Hamburger

The hamburger is ground beef formed into a patty and cooked on a grill or griddle, served between two halves of a bun. The name comes from the Hamburg steak, the minced meat that German immigrants brought to the United States in the 19th century. When it was placed inside a bun and sold at counters, carts, and fairs, it became one of the foods most associated with the country.

The sandwich’s origin is contested among several towns. The Library of Congress, in its Local Legacies program, recorded Louis' Lunch in New Haven, Connecticut, as a Connecticut legacy, where Louis Lassen, according to his family, served grilled minced beef between two slices of toasted bread to a hurried customer in 1900. The record documents the local tradition without settling the dispute over the origin.

Other towns tell different stories. Athens, Texas, credits cook Fletcher Davis, who is said to have sold ground-beef sandwiches in the late 19th century, and the Texas legislature passed a resolution in 2007 supporting that version. Seymour, Wisconsin, claims to be the hamburger’s home because of Charlie Nagreen, who allegedly flattened meatballs inside a bun at a fair in 1885. Akron, Ohio, cites the Menches brothers, who reportedly improvised the sandwich at a fair around the same time. Historians consider that none of these versions has definitive proof.

That is why the hamburger represents the whole country rather than a single town: it arose from multiple local traditions and spread across all the states with roadside diners, lunch counters, and fast-food chains in the 20th century. Today it is served in many different ways, from the simplest—just meat and bread—to versions piled with cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, and sauces.