The history of the Hamburger is far more complete than one can imagine. It all began in the 12th century when Mongolian warriors settled in Eastern Europe and ate slices of raw meat. This type of meal became widespread and it was in the 14th and 15th centuries that sailors coming from the main port of Eastern Europe, the port of Hamburg in Germany, noticed that different peoples were eating this raw meat. A local butcher had the great idea, and took the initiative of grilling this raw hamburger steak. By the 18th century, the Hamburger Steak had gone viral.
The Germans are recognized for having invented the hamburger as we know it today, but the idea of making a sandwich with this grilled meat... nobody really knows where it truly originated from. Several theories have therefore been put forward, including the two that the Grunge News team quotes in this Culture Point.
The first one consists of a Danish immigrant living in New York, known as Mr. Lassen, who claimed to be the designer of the first burger. According to his story, a man in a hurry asked to make him a sandwich with the leftover burger scraps. It is in this simple way that the Hamburger we know today would have come into being.
Another theory consists of the Menches brothers selling sausage sandwiches in 1895, Hamburg, New York. Not having any more stock of this kind of meat they apparently went to the nearest butcher to replace the sausages. The word Hamburger would thus find its origin with the name of the city of Hamburg in the United States and not that of Germany.
Today nearly 50 billion hamburgers are sold every year in the United States! All these sandwiches would represent the equivalent of the weight of about 15 million cows.
Our article on the fast-food here !
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