What’s
more American than a hamburger? Maybe apple pie, which we’ll have after
our hamburger. But the American hamburger is a symbol of the States all
over the world. It wasn’t always so.
It’s easy to
guess the hamburger’s geographic origin; after all, it’s right there in
the name. But the original version of the now-iconic dish looked almost
nothing like what’s served at drive-thrus across America.
Motz
says the Hamburg steak plate was one of the most popular dishes in its
native city, a major port that hosted many German immigrants on their
way to the States. Consisting of “chopped beef that was turned into a
patty and then, of course, pan-fried,” the dish was rounded out with
onions, potatoes, and gravy, making it a cheap and easy meal for
would-be Americans stuck in immigration limbo, sometimes for months.
It’s
these immigrants who brought the Hamburg steak across the Atlantic,
setting up carts in lower Manhattan that catered to new arrivals in
search of comfort food. The vendors preserved the steak plate in its
original form—an actual plate of food, served with a fork. Authentic,
but as Motz notes, “not very portable at all.”
It was Americans who turned it into a sandwich, and even then there were ups and downs for the burger. Read
the whole history of the hamburger at First We Feast.
No comments:
Post a Comment