Gentle readers,
Summer means long, lazy afternoons lounging in the yard or by the pool side, grilling meats like hamburgers, sausages, and hot dogs. The hamburger has had a long tradition.
In 1802, the Oxford English Dictionary defined Hamburg steak as salt beef. It had little resemblance to the hamburger we know today. It was a hard slab of salted minced beef, often slightly smoked, mixed with onions and breadcrumbs. The emphasis was more on durability than taste. “ – Hamburger History
Sailors from Hamburg, Germany, crossed the Baltic Sea regularly and returned with a taste for the minced raw beef dishes served up in Russian ports. The German haus-frau’s interpretation of these Baltic dishes was to fry or broil the patties. And voila! The Hamburg steak was born. By the late 1700’s the British knew them as Hamburg sausages.
Enter Hannah Glasse and her famous Art of Cookery book, which featured a recipe for Hamburgh sausage.
Hannah Glasse's recipe for Common Sausages
“By the mid-18th century, German immigrants also begin arriving in England. One recipe, titled “Hamburgh Sausage,” appeared in Hannah Glasse’s 1758 English cookbook called The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy. It consisted of chopped beef, suet, and spices. The author recommended that this sausage be served with toasted bread. Hannah Glasse’s cookbook was also very popular in Colonial America, although it was not published in the United States until 1805. This American edition also contained the “Hamburgh Sausage” recipe with slight revisions.” – History and Legends of Hamburger
By 1834, the menu of Delmonico’s in New York City advertised a Hamburger steak. And the rest, as they say, is history. Today the humble hamburger is popular the world over due to the marketing genius (or avarice?) of McDonald’s and other fast food chains.
18th c. Sausage shop. Image © Wellcome Trust
Image description: Two men are working with knives and cleavers as another makes sausages, a woman has come to buy and is holding some money in her hand. Coloured etching. A pork-butcher’s shop: two butchers are working with knives and cleavers as another makes sausages, a woman has come to buy and is holding some money in her hand. Coloured etching, 18-. 19th c.” – Wellcome Trust
More on the topic:
Jane Austen's World 
Vic,
So true about the genius or greed of MacDonald’s and others. My father always said, “The reason people eat hamburgers is because they’re heavily advertised.”
If you’re watching Jamie Oliver, you’ll know that what goes in a commercial burger can be downright dangerous.
The only answer is, to eat fish and chips!!!!!!!!
Patty is right about the ingredients though. Home made is best.
Didn’t know you get Jamie Oliver over there. Do you understand his Essex accent? We have a “Jamies”, just down the road from us in Kingston. I think there is one in Wimbledon High Street too.
He’s got a great a restaurant in a little cove just north of Newquay in Cornwall. There is a surfing school right next door. In fact he may well own the surfing school too.Drove past it last Summer. He seems to have taken over the cooking world over here. Well, him and a couple of others. I don’t think he even has a Michelin Star yet!!!
I do love a juicy home made hamburger every once in a while, Tony and Patty. My mom makes it Dutch style – gehakt balletjes. Lekker! (Unbelievably spicy and delicious.) http://www.livestrong.com/recipes/gehakt-ballen-dutch-style-meatballs/
Tony, your comment makes me think of the Fish and Chips post we put up on Jane Austen Today. Scrumptious! http://janitesonthejames.blogspot.com/2011/06/fish-and-chips-friday.html
We had hamburgers today. I’d rather have fish and chips, though. I love them and have the when I got to England.
Thanks for the post. This was fun to read.
Thank you! I love that all our most modern things are just re-makes of old traditions.