one of the principal forms in which beef is consumed in the western world, has but a short history as a name (it first turned up in print towards 1890), although it is obvious that consumption of things like hamburgers, i.e. cooked round patties or rissoles of meat, dates back a very long way, and not only in Europe.
Jones (1981) and Levenstein (1993) offer accounts of the entry of the hamburger to the USA. It accompanied the great wave of German immigration in the early 19th century so that Delmonico's restaurant in New York was offering a Hamburg Steak of ground beef on its menu of 1834. It figured often on menus (sometimes as Beefsteak à la Hamburg) and in cookbooks (for instance Mrs Lincoln's Boston Cooking School Cookbook of 1884). It seems that ‘the St Louis World Fair of 1904 was a significant launching pad for the hamburger in a bun as we know it (known at first as the hamburger sandwich) although the suspicion of the American public towards the meat industry (thanks in part to the exposés of Upton Sinclair) delayed its wholehearted acceptance until the White Castle chain of restaurants convinced its customers of their proper attention to health and hygiene in the 1920s (Hogan, 1997). It also involved intense competition between the competing hamburger ‘giants’ in the USA, well described by McDonald (1997).
Ayto (1993). points out that the many other terms (such as cheeseburger) which followed hamburger were based on a misapprehension that a burger was a thing in itself which could be made of ham or of something else. See also fast food.
Alan Davidson was a distinguished author and publisher, and one of the world's best-known writers on fish and fish cookery. In 1975 he retired early from the diplomatic service—after serving in, among other places, Washington, Egypt, Tunisia, and Laos, where he was British Ambassador—to pursue a fruitful second career as a food historian and food writer extraordinaire. Among his popular books are Seafood of South-East Asia, North Atlantic Seafood, and Mediterranean Seafood. In 2003, shortly before his death, he was awarded the Erasmus Prize for his contribution to European culture.
Ayto, John (1993), The Diner's Dictionary, Oxford: OUP.
Hogan, David Gerard (1997), Selling 'em by the Sack: White Castle and the Creation of American Food, New York: New York UP.
Jones, Evan (1981), American Food: The Gastronomic Story, 2nd edn, New York: Random House.
Levenstein, Harvey (1993), Paradox of Plenty, New York: OUP.
McDonald, Ronald (1997), The Complete Hamburger, Secaucus, NJ: Carol Publishing.
