Why Didn’t I Know This About The History of Hamburgers?





My little logical brain as a child used to get very annoyed at a McDonald's adverts which advertised their Hamburgers as 100% Pure Beef - surely they should be called Beefburgers or made from 100% Pure Ham.


As I am now pretty much a veteran in this investigative journalism malarkey I thought I would find the answer as to why they are called Hamburgers.


Early 18th Century German travellers in Asia noticed that locals stuffing beef in their saddles whilst they rode. They found that this softened the beef the taste was fantastic.


The idea of softening beef was brought back to Germany and to Hamburg in particular.


The process and end product became known as Hamburg Meat.


150 or so years later immigrants introduced the process to America, over the next 20 odd years different styles of Hamburg Meat appeared but it wasn't till the World Fair in 1904 that the Meat & Buns that we know today were made popular.





Obviously things have changed a great deal since then and you can find lots of different styles of Hamburgers with various additions to the fillings.


But if that is a Hamburger (with no Ham) what on earth is a beefburger?


Some people claim that a beefburger is the meat is consumed without any buns whilst others claim that they were called beefburger in mainly Jewish areas to avoid any association with Pork.


But either way, the meat is actually the exact same thing.


Next time you are tucking into a delicious Ham or Beef Burger with the family try to stop yourself boring them with this little fact!