The Romans, the Mongols, insert an empire here and unless one of your favorite foods is dip-n-dots, it can probably be traced to one of history's empires. The more simple the preparation of a dish, the more likely it was adopted or invented separately by more than one culture. The hamburger for example is incredibly simple or at least should be. Dean Martin’s recipe for a hamburger included three ingredients. A pound of beef split into four patties and fried in a lightly salted and oiled cast iron skillet. The third ingredient is a shot of chilled bourbon. What you put on top is your business but the preparation need not be more complicated than that.
What we call a hamburger today was named after the city of Hamburg in Germany. A lot of us probably already knew this and if you ever looked at a map and thought the city was named after the food… Well… Umm… Just… I’m sorry? But before we move on to how it was introduced to the United States, let’s look at what other hamburger-like dishes existed throughout history and how we got to where we are today.
A Roman cookbook called Apicius is one of the most substantial historical references for ancient Roman cooking. Written around 100 B.C. it includes the first recognizable recipes for what we would consider a hamburger. The recipe called for minced meat to be formed into patties or rolls with peppers, pine nuts, herbs at hand, and a fermented fish sauce called guarum. Guarum is sometimes called Roman ketchup because of how popular it was as an ingredient and condiment.
The next most famous and most direct dish related to our hamburger today is tartar. Originally consumed by generations of steppe nomads the dish was introduced to Europe by the Mongols. Mongol horsemen would keep meat under their saddles while riding. It is said that the heat generated would cook and tenderize the meat to be eaten later. However this is just a myth. The Mongols also known as the Tartars, a tribe close to Russia the Mongols conquered before they invaded Russia in the early 1200’s, sliced their meat finely. This is because it made it more tender and easier to eat raw. Much of the meat they would have eaten would have been tough and stringy. The mongols often eat their dead horses and pack animals. It is also said they bled their horses and mixed the blood with fermented milk as a source of substance, when food was scarce.
Hamburg finally re-enters the story as tartar caught on in Russia. Traders traveling from Russia introduced this dish to the city of Hamburg during the 1600’s. As European empires rose and fell, European immigrants fled the economic turmoil and religious persecution for the United States. Many Germans began to arrive in the United States in the mid 1800’s. With them they brought the tartar but it was now called Hamburger Steak. As beef became cheaper and more popular in the late 1800’ and early 1900’s the Hamburger Steak was eventually cooked. Then it was served on bread and then it was served with the familiar toppings we know today.
People in the United States were starting to cook and prepare the burger in a familiar fashion of today around the same time as Germans were in Germany. Germans also did not only flee out of Germany to the United States. Some went to Russia. Here another proto-hamburger was made. It is similar to a Russian piroshki but it was baked and not fried. Ground meat was cooked and then placed in a pocket of dough which was then baked. The farmers could keep these in their pockets and eat while continuing to work the field.
Yes, it is a bit of a downer ending but if you really want to know who invented the hamburger look it up and decide for yourself. There are more claims to the burger than to the hot dog. As much as I like food and history, I really couldn't care less who has the claim of the first burger by the date of a county fair. As long as it tastes good.