Burger: the history of the dish that conquered the whole world

July 27 is considered the birthday of the hamburger. The main American sandwich owes its name to immigrants from Hamburg. However, in order to become the king of American and then world fast food, the German steak had to be convenient for eating on the go.

Now it's hard to believe, but just a little more than a hundred years ago, no one even suspected that a dish consisting of a fried cutlet served between two buns could be so delicious. With its simplicity and taste, the innovative idea of cooks has suddenly gained frenzied popularity among representatives of all segments of the population.

The growing fame of the dish every day led to the fact that somehow everyone wanted to be involved in its invention. The authorship was claimed by many Americans who claimed that they made a fundamental contribution to the creation of this dish, as well as chefs from other countries. Ultimately, attempts to win back a piece of fame ended with the fact that the hamburger became a dish with one of the most confusing stories. We looked into the historical archives and tried to find out who really was the "father" of the burger.

The word "hamburger" itself comes from the name of the second largest city in Germany — Hamburg. According to one version, it was from there that the recipe came to America together with German immigrants. At that time, a hamburger was a piece of fried pork in bread.

According to another version, the hamburger was named after the city of Hamburg in New York State. In 1885, the brothers Charles and Frank Menchis at the fair held in Hamburg, America, offered to refresh themselves with a fried beef patty embedded between two buns. They say that they ran out of supplies of pork sausage, which they used for sandwiches, and they decided to replace it with available beef.

In the same year, 1885, at the Seymour Fair, Charlie Nagrin was selling meatballs nested between two slices of bread. In his opinion, such a dish could not be better suited for the event, since it could be eaten on the go. He called his culinary creation "Charlie's Hamburger".

For the first time in New York restaurants, the term "hamburger" appeared in 1834. The first mention of the "Hamburg steak", whose homeland is Germany, is found in the magazine "Evening Boston" from 1884.

The family of Oscar Weber Bilby from Tulsa claims that their ancestor cooked the first hamburger. This happened in 1891. Oscar's great-grandfather cooked cutlets and stuffed yeast buns with them. In 1995, Governor Frank Keating called the city of Tulsa "the real birthplace of the hamburger."

Otto Kuasva is considered to be another cook who may have played a role in the appearance of the hamburger. In 1891, he prepared beef patties, which he supplemented with fried egg on top. The sailors who visited the cafe later removed the egg, leaving only the cutlet.

Another inventor of the hamburger considered himself a chef Fletcher Davis from Athens, Texas, who in 1880 put a fried cutlet with mustard and onions between two slices of bread. In 1904, at the St. Louis Fair, Fletcher and his wife had a small shop where they sold their burgers.

In 1900, Louis Lessing cooked his first hamburger in his hometown of New Haven. The client asked to make some quick and hot dish. Louis, who was busy with the minced meat, formed a cutlet and fried it on the grill. He served the meat between two slices of toast. Because of this detail, some culinary critics refuse to admit that it was Louis who cooked the first hamburger. However, in 2000, the Library of Congress named Lessing the person who made the first American hamburger.

Hamburgers became widely known in 1904 at the St. Louis fair, but the burger turned into a gastronomic symbol only almost 30 years later, when Walter Anderson from Wichita, Kansas, founded the White Castle Hamburger chain of eateries, the main dish of which was a hamburger.

The modern version of the burger has many varieties. Variations with a bun and a minced meat cutlet are offered even by Michelin restaurants. With the creations of snack bars and fast food, their dish has only a common name. Instead of a rubber cutlet and a synthetic bun, chefs prefer foie gras, black truffles and kobe beef. 

The price for such a burger can reach $ 1,000. In the menu of steakhouses, you can find a more democratic version, the basis of which is a cutlet of chopped marbled beef of premium varieties — quite a worthy alternative to the usual rib eye and filet mignon.