Hamburger

The hamburger most likely first appeared in the19th or early 20thcenturies.The modern hamburger was a product of the culinary needs of a society that was rapidly changing due to industrialization,and therefore,people had less time to prepare as well as to consume meals.

Americans contend that they were the first to combine two slices of bread and a steak of ground beef into a"hamburger sandwich".Part of the controversy over the origin of the hamburger is because the two basic ingredients,bread and beef,were prepared and consumed separately for many years before their combination.Shortly after its creation,the hamburger was prepared with all of the now typically characteristic trimmings,including onions,lettuce,and sliced pickles.

The term hamburger or burger can also be applied to the meat patty on its own,especially in theUK where the term"patty"is rarely used,although the term"hamburger"is rarely used in theCommonwealth countries unless referring to a menu item of anAmerican restaurant.

The term hamburger originally derives from Hamburg,Germany'ssecond largest city,from where many emigrated to America.In High German,Burg means fortified settlement or fortified refuge;and is a widespread component of placenames.Hamburger can be a descriptive noun in German,referring to someone from Hamburg or an adjective describing something from Hamburg.Similarly,frankfurter and wiener,names for other meat-based foods,are also used in German as descriptive nouns for people and as adjectives for things from the cities of Frankfurt and Wien(Vienna),respectively.The term"burger"is associated with many different types of sandwiches similar to a hamburger,using different meats,such as a buffalo burger,turkey burger,elk burger,salmon burger,or even a veggie burger.

During the20th century,there were various controversies,including a nutritional controversy in the late1990s.The burger is now readily identified with the UnitedStates,and a particular style of cuisine,namely fast food. Along with fried chicken and apple pie, the hamburger has become a culinary icon in the United States.

The hamburger'sinternational popularity demonstrates the larger globalization of food that has also been witnessed in the rise in the global popularity of other national dishes,including theTurkish döner kebab,the Italian pizza,and Japanese sushi.The hamburger has spread from continent to continent perhaps because,in part, it is easy to understand in different culinary cultures.This global culinary culture has been produced,in part,by the concept of selling processed food.This idea was first imagined in the1920s by the White Castle restaurant chain and its visionary EdgarWaldo"Billy"Ingram,and was perfected by McDonald's and Ray Kroc in the1940s.This global expansion has provided comparative economics such as the Big Mac Index,which allows for the comparison of the purchasing power of different countries where the Big Mac hamburger is sold.