# Where do hamburgers come from?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-hamburgers-come-from/580982
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [May 6, 2011, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-hamburgers-come-from/580982 "2011-05-06T17:19:18Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@ministryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ministryman)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2011, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-hamburgers-come-from/580982/21 "2011-05-06T19:47:14Z")
> [@tdn](#):
>
> Cheeseburg, Germany? It’s just about 40km south of Veggieburg.
So explain the Turkeyburger…
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### Author:  [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2011, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-hamburgers-come-from/580982/22 "2011-05-06T19:51:39Z")
> [@pulykamell](#):
>
> What is referred to generically as a hamburger–a sandwich of cooked ground beef in a bun–does seem to be an American invention. … . I consider the sandwich form an American invention,.
No, it was invented in Denmark. [cite](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cS5dMkimNE)
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### Author:  [@Chef\_Troy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chef_Troy)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2011, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-hamburgers-come-from/580982/23 "2011-05-06T19:56:06Z")
> [@Leaffan](#):
>
> According to Gary Larson, it was Thac.
Are you referring to Thag with a G, after whom the Thagomizer on the end of a stegosaur’s tail is named?
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### Author:  [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2011, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-hamburgers-come-from/580982/24 "2011-05-06T19:56:28Z")
> [@ministryman](#):
>
> So explain the Turkeyburger…
That’s pretty self explanatory. Harder to explain is the nearby Syriaburger. Instead of a bun it’s served on a sword.
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### Author:  [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2011, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-hamburgers-come-from/580982/25 "2011-05-06T19:56:29Z")
> [@ministryman](#):
>
> So explain the Turkeyburger…
Turkeyburg is just south of Ankara.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2011, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-hamburgers-come-from/580982/26 "2011-05-06T19:59:24Z")
Quoth **BigBertha** :
> [@](#):
>
> I am wondering now who thought up the idea? Humans saw animals eating other animals, they may have even tried some themself. It probably didn’t taste good raw. Who thought to cook it and make it palatable?
Humans have been eating and enjoying meat since long before we _were_ humans. Despite what extremist vegetarian propaganda would have you think, we’re naturally omnivores. Meat may be more palatable cooked, but the same is also true of most plant-based foods, and in fact, unlike meat, many plants _can’t_ be eaten raw (at least, not to any nutritional benefit).
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### Author:  [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2011, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-hamburgers-come-from/580982/27 "2011-05-06T20:03:01Z")
> [@kath94](#):
>
> My elderly aunt in Massachusetts referred to raw, minced or shredded beef (what I know as hamburger) as “hamburg.” Once it’s cooked and put on a bun she called it a “hamburger.”
Growing up in New England, I heard this often. I’m not sure if I ever used it myself, but it makes perfect sense to me.
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### Author:  [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2011, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-hamburgers-come-from/580982/28 "2011-05-06T20:08:22Z")
> [@silenus](#):
>
> Well, when a Mommy hamburger and a Daddy hamburger _love_ each other _very_ much…
…and nine months later a slider is born.
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### Author:  [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superfluous_Parentheses)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2011, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-hamburgers-come-from/580982/29 "2011-05-06T20:09:24Z")
> [@BigBertha](#):
>
> It probably didn’t taste good raw.
Try some steak tartare. Raw beef can be bloody delicious.
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### Author:  [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2011, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-hamburgers-come-from/580982/30 "2011-05-06T20:21:47Z")
Now just about any ground up substance qualifies as a “burger” e.g. turkey, shrimp, salmon, etc. Except a mushroom burger. A mushroom burger is a hamburger with mushrooms.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2011, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-hamburgers-come-from/580982/31 "2011-05-06T21:20:04Z")
Unless it’s a Portabella burger, which is a single Portabella cap on a bun (not ground up at all).
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### Author:  [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2011, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-hamburgers-come-from/580982/32 "2011-05-06T21:21:01Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> Quoth **BigBertha** :Humans have been eating and enjoying meat since long before we _were_ humans. Despite what extremist vegetarian propaganda would have you think, we’re naturally omnivores. Meat may be more palatable cooked, but the same is also true of most plant-based foods, and in fact, unlike meat, many plants _can’t_ be eaten raw (at least, not to any nutritional benefit).
Wiki also says that the controlled use of fire pre-dates homo sapiens, but the use of fire for cooking is more debated (wiki’s numbers range from 40k to 1.5 million years, with 250k being the most accepted). Wiki says cooking with heat/fire is unique to humans.
I guess if fire was used to ward of night predators, maybe one tried to have a human-snack anyway, but fell into a fire, and died. Then humans go “why waste a good hyena?”. 😃
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### Author:  [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2011, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-hamburgers-come-from/580982/33 "2011-05-06T21:56:43Z")
> [@Markxxx](#):
>
> Hamburgers are named that because the originally consisted of people from Hamburg, Germany all ground up and fed to the masses. 🙂
How did they taste?
C’mon, you know somebody had to ax.
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### Author:  [@Old\_Eel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Old_Eel)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2011, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-hamburgers-come-from/580982/34 "2011-05-07T00:08:10Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Weißes Schloss Schweberen ist der Volk!
Soylen Green Schweberen ist der Volk!
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### Author:  [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2011, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-hamburgers-come-from/580982/35 "2011-05-07T00:36:27Z")
> [@ministryman](#):
>
> I think the Earl of Sandwich would take umbrage.
> [@silenus](#):
>
> Hillel the Elder would think the Earl an arriviste.
It is perfectly fine to take umbrage.
As long as one gives it back.
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### Author:  [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2011, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-hamburgers-come-from/580982/36 "2011-05-07T01:15:48Z")
“Hamburgers” first–
The hamburger we know today(cooked ground beef on a bun) was almost certainly available in the US around 1880. While it’s possible that the Germans had something similar in that time frame, I doubt it had the popularity it did in the US. Prior to that time frame, Hamburger steak, at least in my opinion, was more of a cheap cut of beef which had been “tenderized” and then cooked. Kinda what we might think of today as a “cube” steak. Not minced, just mechanically tenderized.
“Hot Dog”–
[Here’s](http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind1105A&L=ADS-L&D=0&I=-3&d=No+Match%3BMatch%3BMatches&P=72905) the latest in the hunt for the origin of the “hot dog.” Barry Popik is the authority and always will be. The latest takes it back to 1892 in the US.
Prior to that time, it was a “frankfurter sausage” or other similar terms.
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### Author:  [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2011, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-hamburgers-come-from/580982/37 "2011-05-07T12:38:58Z")
The ancient Romans had chopped beef sandwiches, fried, on buns. Flavored with pine seeds, I believe.
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### Author:  [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2011, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-hamburgers-come-from/580982/38 "2011-05-07T13:59:16Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#):
>
> The ancient Romans had chopped beef sandwiches, fried, on buns. Flavored with pine seeds, I believe.
Et tu, Hamburglar?
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### Author:  [@fumster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fumster)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2011, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-hamburgers-come-from/580982/39 "2011-05-07T15:06:06Z")
> [@tdn](#):
>
> Cheeseburg, Germany? It’s just about 40km south of Veggieburg.
Pronounced Wedgie Burg
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### Author:  [@ExcitedIdiot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExcitedIdiot)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2011, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-hamburgers-come-from/580982/40 "2011-05-07T19:30:35Z")
> [@kath94](#):
>
> My elderly aunt in Massachusetts referred to raw, minced or shredded beef (what I know as hamburger) as “hamburg.” Once it’s cooked and put on a bun she called it a “hamburger.”
I call ground beef hamburg, too. I thought everyone would know what I meant if I said, “Cook up some hamburg for that spaghetti sauce”. Maybe it’s a Massachusetts thing.
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