Reading 1

History of Hamburger
Unit 2: Food and Health Genre: Description

What’s your favourite way to eat a hamburger?

Adapted from: https://toriavey.com/history-kitchen/a-brief-history-of-hamburgers/
Published August 5, 2013 - Last Updated August 29, 2018

1. A soft, toasted bun… crisp, cool lettuce… sweet, vine-ripened tomatoes… and in the middle of it all, a juicy seasoned
beef patty. Widely hailed as YAYGIN OLARAK “America’s favourite food,” the history of the hamburger is filled with
mythology. Many folks(MİLLET) have claimed(İDDİA ETTİ) they were the first to place a ground beef patty between
two slices of white bread. Who wouldn’t want to be responsible for inventing such a beloved American treat? Sadly,
we don’t know who the true burger originator is. However, we do know a lot about how this classic sandwich gained
(KAZANILDI) a foothold in America, where billions are eaten each and every year.

2. A common misconception is that the first hamburger was created in

Hamburg, Germany. While the inspiration for the hamburger came from
Hamburg, the sandwich concept was invented much later. During the 19th
century, Hamburg became famous for their beef, from cows raised
(YÜKSELTMEK)in the regional countryside. Hamburg beef was commonly
chopped, seasoned and moulded into patties. Since refrigeration was not yet
available, fresh beef like this had to be cooked immediately. Hamburg beef
came with a hefty price tag outside of its native land, and was often
substituted with less expensive varieties of beef.

3. When groups of German immigrants began arriving in America during the

19th century, many earned their livelihood(geçim kaynagı) by opening restaurants in large cities like Chicago and New
York. It wasn’t long before many of their menus featured an Americanized version of the Hamburg steak– beef that
was minced or chopped and combined with garlic, onions, salt and pepper, then grilled or fried. In 1837, New York’s
Delmonico’s restaurant offered a Hamburg steak on its first menu. At 10 cents it was the most expensive item, twice
the cost of pork chops, veal cutlets and roast beef. A German restaurant at Philadelphia’s Centennial Exposition in
1876 served Hamburg steaks to thousands of customers. Afterwards the dish was in high demand, and could be
found in non-German restaurants and in cookbooks like Mrs. Lincoln’s Boston Cook Book, published in 1884:

4. “Hamburgh Steak. – Pound a slice of round steak enough to break the fibre. Fry two or three onions,
minced fine, in butter until slightly browned. Spread the onions over the meat, fold the ends of the
meat together, and pound again, to keep the onions in the middle. Broil two or three minutes. Spread
with butter, salt and pepper.”

5. This is where Hamburg, Germany’s link to America’s classic hamburger ends. The difference between Hamburg
steaks and hamburgers as we know them today is, quite simply, the bun. Two simple pieces of bread launched the
Hamburg steak into nationwide popularity in the mid 1800’s, when many Americans found industrial jobs in factor-
ies. When steam powered factories began operating through the night hours, food carts offering coffee and small
food items were often parked outside. Hungry workers would order food through a window and eat quickly before
heading back inside to work. A few years later, when food carts came equipped with gas grills, Hamburg steaks star-
ted showing up on their menus. While well-liked by customers, the Hamburg steak proved difficult to eat while
standing. Placing the patty between two slices of bread solved this problem, and the hamburger sandwich was born.
Who was the first to serve the Hamburg steak as a sandwich? The details have been lost to history. Whoever it was,
looking back it might be considered a stroke of culinary genius. By the turn of the century, the hamburger was
already considered an American classic.

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 Reading 1

History of Hamburger
Unit 2: Food and Health Genre: Description

6. In 1921, Billy Ingram and Walter Anderson opened the first fast food hamburger establishment, White Castle, in
Wichita, Kansas. Their main offering was a small 5-cent hamburger, which they encouraged customers to purchase
“by the sack.” At that time, in part because of Upton Sinclair’s novel The Jungle, many Americans were concerned
with the sanitary practices of the meat industry. White Castle addressed the fears of their customers by furnishing
their clean, white-decorated restaurants with stainless steel countertops that could be easily wiped down. Their
hamburger meat was ground in plain sight, ensuring patrons that they were paying for a quality meal. Around the
same time hamburgers became a popular menu item at roadside diners and soda shops, where they were often
served alongside French fries and milkshakes.

7. The hamburger continued to grow in popularity throughout the following decades, only suffering with the food
shortages and meat rationing of World War II. During the war, American soldiers brought hamburgers overseas with
them. They were easy to make and helped to cure some of the homesickness felt by the troops(askerler birlik).
When the McDonald brothers opened their Burger Bar Drive-In in San Bernardino, California in the 1940s, the ham-
burger made its official debut in the suburbs. By that late 1950s, McDonald’s had sold over 100 million hamburgers.
Today, they sell over 75 hamburgers per second!

8. Today hamburgers can be found in nearly every part of the world. Over time the concept has evolved(evrimlesti),
and meat patties are decorated with an endless variety of creative, tasty toppings.(lezzetli soslar) The meat patties
themselves have been replaced with healthier options, including black bean, turkey and salmon burgers (though one
might argue that these do not really qualify as burgers in the traditional sense). Fast food establishments have also
become more adventurous with their “hamburger” patties. At MOS burger in Japan you can order a rice burger, and
McDonald’s in India developed a McAloo Tikki Burger made from fried potatoes and peas topped with tomatoes,
onions and spicy condiments, to satisfy the dietary restrictions and taste preferences of their Hindu diners.

9. Throughout the years, hamburgers have endeared themselves to a variety of food lovers. Restaurants across the
country compete for who can create the biggest hamburger, and culinarians write books devoted to cross-country
road trips in search of the very best burger. You can find hamburgers in tiny hole-in-the-wall diners and on the
menus of Michelin-starred restaurants. In 2005, Las Vegas restaurant Fleur de Lys outdid themselves by creating a
$5,000 hamburger served with champagne. Seems a bit silly to me, but it does prove the widespread appeal of this
simple and tasty sandwich. Even now they continue to evolve. Next, it appears that burgers will be grown in test
tubes. I shudder to think.

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