Wait…there are people who don’t call it that? 
New England is weird.
I would certainly understand what you meant, but would never use that phrasing, myself. I’d refer to it as either “ground beef” or “hamburger” (with the distinction from the sandwich on a bun being clear from context).
Nope. If you said that to me, I’d scratch my head a bit and tentatively hand you the ground beef, hoping that’s what you wanted.
I’ve never heard this before (then again, I’ve never been to the NE), but when I was living in Japan I discovered that there’s a modern Japanese dish known as “hamburg” that’s basically the same as Salisbury steak. The name is not of Japanese origin, it’s just an abbreviated form of the English “hamburger”.
I’d think someone was talking about a Homburg.
I suppose someone can make an ‘I’ll eat my hat!’ joke.
Yeah, everyone but Yankees, by both the Southern and Midatlantic definition.
What you call hamburg, other Americans call ground beef.
*Oh, the cow in the meadow goes “moo”
Oh, the cow in the meadow goes “moo”
Then the farmer hits it in the head with a hammer
And that’s how we get hamburger!
Nooooooow - chickens!*
Well, the grocery stores call it that here too, but…it sounds so unnatural to refer to it as “ground beef.” Because it’s raw hamburg.
Where I grew up calling it Hamburger was a lot more common than saying ground beef. Just a matter of context. Talking about it in the collective sense(I need some Hamburger, Mom did we run out of Hamburger?) context was the raw blob a meat. In a discrete context (a Hamburger, 4 hamburgers was the sandwich).
Sometimes it wasn’t perfectly clear though, “Ohh shit, your Hamburger fell on the floor”
What’s the difference between “ground beef” and mince? 
Is it just that mince could concievably be made out of, say, pork?
It’s the difference of what side of the Atlantic Ocean you grew up on, I believe. Or is “mince” used somewhere in the US? I hear it from the UK.
Heh, yeah. I’m from the UK. That must be it.
The only time I hear us use mince is for mincemeat, which is one word and refers to the mix of dried nuts and fruits and lard that goes into a micemeat pie (which is NOT very popular, but your grandmother may still make it for Christmas), or it’s used as a verb, as in, “mince the shallots”.
In the UK they are relatively commonly referred to as beefburgers. I’ve no idea about the rest of the world though.
Example:
Around here, ground beef may be hamburger meat, but it’s not (a) hamburger. Hamburger is either the sandwich or occasionally the formed meat patty (although that’s usually specified). Ground beef is hamburger meat because it can be used to make hamburger(s).
I do wish though that there was a term for a hamburger made with ham. For now, we have to use pigburger or porkburger, but both of those are often used for ground pork patties.
Yep, the hamburger is an ancient Roman snack.
Ham sandwich? I’m not entirely certain I’ve even seen what you’re trying to describe here.
There’s even a theory that states that cooking food was a key piece of the evolution of humans.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/27/books/27garn.html
It’s not without controversy, of course, but it’s an interesting idea.