National Burger Day – August 22, 2024

History of National Burger Day

The closest thing resembling a burger was first made in the 1st century A.D. in Rome — this was a ground minced meat dish prepared with pine nuts, peppers, and flavorings of wine and garum. It took 12 more centuries for the meat to be tenderized and eaten on the go in the 13th century A.D. by the Mongols. They were known to be fierce horsemen who used impressive fighting tactics to win any war. Known for their efficiency and smarts, they carried thick slabs of beef tucked under their saddles that became tenderized during the day’s riding. The meat could then be consumed easily by the rider. Then in 1747, a hamburger ‘prototype’ called Hamburg sausage appeared in Hannah Glasse’s “The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy.” She writes of a smoked sausage made of ground beef, pepper, cloves, nutmeg, garlic, vinegar, salt, and red wine, to be served on toast. By 1802, “The Oxford English Dictionary” includes an entry for a ‘Hamburg steak’ — a salted, minced ground beef, slightly smoked and mixed with onions and breadcrumbs.

It is believed that, years later, at the 1885 Erie County Fair in Hamburg, New York, brothers Frank and Charles Menches — who were running a traveling concession stand — invented the burger. They ran out of pork sausages and started putting ground-up beef on their sandwiches, creating a burger. In the same year at the Seymour Fair in Wisconsin, 15-year-old Charlie Nagreen squashed beef meatballs between slices of bread so that people could eat the sandwich easily while walking. Then in 1891, to celebrate the Fourth of July, Oscar Weber Wilby and his wife Fanny made the first flame-grilled beef patties and served them between a bun.

In 1921, in Wichita, Kansas, a cook, Walter Anderson, and entrepreneur, Billy Ingram, opened their first restaurant and changed the course of hamburger history with their design, cooking, and method of serving. In 1948, the McDonald brothers started making hamburgers in California and became the largest fast-food chain in the world. In 1953, in Florida, Burger King was established, which became the biggest challenger to McDonald’s.