in Germany.

By the 19th century, beef from German Hamburg cows was minced and combined with garlic, onions, salt and pepper, then formed into patties (without bread or a bun) to make Hamburg steaks.

Immigrants to the United States from German-speaking countries brought with them some of their favorite foods. One of them was Hamburg Steak. The Germans simply flavored shredded low-grade beef with regional spices, and both cooked and raw it became a standard meal among the poorer classes.

Many people assumed that ground beef was dirty and during the early 1900s the hamburger was considered “a food of the poor,” polluted and unsafe to eat.

In 1906, Upton Sinclair had published a book called The Jungle which exposed the unsanitary meat processing methods of the time. He detailed the unsavory side of the American meatpacking industry. Industrial ground beef was easy to adulterate with fillers, preservatives and meat scraps, and the hamburger became a prime suspect. This book caused consumers to worry about the safety of hamburger.

Restaurants rarely served hamburgers; they were served at lunch carts parked near factories, at circuses carnivals and state fairs. It was widely believed that ground beef was made from rotten old meat full of chemical preservatives. Dishonest butchers sold ground beef that was really a mixture of spoiled meat, fat scraps, and animal parts that no one would choose to eat. To most Americans, ground beef was an unsafe food.

Not only was considered “food for the poor” but it also had a rather dubious reputation; the burger was associated with criminal activity. In 191o, Alexander J. Moody, a wealthy baker of firm Moody & Waters from Chicago, died after somebody put poison in his burger. It was reported that the poison was contained in hamburger steak eaten by Moody.

One year later, a Chicago pie maker was poisoned the same way. Similar murder stories appeared in newspapers across the United States. The police were never able to solve the case.

The widespread fear of hamburgers caused a great deal of frustration among butches. They liked to grind leftover pieces of beef not hamburger meat. They liked selling every scrap of meat in the store. They didn’t want to waste any of it.

The hamburger might have remained on the seamier margins of American cuisine were it not for the vision of Edgar “Billy” Ingram and Walter Anderson, who opened their first White Castle restaurant in Kansas in 1921.

It started when Walter Anderson, a short order cook, in Wichita, Kansas had saved enough money to purchase an old shoe repair building and converted it into a hamburger for nickel.

He arranged for beef to be delivered twice a day, and sometimes more often and he ground his own beef so that customer could watch him do so through glass windows. White Castle countered hamburger meat’s low reputation by becoming bastions of cleanliness, health and hygiene
Hamburger- Food for the poor

Hamburger: The history of Hamburg steak

There is a history that in late eighteenth century, the largest port in Europe was in Germany. Sailors who visited port brought special food called “Hamburg steak” as a popular usage. Hamburg steak was a hard slab of salted minced beef, often slightly smoked, mixed with onions and breadcrumbs.

In the early 1800s German immigrants who settled along the Ohio River brought along their recipes for beef cooked in the style of Hamburg, Germany’s largest seaport.

It was one of the biggest ports on the transatlantic route to America. The majority of immigrants heading for the “New World”, to New York, would embark here. In the Big Apple, various restaurants would offer beef fillets in the Hamburg style in the hope of attracting German sailors to dine.

In 1834“Hamburger Steak” was listed at 10 cents, one of the costliest items on the menu, at Delmonico’s in New York.

The Boston Journal in 1884 quoted a local chef’s reference to chopped “Hamburg steak,” the first published reference to the beef patty.

Although the hamburger wasn’t called “fast food” then, the first business that can accurately be called a fast food restaurant was White Castle, which began in Wichita, Kansas in 1921. It sold hamburgers for five cents each.

Their burgers were different from today’s version: they were cooked with onions and they were smaller, so most customers ate more than one at meal.

The hamburger grew in popularity during the 20th Century along with the rise of the fast food industry, taking on a special symbolism throughout the century.
Hamburger: The history of Hamburg steak

Oscar Weber Bilby invented hamburger in Oklahoma

Oklahoma has its own claim to the hamburger’s origin. On the Fourth of July, 1891, Oscar Weber Bilby built an iron grill at his ranch near the community of Bowden, located 4 miles north of Sapulpa, Oklahoma.

He shaped some freshly-ground angus meat into round patties, and fried them on the grill until they were juicy and done.

He served them to his friends on his wife’s homemade buns along with freshly-churned ice cream and hand-mixed root beer. The meal was so delicious that the Fourth of July feed became an annual event, sometimes bringing in a crowd of 125 people.

In 1933, Bilby family opened Weber’s Root Beer Stand in Tulsa using the same grill used by Oscar Weber Bilby in 1891.

On April 13 1995, Governor Frank Keating proclaimed that the first true hamburger on a bun, after meticulous research, was created and consumed in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1891, calling Tulsa, "The Real Birthplace of the Hamburger."
Oscar Weber Bilby invented hamburger in Oklahoma

First appearance of hamburger

Every day around the world, millions of hamburgers are sold in thousands of restaurants. It is ironic, given this magnitude of sales, that most hamburgers are remarkably similar: ground beef on a bun with condiments such as ketchup, mustard, and pickles.

One of the earliest events at which a burger in a bun was sold was the 1904 World’s Fair at St. Louis, Missouri. Food, edible and otherwise, was everywhere present at St. Louis 1904 centenary celebration of the Louisiana Purchase.

The widest-reported "first" appearance of the hamburger most commonly cited in the lore of foodservice was that the product appeared at the World's Fair in St. Louis in 1904. It is most widely believed that the burger was introduced by Fletcher “Old Dave” Davis from Athens, Texas. Fletcher began selling the ground beef patty sandwich at the amusement area, known as The Pike.

On the “Pike,” the Fair’s only-slightly-risqué amusement mile visitors could snack at dozens of concessions. There they enjoyed such relatively new or unfamiliar treats as ice cream scooped into cones, hamburgers enfolded in buns, spun-sugar “fairy floss” (today’s cotton candy), peanut butter, and Dr. Pepper, the Texas drink that called itself “King of Beverages,” and promised “Vim, Vigor & Vitality” on every bottle.

The Exposition has been credited with helping to introduce or popularize the hamburger sandwich, and also many other foods, such as hot dog, machine-ground peanut-butter, puffed rice, iced tea, and Dr. Pepper soda.

It wasn’t until the 1920s, however, that hamburgers became the centerpiece of a new marketing concept for American restaurants. Although the hamburger wasn’t called “fast food” then, the first business that can accurately be called a fast food restaurant was White Castle, which began in Wichita, Kansas in 1921.
First appearance of hamburger

Fast Food Begin

Fast Food Begin
The story of fast food begins in October 1885, near the small town of Seymour, Wisconsin. A friendly and outgoing fifteen-year-old boy named Charlie Nagreen was driving his family’s ox cart down a dirt road amid wide open field.

Charlie was going to Outagamie County’s first annual; fair, where he wanted to earn some extra money selling meatballs.

What happened next as the unlikely origin of a delicious sandwich that would one day change the world.

As Charlie sold meatballs at the fair, he noticed that customers had trouble eating and strolling at the same time.

People were impatient. They wanted to visit Mr. John Bull’s popular beehives (encased in glass), to see the fancy new harvesting machines and to enjoy all the other thrilling attractions at the fair.

They didn’t want to waste time eating meatballs. Charlie suddenly had an idea, if he squashed the meatballs and put them between two slices of bread, people could walk and eat. And so Charlie invented the hamburger.

German immigrants lived in Charlie’s hometown of Hortonville, Wisconsin and he later claimed that the new sandwich was named the German of Hamburg long famous for its ground beef steaks.

Charlie continued selling burgers at the Outagamie Country Fair until 1951.

Charlie had not only invented the hamburger but also composed one of the first advertising jingles for it.
Fast Food Begin

History of Burger

Food History
The widest-reported "first" appearance of the hamburger most commonly cited in the lore of foodservice was that the product appeared at the World's Fair in St. Louis in 1904. But the man who gave the hamburger its contemporary look and sought to expand the products appeal through chain operations was J. Walter Anderson, a Wichita, Kan., resident who went on to co-found the White Castle Hamburger system, the oldest continuously running burger chain.

However, there is a history that in late eighteenth century, the largest port in Europe was in Germany. Sailors who visited port brought special food called “Hamburg steak” as a popular usage. It was a hard slab of salted minced beef, often slightly smoked, mixed with onions and breadcrumbs. Immigrants arriving England at that time also bring new food with consist of chopped beef, suet, and spices.

The other famous story is that Charlie Nagreen of Wisconsin, at age 15, sold hamburgers from his ox-drawn food stand at the Outagamie County Fair. He went to the Outagamie County Fair and set up a stand selling meatballs. Business wasn't good and he quickly realized that it was because meatballs were too difficult to eat while strolling around the fair. In a flash of innovation, he flattened the meatballs, placed them between two slices of bread and called his new creation a hamburger. He was known to many as "Hamburger Charlie." He returned to sell hamburgers at the fair every year until his death in 1951.
Food History