Hamburger why such a name. Hamburger: the history of the dish and the origin of the name

What do you think almost any person will answer if you ask him which country's cuisine he belongs to? hamburger? If you do not give him time to think, he will probably say: “K American. " How else? How do we know this dish? Of course from the menu McDonald's!

But ... but ... excuse me ... isn't it too strange a name for a primordial American dishes: HAMBURG ep? Is it Hamburg- this is American town? I do not think so, German... In the language of Schiller and Goethe " hamburger"- an adjective meaning" from Hamburg», « hamburg", And if this word is written with a capital letter, it turns into a noun" hamburger". It turns out hamburger- just an immigrant who was unlucky in his homeland, why did he properly turn around in the "country of unlimited opportunities"?

In fact, it’s not that simple. The fact is that now it is already difficult to say HOW IT WAS a hundred and fifty years ago. Yes, this is the approximate age of this recipe. It did not occur to others around to write down in the annals of history exactly who and when exactly came up with the idea of ​​putting beef cutlet inside cut buns so as not to get your hands dirty. Actually, no one probably thought that they were present at a historical event or a great culinary discovery.

The point is that in Germany a dish consisting of a bun with a piece of meat and fried inside is not called " hamburger", And is sold ... in any butcher's shop. This is a traditional lunch of the working people who have to eat away from home, hearty and hot. Just don't ask hamburger, because the Germans call it quite differently! In the very Hamburg this is " Rundstück warm"(" Warm round "), and in Bavaria -" Fleischküchele"(" Meat pie "). But best of all, just say “belegtes Brötchen” (burger) - and show it in the special display case exactly what kind of filling you want! It can be a piece of freshly baked Leberkäse meatbread, or schnitzel, and a washer of an oven-baked peritoneum roll, a brisket with an appetizing crust, or even just a slide of Hackflays, a traditional German dish consisting of raw minced meat with spices.

By the way, we can assume that it is precisely in the hackflash that lies the reason that hamburger became associated with Hamburg... The fact is that even in the Middle Ages, contemporaries noted the fact that the inhabitants of this city for some reason prefer to eat meat not raw, but “fried in fat”. Now it is difficult to say what that phrase meant, and what kind of meat preparation it referred to, but we like this version. Hamburgers, proving their historical priority. One thing is beyond doubt: Hamburg was a Hanseatic city, a harbor city, which was visited by ships from various countries. Perhaps the sailors are fond of a convenient way to have a snack? Or maybe he was remembered by the settlers who departed from Of the old world light in America in search of a better life? We do not know this, and it is unlikely that we will ever know, unless humanity invents a time machine.

So, the first mention of " Hamburg steak "appears in the American cookbook published in 1842 year. What does it mean exactly about beef steak, without buns... So Americans tell the story of the origin of this dish in a completely different way than the Germans. They say that in 1885 year at the market in the vicinity of the city Hamburg in the state New York, the owner of a booth selling the then fast food ran out of pork (according to other versions - sausages), and he decided to experiment with ground beef (who came up with the idea of ​​putting hot meat in buns, history is again silent). According to another version, a similar thought occurred to a person whose family was from Hamburg, according to the third - Hamburg was the author's nickname. On the fourth ... in general, there are many stories on this score, different personalities, different years and different printed publications are mentioned. You have not yet wondered why suddenly there are so many Americans almost at the same time inflamed with a burning desire to cling to (excuse the word for that) to a proper name " hamburger"? The answer to this question exists. The fact is that during this period in America there was such a delicious product as export European beef. The meat was transported in ice, and the ships with this whim of gourmets left ... well, of course, from Hamburg... So " Hamburg beef"Was the same synonym for" quality mark "as in our time, say," Parma ham ".

In any case, in 1900 year Louis Lassen, a Danish émigré, patented a recipe called "Hamburger", essentially repeating the story we know of how Marconi became the inventor of radio. So next year we can celebrate the official 115th anniversary a wheat bun with a beef cutlet embedded in it!

What tricks did not have to resort to America popularizers of this dish!

V 1904 burgers were sold at the World's Fair in St. Louis (from a marketing point of view, it was roughly like Coca-Cola at VDNKh).

V 1920 year physiologists D.F. McClendon and F.J. Meyers set up an experiment that proved that a person can eat alone for 13 weeks hamburgers(washing them down with water), without harm to their own health. And the opened 1921 year company White castle to convince customers of the safety of this food, I came up with a clever marketing ploy: from time to time to buy burgers people in white coats came in, this was supposed to convince clients that the new food was safe, since it was used by doctors.

But it was all in vain! After the end of the First World War, nothing could force Americans to buy "enemy food", the dish never gained popularity on this continent.

New life in hamburger only the company breathed McDonald's... It was through her labors that the beef cutlet in a bun became a symbol of fast food and set off on its victorious march around the world. But that was thirty years later. And the Germans all this time and ate their buns with fried meat, not suspecting that this, it turns out, burgers.

And you, if you want, can even now cook your own, not McDonald's! Here is one of the possible recipes, and if someone tells you that this is not hamburger, then feel free to answer that you did it according to the German tradition!

A Khrumka thanks the meat processing enterprise for help in preparing the material "P.Felk" from Weissenburg in Bavaria

Hamburger- This is a type of closed sandwich (the so-called sandwich), which consists of a fried chopped cutlet, which is inside a special roll, cut in half lengthwise. As a supplement to the meat component, a hamburger can include many different spices. In particular, it can be both mayonnaise with ketchup and fresh green salad leaves, a slice of young zucchini, pickled cucumbers, raw or fried onions, tomato slices.

Originally, the name hamburger comes from Hamburg (the 2nd largest city in Germany), from where many people emigrated to America. By the way, in German, the word "hamburger" often means a descriptive noun, that is, the designation of someone from Hamburg. In addition, this concept can be an adjective that describes something from Hamburg.

The very first hamburger was sold by American deli Louis Lessing in his hometown of New Haven in 1900 (July 27). A little later (21 years later) the White Castle company was opened in Kansas, and their specialty was unusual hamburgers at that time. Due to their stable price (five cents until 1946) and the outlandishness of the hamburgers, they attracted customers, inspiring love and affection with this product.

Interestingly, nascent doubts about the safety of hamburgers for human health were successfully dispelled by a cunning move by Billy Ingram (the owner of the company). He specifically hired people in snow-white coats, which gave the impression that even doctors were not alien to buying and eating hamburgers.

Nevertheless, in the late 40s of the 20th century, competing organizations began to appear at White Castle. And the most serious of them was McDonald’s, which today is the generally recognized leader in the fast food industry.

The modern assortment of such products is very diverse - consumers can purchase several types of hamburgers. Undoubtedly, one of the most demanded and popular types of hamburgers is the cheeseburger (from the English cheeseburger). This is a sandwich that must include cheese.

Basically, the cost of a cheeseburger is slightly higher than the cost of a standard hamburger, due to the addition of cheese to the sandwich. In addition, this same fact increases the nutritional value of the finished product by 100 calories compared to the calories of a simple classic hamburger.

For fish lovers, so-called fishburgers are prepared (from the English fish - fish). This is a type of hamburger that uses fried fish fillets instead of meat patties. Interestingly, deep-fried fish can contain more calories than a meat-based hamburger.

Another type of hamburger, which necessarily includes chicken meat, is called a chickenburger. A sandwich filled with tofu is called a tofuburger. In addition, for vegetarians, there is also a suitable meat-free hamburger option - the Wedjiburger or Gardenburger.

If you liked the information, please click the button

Although many claim the palm in the invention of the burger, it is still believed that the first who created the burger as we know it now was Louis Lessing. On July 28, 1900, at the dawn of the new century, American Louis Lessing received a patent for a closed sandwich with hot meat cutlet and vegetable side dish, and for more than a hundred years this simple invention has been a symbol of the United States of America. Since then, America and the burger have grown together like Siamese twins, from culture to economy, the trail of a cutlet sandwich is clearly visible everywhere.

The burger got its name from immigrants from Hamburg, in order to become a symbol of the new world, the usual steak had to become suitable for consumption "on the go", which is exactly what Lessing achieved with his changes made to his recipe.

In the nineteenth century, the ancestor of the hamburger was called "Hamburg Meat", later, when the merchant who invented it moved to New York, the hamburger got its modern name. The first mention of "Hamburg Steak" was published in "Evening Boston" in 1884.

But the hamburger became widely known only in 1904, it happened in St. Louis at the World's Fair, but many years passed before it became a real symbol of America. It wasn't until the 1930s that Walter Anderson, the founder of White Castle Hamburger, made hamburger a main dish, but Wimpy Grills really secured the first place among all fast food to hamburger. It was there that the philosophy of the hamburger was perfected, it became very cheap and fast in production, which made it possible to put it into continuous production. Since then, nothing has changed, the hamburger has become the standard of fast food and spread throughout America, and later around the world.


The only significant breakthrough since then has been the emergence of drive-in restaurants, driven by the proliferation of private cars, from food on the go, hamburger to auto. But the hamburger itself remained unchanged, only the type of points of sale changed.

And of course, one cannot fail to mention the largest and most successful hamburger distribution chain, McDonald's. It was founded by brothers MacDonald and Ray Crowe, who became famous for the invention of the machine for mixing milk cocktails, thanks to the franchising system, the McDonald's chain quickly became the largest company selling fast food in general, and hamburgers in particular.

Hamburgers and McDonald's have become symbols of a new world and globalization. In 1986, the so-called "Big Mac Index" was introduced, and the hamburger became the yardstick for assessing the economic performance of entire countries. Surprisingly, chains like McDonald's are in great demand in countries with their own strong culinary traditions, such as China, Japan, Spain, and Korea. In many of these countries, there are more hamburger restaurants than national cuisine restaurants. And in Japan, McDonald’s is the largest chain of family restaurants.

Undoubtedly, the hamburger is the most practical food service invention since the creation of the world. It includes all the best, both meat and vegetables, a salad in the hamburger itself, and a fries card, as an essential attribute of any fast food restaurant. They are eaten both for lunch and dinner, both alone and with a group of friends. Today, the hamburger has entered not only the cultural code of the United States, but also the culture of the whole world. It's hard to find someone who hasn't tried it, and even harder to find someone who doesn't love hamburgers after trying them.

Hamburger is a very popular food all over the world today. It can be bought at any fast food restaurant at an affordable price. Despite the fact that for the inhabitants of America it is considered practically a national dish, there is no single version of the origin of this dish.

The history of the emergence of the hamburger is quite controversial. So far, scientists have not come to a single opinion either on the origin of the name of the dish and recipe, or on who is its creator. Some say the cooking method originates in Germany. It was from there, or rather from Hamburg, that German immigrants brought this type of snack to the United States. Only this recipe includes: a cutlet or just fried meat, which is placed in the middle of a small round loaf, gherkins are added there, and then everything is seasoned with sauce. In Germany, such a dish is known as "rundstück warm" ("warm round").

A description of the Hamburg sandwich can be found in the Boston Culinary School's recipe book, which was published in 1844. It is also known that at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, these "warm rounds" were called "hamburgs", and the demand for them was very high. And by the middle of the XX century, they have already become known as our usual "hamburgers", and then burgers. Moreover, now in some countries this name is also used to designate just a cutlet.

However, there is another version of the history of the origin of the hamburger, by the way, no less plausible. According to which the name of the sandwich came from another Hamburg (American New York). In this city in 1885, brothers Charles and Frank Menchis offered a special dish at the then annual fair. It was very simple: a piece of beef was placed between the pieces of bread. It is this legend that is considered official by New Yorkers, who unconditionally believe in the fact that their city is the birthplace of hamburgers.

But people living in Seymour (Wisconsin) do not agree with this version. Their story tells us that in 1885, Charlie Nagrin, known as "Charlie the Hamburger," was selling prototype hamburgers: sandwiches consisting of slices of bread with meatballs flattened between them.

Another story of the appearance of a hamburger tells that on July 4, 1891, a certain Oscar Bilby from Oklahoma first thought of putting a cutlet in a cut bun. The dish, prepared according to his recipe, allegedly became known as a hamburger. This version is gladly confirmed by Bilby's great-grandchildren, and they believe that their great-grandfather was the one who invented the hamburger.

Similar publications