The Hamburger Through Time
A short history of the greatest American food icon
- RECIPES (roll over for images)
- The Big CHOW
- Bull-Market Burger
- CHOW Slider
- CHOW Veggie Burger
- Salisbury Steak
with Mushroom Gravy
The burger is so closely associated with American culture that it might as well be emblazoned on the U.S. flag. The exact origins of this iconic sandwich—the simple beef patty in a bun—are as murky as the provenance of some of the meat itself. Our timeline covers the history of the burger over the last 200 years, chronicling how this poor man’s street food ascended to pop triumph in the postwar era, and more recently has been admonished as the harbinger of all things unsustainable and unhealthy—even as we continue to consume more burgers with each passing year.
Once you’ve digested the massive role the hamburger has played in American culture, cook up one. We’ve got recipes for some of the most iconic, most delicious burgers in history.
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1802 The Oxford English Dictionary defines Hamburg steak as salt beef.
1836 New York’s Delmonico’s Restaurant issues the first printed American menu and lists “hamburger steak” as one of the priciest items for 10 cents.
«1884 A recipe for Hamburg steak (a dish resembling Salisbury steak and considered the predecessor to the burger) is published in Mary Johnson Lincoln’s Mrs. Lincoln’s Boston Cook Book.
«1885 Charles Nagreen of Seymour, Wisconsin, claims to invent the hamburger when he places fried ground meat between two slices of bread so that patrons of his Outgamie County Fair food stand can eat while they walk.
«1892 Frank Menches claims to invent the hamburger when he decides to grind up meat and serve it as a patty because he risks running out of sausage at his Akron County Fair concession stand.
«1896 The Hamburg steak is such a popular dish that Fannie Farmer writes nothing more than basic instructions in her definitive Boston Cooking-School Cook Book.
«1900 Louis Lassen of Louis Lunch in New Haven, Connecticut, lays claim to the invention of the hamburger when he grinds up lean beef, broils it, and serves it between slices of toast.
1906 Upton Sinclair publishes The Jungle, in which he discusses the horrid state of Chicago meatpacking plants and puts the nation on edge about the cleanliness of the food supply.
«1921 Real estate and insurance agent Edgar Waldo “Billy” Ingram teams up with cook Walter Anderson to open the first White Castle hamburger stand in Wichita, Kansas. Anderson invents the modern hamburger when he cooks patties of ground meat on the griddle and serves them with a mess of onions on a soft yeast bun; they’re sold for 5 cents each.
The Hamburger Through Time
A short history of the greatest American food icon
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The Hamburger Through Time(cont.)
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1924 By topping a patty with cheese, Lionel Sternberger creates the cheeseburger at the Rite Spot Restaurant in Pasadena, California.
«1931 Cartoonist Elzie Crisler Segar introduces the hamburger-obsessed J. Wellington Wimpy to the comic strip Popeye and helps cement the hamburger as an American pop-culture phenomenon.
«1948 The McDonald brothers shut down their successful San Bernardino, California, barbecue and burger drive-in to streamline the restaurant. They reinvent their drive-through system, focus only on burgers and fries, and reopen to instant success. Two years later, they begin advertising their sales in neon outside their restaurant with signs reading “Over 1 million sold.”
1948 Harry and Esther Snyder open the first In-N-Out burger stand in Baldwin Park, California. Harry installs a two-way speaker system at the location and creates the drive-through as we know it.
1950 New York’s famous ‘21’ Club Burger—the first “haute” burger, made with duck fat and fennel seed—debuts. It costs $2.75; today it sells for $30.
1951 Robert O. Peterson opens the first Jack in the Box restaurant in San Diego, California.
1954 Ray Kroc comes across the McDonald brothers’ restaurant in San Bernardino, California, and talks the brothers into signing him on as a business partner. A year later, McDonald’s first franchise opens in Des Plaines, Illinois. The franchising fee was $950. Today it’s $45,000.
1954 Burger King is founded in Miami by James McLamore and David Edgerton.
1956 Successful fast-food restaurateur Carl Karcher opens the first two Carl’s Jr. restaurants in Anaheim and Brea, California.
«1957 Noticing his customers were eating at a rival restaurant for its “bigger burger,” James McLamore, Burger King cofounder, launches the Whopper, the first signature burger from a fast-food chain.
«1961 White Castle sells its 1 billionth burger.
«1961 The McDonald brothers sell the business to Ray Kroc for $2.7 million. McDonald’s Hamburger University’s first class graduates.
Next page: Willard Scott as Ronald McDonald? « 1 2 3 4 5 » Next
]]>The Hamburger Through Time
A short history of the greatest American food icon
The Hamburger Through Time(cont.)
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«1962 Lou Groen creates the Filet-O-Fish sandwich to serve to Catholic customers during the Lenten season in an attempt to save his fledging McDonald’s franchise.
«1963 Ronald McDonald, the fictional cartoon mascot of McDonald’s, is born. The character is played by Willard Scott of Today show weatherman fame.
«1968 The Big Mac, the brainchild of Pittsburgh franchisee Jim Delligatti, is introduced.
1968 White Castle has now served over 2 billion burgers.
1969 Young Ohio millionaire Dave Thomas envisions an old-time hamburger chain that will rival McDonald’s, and opens Wendy’s.
«1973 George Lucas’s classic film American Graffiti is released, reinforcing the hamburger as a symbol of American innocence. The movie’s social center of gravity is Mel’s Drive-In, inspired by the San Francisco restaurant.
1982 The first veggie burger is created in London by Gregory Sams, an artist, inventor, social thinker, and macrobioticist, who ran the famous natural-food restaurant Seed with his brother Craig. His vegan creation, the VegeBurger, becomes an overnight success.
«1982 Brad Hamilton (Judge Reinhold) proclaims, “I shall serve no fries before their time,” in the pop-film classic Fast Times at Ridgemont High. The coveted occupation of the high school students is flipping hamburgers at “All American Burger.”
1983 Paul Wenner, owner of the gourmet vegetarian restaurant the Gardenhouse in Gresham, Oregon, invents the Gardenburger, which is made up of leftovers from the restaurant’s kitchen as a means to decrease waste. When the recession hits in 1984, the restaurant folds and Gardenburger Inc. is born.
The Hamburger Through Time
A short history of the greatest American food icon
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The Hamburger Through Time(cont.)
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«1984 "Where’s the beef?" Wendy’s famous commercial starring Clara Peller debuts.
1985 One out of every six restaurant trips in the nation ends at a McDonald’s.
«1987 In-N-Out’s president, Richard Snyder, begins printing Bible verses on the bottom of the restaurant’s food packaging (including John 3:16 on the drink cups and Revelation 3:20 on the burger wrappers).
«1989 Carlo Petrini creates the Slow Food organization as a statement against fast-food chains, after protesting the opening of a McDonald’s located on the Spanish Steps in Rome.
«1989 The world’s largest hamburger (5,520 pounds) is served at the Burger Fest in Seymour, Wisconsin. The record still holds.
«1990 After 14 years of Cold War negotiations, McDonald’s opens in Moscow’s Pushkin Square, just a few blocks from the Kremlin. Seating 700 patrons and employing more than 600 people, it is the largest McDonald’s to date.
«1994 The movie Pulp Fiction is released. Viewers learn that a McDonald’s Quarter Pounder with Cheese is known as a Royale with Cheese in Paris.
1995 Jack in the Box revives its clownlike mascot, Jack, to represent the company in advertisements.
2000 Daniel Boulud’s $32 DB Burger debuts.
2001 Eric Schlosser’s book Fast Food Nation, which looks behind the scenes of the American quick-service food sector, estimates that Americans consume about 13 billion burgers annually.
The Hamburger Through Time
A short history of the greatest American food icon
Previous « 1 2 3 4 5
The Hamburger Through Time(cont.)
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2001 Carl’s Jr. launches the Six Dollar Burger, its take on high-end fast food. Seven years later, Men’s Health magazine calls the Double Six Dollar Burger one of “The 20 Worst Foods in America.”
2002 The New York Times reports on In-N-Out’s “secret” menu—which is printed on the company website.
«2003 “Low-carb” burgers emerge as a result of the Atkins Diet. Burgers with no buns show up on menus at T.G.I. Friday’s, Hardee’s (pictured), Carl’s Jr., and Burger King.
«2004 Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, a movie dedicated to the quest for White Castle burgers, is released.
«2004 The documentary Super Size Me, a shocking look at the fast-food industry’s effect on obesity in America, is released. Morgan Spurlock’s first meal, a Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese Value Meal, literally makes him sick.
«2004 The documentary Hamburger America, a look at eight family-owned-and-run burger joints, is released as a direct rebuttal to Super Size Me.
2005 Carl’s Jr. launches a controversial television ad in which a scantily clad Paris Hilton provocatively noshes on a burger. Detractors call the ad “soft-core porn.”
«2008 Burger King introduces “The Burger,” which costs $200, as a publicity/charity stunt in London. This limited-edition offering includes Wagyu beef, Pata Negra ham, Cristal onion straws, infused mayonnaise, and a bun dusted with white truffle.
Photo of Charles Nagreen courtesy of the Home of the Hamburger Inc. Photo of Frank Menches courtesy of the Menches family. Photo of the Boston Cooking-School Cook Book courtesy of Stuff-tiques. Wimpy illustration © King Features Syndicate. Photo of the Whopper courtesy of Burger King. Photos of the McDonald’s signs in Rome courtesy of phototram. Photos of Moscow’s Pushkin Square McDonald’s courtesy of David Orban. Photo of “The Burger” courtesy of Burger King.
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