How did the hamburger develop into a popular food

Few foods are associated with barbecues and summer in the United States as hamburgers are. Many ways exist to making them and we traditionally associate them with family and the enjoyment of good weather. While this might be the case today, the origin of hamburgers does go back far in time but the composition of hamburgers is a relatively recent development.

Origins of Hamburgers

For hamburgers, the main step is to ground the beef and often one mixes the beef with other seasoning. Already, something like this is known from ancient Roman recipes where a type of beef was cut or sliced and mixed with pine kernels and peppers. This food may have been a relatively luxury item intended for wealthy Romans, as meat would have still been relatively expensive at this time. The Romans may have used this food as something to serve guests or entertain them when visiting wealthy residences.

Later, during the period of the Mongols in the 13th century, the concept of an easy to eat meat was needed as the Mongols prided their war-making skills on fast movement often requiring nearly non-stop ridding across the steppe. The Mongols developed a way to mince meat down and store this meet, so as they rode they could even simply grab the meet as it was saddled to their horses and eat it on the go. They likely did not use any bread but effectively they developed a concept of 'fast food' that introduced meat being minced. This type of meat production was later introduced by the Mongols to places in Europe that they came into contact with, including Russia. They usually used horse meat as this was not only widely available but also was able to sustain a high number of warriors relative to their nutritional value of horse meat. This minced horse meat may have been the origin of 'steak tartare' that is still eaten today, with tartare being a reference to the Mongols. During the occupation of Moscow, for instance, Russian populations began adopting using horse meat and stake tartare as a commonly made dish. Similar to the Romans, the Mongols often did not use bread to eat meat.

The next important innovation in the road to developing the hamburger was the development of the sandwich. By the 18th century, ground beef had become more common in many places in Europe. In some places, sandwiches, or using bread to cover a meat and eating it, had begun to develop. Similar to eating beef, this was confined to mostly wealthy people. One of the first people to be recorded as enjoying sandwiches was John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich, where the word sandwich comes from. He enjoyed having bread with his meat because he did not like using knifes and forks and did not want the beak to dirty his fingers. While the sandwich likely existed before his time, his preference for it led to the term being used in reference of one eating beef or meat with bread covering the beef or meat.

Later Developments

In the 17th century, Russians trading and going to Germany, specifically Hamburg, brought minced meat with them including steak tartare.