Where did hamburgers come from?
The hamburger developed in the United States in the late 1800s, inspired by the Hamburg steak brought by German immigrants. Several towns claim to have served the first one.
The Hamburg steak was a seasoned patty of minced beef popular in the German port city of Hamburg. German immigrants and sailors carried it to America in the 1800s. At some point, someone put the patty between two slices of bread so it could be eaten by hand.
Several people claim the invention. Louis' Lunch in New Haven, Connecticut, says it served one in 1900. Other claims come from county fairs in Seymour, Wisconsin, and Hamburg, New York, in the 1880s. Hamburgers became famous at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair.
The rise of fast food
White Castle, founded in 1921 in Wichita, Kansas, is often called the first fast-food hamburger chain. McDonald's, opened by the McDonald brothers in 1940 and expanded by Ray Kroc, made the burger a global food.
Did You Know?
The cheeseburger came later; one popular story credits a teenage cook in Pasadena, California, with adding a slice of cheese in the 1920s.