Where Do Hamburgers Come From?

Well, Hamburg of course! I don’t mean the people who live in Hamburg, I mean the meat sandwich that has been traditionally associated with America. The hamburger has its origin in a medieval culinary practice popular among warring Mongolian and Turkic tribes known as Tartars. They shredded the tough meat from Asian cattle grazing on the Siberian steppes to make it more digestible. The violent Tartars derived their name from the infernal abyss, Tartarus, of Greek mythology. They in turn gave their name to the shredded raw meat dish, tartar steak, known popularly today by its French appellation, steak tartare. Hmmm, not such a gourmet French dish after all, non? By the 14th century, the Russian Tartars had made it to the port of Hamburg, where they introduced their tartar specialty. The Germans flavored it with regional spices, and both cooked and raw versions became a standard meal among the poorer classes. It acquired the name “Hamburg steak”. The “Hamburg steak” left Germany in the 1880s with a wave of German emigrants to America. (My own great-great grandfather Pfeiler emigrated from Prussia in 1877 and settled in Texas.) Exactly when the patty was put into a bun is unknown, but when it was served at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis, Missouri, it was already a sandwich . . . some three decades before the golden arches would become the gateway to hamburger heaven. So, now you know the truth!