About National Hamburger Day
Hamburger Day is celebrated every year on May 28th. This day serves to pay tribute to this popular dish, which has as main ingredients meat, bread, cheese, and other accessories such as sauces, onion rings or pieces of tomato.
This famous food is part of the menu of millions of restaurants around the world and is the favorite dish of many people.
Origin of International Hamburger Day
The term hamburger originally derives from Hamburg, Germany's second-largest city.
There are lots of different claims as to the origin of its popularity in the US. One of the earliest comes from Charlie Nagreen, who in 1885 sold a meatball between two slices of bread at the Seymour Fair, Wisconsin. Nagreen was fifteen when he was reportedly selling pork sandwiches at the 1885 Seymour Fair, made so customers could eat while walking. The Seymour Community Historical Society explains that Nagreen named the hamburger after the Hamburg steak with which local German immigrants were familiar.
Other claims to the first hamburger have been linked to New Haven, Connecticut, Buffalo, New York, and Athens, Texas.
There is no particular reason why this day is observed on May 28th.
A bite-sized history of the hamburger
The antecedents to the hamburger can be found in ancient Rome. The Romans already consumed some dishes that included minced meat and bread among their ingredients.
In the thirteenth century, the Tatars and Mongols placed ground beef under their saddles and then ate them raw (hence steak tartar). The British, in the eighteenth century, introduced meat into bread with their famous sandwiches.
In the twentieth century this food began to become popular in the United States, as it adapted very well to the accelerated lifestyle.
In 1921 the first hamburger chain called White Castle was opened in the United States. In the second half of the twentieth century, hamburgers began to become a "global phenomenon," and fast-food restaurants proliferated around the world.
Hamburger Facts
- Did you know? Hamburgers did not really catch on in the United States until the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair.
- Did you know? A Minnesota Casino set the world record for the largest hamburger ever made. It weighed just over a ton and was 10-feet in diameter.
- Did you know? Americans alone consume approximately 50-billion burgers a year. The average American eats a hamburger three times a week.
- Did you know? Nearly 60-percent of all sandwiches sold worldwide are actually hamburgers.
- Did you know? One of the most expensive burgers available in the US is served at the Fleur de Lys in Las Vegas. The FleurBurger is made with Kobe beef and topped with foie gras and black truffles. It also comes with a 1990 bottle of Chateau Petrus, all for $5,000.
- Did you know? The “Hamburger Hall of Fame” is located in Seymour, Wisconsin.
- Did you know? Hamburgers were referred to as “Liberty Sandwiches” during World War I.
- Did you know? McDonalds sells 75 hamburgers every second.
