Actually the hamburger is an German snack/invention and was known as "Rundstuck warm" back then in Hamburg (second largest city in Germany and largest harbour in Europe in the 19th century). It made its way to the US with German immigrants in the 19th century. The Americans just renamed it due to easier pronunciation, later!

By FairlyNuts on August 16, 2011 12:38 PM

What I find lacking in almost every article on the origin of the hamburger is the story of Oscar Weber Bilby, from just outside of Tulsa, OK, who seems to have been the first person to actually have put a Hamburg steak on a "bun" and serve it as a hamburger, on July 4th of 1891, beating the World's Fair claimants by 13 years! This is what the entire world now recognizes as a hamburger, not a...+READ

What I find lacking in almost every article on the origin of the hamburger is the story of Oscar Weber Bilby, from just outside of Tulsa, OK, who seems to have been the first person to actually have put a Hamburg steak on a "bun" and serve it as a hamburger, on July 4th of 1891, beating the World's Fair claimants by 13 years! This is what the entire world now recognizes as a hamburger, not a patty between two pieces of bread. He made a large grill, built a hickory fire under it, cooked ground angus beef patties, and served them on Grandma Fanny's homemade yeast buns. In 1933 the weber family opened Weber's Superior Root Beer Stand and to this day, use the grill that Grandpa made in 1891. I'd say that this is a pretty strong calim to the first Hamburger.-COLLAPSE

By texasfoodie on July 21, 2009 08:42 AM

Until I was in my teens, I don't think I ever looked at a menu in any restaurant---my order was always the same: a hamburger, served the way everybody served it: mustard, onion, and a couple of slices of tongue-curling dill pickle. We had burgers at home, patted round and fried in a skillet, sometimes on Wonder Bread, sometimes on buns. But a burger with a grilled patty, slice of day-glo cheese...+READ

Until I was in my teens, I don't think I ever looked at a menu in any restaurant---my order was always the same: a hamburger, served the way everybody served it: mustard, onion, and a couple of slices of tongue-curling dill pickle. We had burgers at home, patted round and fried in a skillet, sometimes on Wonder Bread, sometimes on buns. But a burger with a grilled patty, slice of day-glo cheese laid on to droop down its corners whilst the two bun halves crisp-sizzled in the who-knows-how-old grease coating the grill---now THAT was a sandwich.

My raisin' was in the Deep South, and our childhood favorite and only takeout was our local Milk Bar---guess we were too rural for a complete "Dairy" title. The little one-room building, whitewashed all around, had so many items and prices printed in white shoe polish on the INSIDE of the windows that you could barely see the workers within. I always admired the talent, and always hoped to watch the person who did all that backward writing---the printing was quite legible, and even every "S" was printed right.

You walked up to the little screen-flap window, picked your poison from a long list of cholesterol, paid your money, and promptly had the screen slammed down as the cashier turned to yell your order at the frycook standing two feet away.

The refrigerator door was opened to reveal several tall stacks of half-inch pink checkers, each separated by a small square of torn-off waxed paper. One of these was grabbed by the paper and slapped upside down on the grill. The hot, dusty parking-lot air began to fill with the tantalizing scent of sizzling meat as the cook threw two bun halves into the grease deposited on the grill by decades of burgers.

It never mattered to the cook if you got two tops or two bottoms, bun was bun; you didn't care either---you just wanted that sizzling and frying and mustard-smearing to be over with, and a nice slice of onion and a coupla rings of salty dills slapped on.

The meat, by this time, had been spatula-smashed with all the weight of the cook's muscular right arm, flowering into a bun-sized, thin circle with crisp, lacy edges. Greasy spatula saluted top of bun, the lot went into a crisp crackle of waxy paper with the fancy pinked edges, and you received your prize, seizing it to your bosom like a holy relic.

You backed away, averting your eyes from the waiting hordes, lest they lose control and wrest your long-awaited treasure from you. A dime into the machine around the corner, the sissssssss of an ice-filled Pepsi bottle, and you retreated to the grimy picnic tables in the shade of the back lot, sinking onto that splintery bench like returning from battle. Rustle of paper, scent of onion-mustard-meat approaching your lips, a surge of almost-pain beneath your tongue, then Heaven.

I remember those filler-filled burgers of my youth with great pleasure, and with a parting regret for the youngness of it, the bright-eyed lusty joy with which we wolfed down whatever was put in front of us, the uncaring freedom of the days before cholesterol and triglycerides were invented.-COLLAPSE

By racheld on October 18, 2008 02:36 PM

I can think of at least 3 different places that I have seen claiming to have invented the cheeseburger including one in Louisville and one in Nashville, are we sure where it was actually first created?

By chmhmd on October 8, 2008 08:27 AM

Er... what about Burger Chef?!!!! You really have to be kidding. The research on this story is quite lacking for failing to mention Burger Chef at any point. Burger Chef was a major franchiser of hamburger restaurants years before McDonald's became a household name and was on every major street in the midwest and east coast in the early 1960s. And Burger Chef was one of the very first restaurants...+READ

Er... what about Burger Chef?!!!! You really have to be kidding. The research on this story is quite lacking for failing to mention Burger Chef at any point. Burger Chef was a major franchiser of hamburger restaurants years before McDonald's became a household name and was on every major street in the midwest and east coast in the early 1960s. And Burger Chef was one of the very first restaurants to enter into movie merchandising promotions, such as the first Star Wars cobranded merchandise.-COLLAPSE

By donw9876 on October 5, 2008 08:03 PM

McDonald's also had a short-lived meatless burger sometime in the '80's or '90's.

By Whosyerkitty on October 4, 2008 08:33 AM

Hamburger: The Taste Of Real America

By marky_frost on August 25, 2008 03:43 PM

Did you read the NYTimes article this week on how the hamburger is conquering Paris?


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/16/dining/16paris.html?th&emc=th

- Chris

By chrisk on July 18, 2008 05:27 AM