Can somebody tell me what the deal is with hamburgers being called hamburgers.
As far as I know, the meat in hamburgers is, and always has been, beef.
I have enjoyed many a hamburger that also contained bacon, as well as a plethora of other random ingredients, but never ham.
Here is one account stating it dates back to the early 1800’s in Hamburg, Germany.
I can’t really account for the validity of the cite, however.
From the story I heard from my German language teacher in high school, and IIRC -
Hamburgers were invented in a German city called Hamburg. Since they were invented there, they decided to name the tasty new treat in honor of the place that birthed it, hence Hamburg-er
The “ham” in hamburger is purely coincidental.
Similar things happened with other German cities, for example Frankfurt begot the Frankfurter, and Berlin the Berliner. You may of heard of the famous presidential gaffe that occurer in Berlin one day…Ich ben ein Berliner 
What Eleusis said. Just one thing - the link might make you think that there was no Roman hamburger. This is wrong.
Get your Isca Omentata while it’s hot!
Actually, to be fair, the only cite I have for the Roman burger being between bread is this partial transcript of a program called Hidden History (with Terry Jones). Still, the burger itself is an established fact.
Don’t forget Wieners which, I believe, are named after Wien (Vienna).
I wonder why it’s all German? Is it a common practice in the German language to name food after cities?
It’s not only German, lots of food is named after the place where it’s made or where it originated - Bologna sausage, Cheddar cheese, Mayonnaise, Béarnaise sauce etc., etc.
Mars Bars, Milky Way Bars…
Or, perhaps not.
I don’t even want to think about where they got those ‘Reggie’ bars in the 70s from now.
Thanks.
everton makes a good point:
I’d also add such things as Parma ham, Dijon mustard and of course Stilton (which in fact was never made in Stilton - that’s just the town on the main highway where it was sold to travellers).
I wonder how many people outside (or even inside) the UK realise that, say, Cheddar cheese is named after a town. As for mayonnaise, I only learnt a few months ago that it comes from sauce mahonnaise, meaning sauce from Mahón (a port on the Spanish island of Menorca). I guess when words become that common we tend not to think about where they come from.
As for “hamburger”, while it’s true that the “Ham” in Hamburg is just a coincidence, it has inspired the word “beefburger”, which in the UK at least tends to refer to the meat patty itself, while “hamburger” applies to the whole thing in a bun. Is this also common usage in America?
No, we don’t say “beefburger” here. When referring to the meat alone, we say “hamburger patty”.
“Wiener” is short for “Wienerwurst” (Vienna Sausage) and “frankfurter” is short for “Frankfurterwurst” (Frankfurt sausage).
Let’s not forget champagne and bourbon.
But, does poupon mustard come from the town of Poup?
Those poor Poupers…
Here in Michigan, I’ve seen the occasional “beefburger” on a sign or two, but it’s certainly not common.
We do, however, have the steakburger which I believe is just a hamburger made from higher quality beef.
Was the bacon mixed into the ground beef, or was it just on top of the patty.
Why couldn’t you just grind up some ham and make a burger out of it?
That’s called Deviled Ham, undoubtably name after it’s creator, Satan.
On the other hand, here in the States, we do have “turkeyburger” for ground turkey meat, as well as “soyburger”, “milletburger” or “veggieburger” for vegetarians.
Probably because the name would be confusing.
“Devilled” means that the ham has been spiced, not that it has been minced. here’s a recipe if anyone’s interested.
We have turkeyburgers and veggieburgers in the UK too (I’d be surprised if they don’t in Australia).
