There are many versions of the history of the hamburger: the sandwich that, with the permission of pizza, is today the best known dish in the world.
But although there is a great controversy about who was the first to put a minced meat fillet between two buns, historians agree that, as happened with hot dogs, the hamburger is the heritage of German emigrants in the United States.
These were the ones who introduced in America the dish that we can consider the direct antecedent of the hamburger as we know it today: the burger steak. In Spanish, literally “hamburg steak”
It is very likely that this steak hand minced beef, served on a plate and accompanied by various garnishes, was first served raw, in the image and likeness of the steak tartare. Numerous Russian ships passed through the port of Hamburg, one of the most important in Europe between the 16th and 19th centuries, which probably introduced the steak tartare to the area, which, at some point, began to be served cooked instead of raw. Our Russian steak, a cousin of the hamburger, is a direct descendant of this crossroads of cultures.
The port of Hamburg was also, during the first half of the 19th century, one of the most important ports on the transatlantic crossing to America for passengers and goods. It is not surprising, therefore, that at that time the typical fillet of the city arrived at New Yorkwhere it began to be served under the name of burger steak at the end of the same century.
A dish that survives in legendary restaurants
The oldest document that refers to the “hamburg steak” is a menu of the Delmonico’s Restaurant that in 1837 he offered his customers the dish for 10 cents on the dollar, a fairly high price for the time.
The Hamburg steak lives on in its original form in restaurants like Horcher
We had to wait for industrialization, both in livestock farming and in restaurants, for the price of meat to drop and the hamburger as we know it today to become the cheap and quick bite to make who conquered the world.
But, while the first McDonald’s and Burger King appeared, the hamburger steak it remained in its original form on the menu of some restaurants.
This is the case of Madrid’s Horcher, one of the oldest restaurants in Europe, founded in Berlin in 1904 and transferred to the capital of Spain, due to the German defeat in World War II, in 1943.
The current director of the restaurant, Elizabeth Horcherfrom the fourth generation of the family, does not know the exact date on which his famous burger, served on a plate, was incorporated into the restaurant, but it is likely that it did so around the 60s or 70slong before the first McDonald’s in Spain opened (in 1981) and the snack became popular as a synonym for fast food.
The Horcher hamburger is one of the most demanded dishes on the menu of the luxurious restaurant, it costs 43 euros, and it is very far from what we understand by fast food. It is prepared, they explain, with a mixture of veal from Ávila and beef tenderloin of supreme quality, both cut with a knife and cooked, once mixed, with a cooking point that leaves it toasted on the outside and juicy on the inside. It is seasoned with candied onionsautéed potatoes with parsley and various types of mustard to add to taste.
An extinct classic in restaurants, but popular at home
On the other side of the pond, where the Hamburg steak became the almighty hamburger, there are still coffee shops where is served hamburger steak in its original form, just as it should have been included in the menu of New York restaurants at the end of the 19th century.
It is the case of diner Pie’n Burger, in Pasadena (California), which featured in a report in The New York Times a few months ago. Although the restaurant is known for its hamburgers, the menu maintains the hamburger steakon a plate
In some American diners the ‘hamburger steak’ survives, which is eaten with a knife and fork
The hamburger is cooked on the grill, as if it were going to go between two buns, but it is served on the plate, accompanied by salad, hash browns and a hamburger bun cooked on the grill with butter. It is eaten with a knife and fork.accompanied to taste of Worcestershire sauce and ketchup.
“Sometimes at night people want more than just a sandwich or a burger,” he told the Times. michael osbornowner of Pie’n Burger. “And it’s much more profitable for a customer than a steak.”
At Horcher, although in another price range, the choice also has to do with comfort. “The hamburger is very helpful because there are people who come a little more and no longer want to try game or fish, which are the restaurant’s great forgotten ones”, explains Elisabeth.
But if the hamburger on a plate it’s almost a relic in restaurants, it is not at all in homes.
Across Europe, including Spain, dishes similar to our Russian steaks are still part of everyday menus, and a recipe known as salisbury steakwhich is nothing more than a hamburger on a plate, served with sauce.
After the IGM, the ‘hamburger steak’ was renamed Salisbury steak and sauce was added
This variant arose after World War I, when, in an effort to limit German words, it was renamed the burger steak in reference to the doctor James Henry Salisbury, who recommended eating this dish three times a day for health reasons. The addition of the gravy type sauce It must have been later and, despite the unrecommended advice of the doctor in light of what we know today about nutrition, the name has been maintained to date.
A very similar version of this dish is also wildly popular in Japan, where they call it hambagu (ハンバーグ). The dish must have been served for the first time in Yokohama, which was one of the first ports in the country to open to foreigners, still in the Meiji era (1868-1912), but I don’t know how it spread throughout the archipelago until the 1960s, as a cheaper way of serving veal.
The Japanese version of the dish is almost identical to the Salisbury steak. Since the 1980s, vacuum-packed hamburgers have been marketed with the sauce already added, and are widely used in bento boxes, the typical Japanese lunch box that you take to work.
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