Hamburger is one of the most popular dishes in the world. And this is confirmed by the fact that almost 50 billion hamburgers are sold annually in the United States alone. We are not even talking about world statistics. At the same time, both schoolchildren and rich businessmen eat it. Everyone can afford this dish. This is probably why hamburgers are so popular. Today we will talk about how it appeared and why it became so popular.
How did the cutlet appear?
The history of the classic burger cutlet begins in Hamburg. Back in the 12th century in Germany, in large cities, various beef delicacies appeared in the form of snacks. But only in the 19th century, these delicacies began to gain great popularity. In particular, when, due to the political revolution, the Germans massively emigrated to the United States. German food came with the German inhabitants: beer and meat delicacies were now in every pub. And since Hamburg was known as an exporter of high-quality beef, some restaurants began offering Hamburg-style sliced steaks.
In the middle of the 19th century in America, the preparation of raw chopped beef was even recommended for better digestion. Therefore, ground beef began to gain great popularity. And along with it, and minced meat cutlet.
How does the cutlet appear in the bun?
Some argue that beef was put in a loaf as early as the 19th century when Hamburg steak was served to factory workers during the Industrial Revolution. Because they ate standing up, it was difficult and uncomfortable for them to cut the steak. So one creative chef would cut the meat into slices and put them in baked goods. This is how he created the Hamburg sandwich.
However, others say the hamburger variation came about under different circumstances. Whoever claims, the cutlets in the bun gained great popularity after the World’s Fair in St. Louis in 1904. This exhibition was attended by many people, including a journalist from the “New York Tribune”. He wrote a story about a new sandwich called a hamburger. It was something new and unusual for the readers, and therefore the interest in the dish grew immediately.
However, there were also turning points in the history of the dish. Once Eptop Sinclair, in his journalistic novel “The Jungle”, described an industrial production in which beef was allegedly filled with preservatives and processed meat was added. Many details were also described, which supposedly confirmed the unhygienic nature of the meat processing plants. This provoked a huge scandal, but the popularity of the hamburger only grew. Although, of course, there were people who flatly refused to eat the delicacy because of the details exposed by the author. Eptop Sinclair himself could not even imagine that his fictional stories could be believed and that they would so undermine the trust in the hamburger among millions of people.
However, several years passed and the scandal subsided. Therefore, starting in the middle of the 20th century, the first McDonald’s and Burger King establishments were opened. They became the main catalysts for popularity because restaurants made burgers — fast food that everyone could afford.
After all, the sale of the McDonald’s and Burger King franchises around the world only spread this idea with fast food, and therefore today the hamburger is considered the most recognizable and one of the most popular dishes in the whole world.
By the way, the recipe for a classic cutlet has been unchanged for a century: chopped beef with a minimum amount of spices and with ideal proportions of meat and lard. The same hamburger cutlet is also in our stores.
