History of the American Hamburger

History of the American Hamburger Restaurant
A hamburger (or burger) consists of a cooked ground meat patty, usually beef, placed in a sliced bun or between pieces of bread or toast. Hamburgers are often served with various condiments, such as ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, relish etc. as well as lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, and cheese .
U.S. hamburger restaurant origins
The following hamburger restaurants have either played a part in the creation of the hamburger sandwich, developed a unique cooking method or were first to sell them nationwide in the U.S.:
* Louis' Lunch 1900, New Haven, Connecticut . Louis' Lunch has been selling steak and hamburger since 1895 when Louis Lassen opened his lunch wagon.. This small establishment, which advertises itself as the oldest hamburger restaurant in the U.S., is credited by some with having invented the classic American hamburger when Louis sandwiched a pattie between two pieces of white toast for a busy office worker in 1900.. Louis' Lunch flame broils the hamburgers in the original 1898 Bridge & Beach vertical cast iron gas stoves using locally patented steel wire gridirons to hold the hamburgers in place during cooking U.S. Patent #2,148,879 . In 1974, The New York Times published a story about Louis' Lunch claiming to have invented the hamburger. The U.S. Library of Congress American Folklife Center Local Legacies Project website credits Louis' Lunch as the maker of America's first hamburger and steak sandwich The hamburger is still served today on two pieces of toast and not a bun.
* Dyer's Burgers, 1912, Memphis, Tennessee, deep-fried burgers using a cast-iron skillet.
* White Castle, 1921, Wichita, Kansas. Due to widely prevalent anti-German sentiment in the U.S. during World War I, an alternative name for hamburgers was salisbury steak. Following the war, hamburgers became unpopular until the White Castle restaurant chain marketed and sold large numbers of small 2 and a half inch square hamburgers. They started to punch 5 holes in each patty which help them cook evenly and eliminates the need to flip the burger. The burger first sold for 5 cents. White Castle holds a U.S trademark on the word "slyders." The White Castle building was modeled after the water tower building in Chicago with the turrets and fortress like walls. White Castle was the first to sell their hamburgers in grocery stores and vending machines. They also created the industrial strength spatula and first to mass produce the paper hat. Today there are more than 400 restaurant's around the country. They sell over 550 million hamburgers per year. What you crave has become the White Castle slogan.
* Lionel Sternberger, 1924-1926, Lionel Sternberger grilled the first cheeseburgers in Pasadena, California. The name of the restaurant and the precise year has been debated by cheeseburger enthusiasts. When Sternberger died in 1964, noted in its February 7 issue that:
* Kaelin's Restaurant, 1934, Louisville, Kentucky. Claims to have invented the cheeseburger in 1934.
* Humpty Dumpty Drive-In, 1935, Denver, Colorado. A trademark for the name cheeseburger was awarded to Louis Ballast of the Humpty Dumpty Drive-In in 1935.
* In-N-Out Burger, 1948, Irvine, California, usually called In-N-Out, is a chain of fast food restaurants located in the Western United States. Founded in 1948 by Harry Snyder and his wife Esther. In-N-Out Burger has since expanded outside Southern California to the rest of the state, and to Arizona, Nevada, and southern Utah as well. In-N-Out has never franchised, and plans to remain privately owned.
* Ted's Restaurant, 1959; Meriden, Connecticut. Ted's Restaurant uses steam to cook their cheeseburgers.
Hamburgers today
Hamburgers are usually a feature of fast food restaurants. The hamburgers served in major fast food establishments are mass-produced in factories and frozen for delivery to the site. These hamburgers are thin and of uniform thickness, differing from the traditional American hamburger prepared in homes and conventional restaurants, which is thicker and prepared by hand from ground beef. Generally most American hamburgers are round, but some fast-food chains, such as Wendy's, sell square-cut hamburgers. Hamburgers in fast food restaurants are usually fried, but some firms, such as Burger King use a grilling process. At conventional American restaurants, hamburgers may be ordered "rare", but normally are served well-done for food safety reasons. Fast food restaurants do not offer this option.
The McDonald's fast-food chain sells a sandwich called the Big Mac, one of the world's top selling hamburgers. Other major fast-food chains - including Burger King (also known as Hungry Jack's in Australia), A&W, Culver's ,Whataburger, Carl's Jr./Hardee's chain, Wendy's (known for their square patties), Jack in the Box, Cook Out, , In-N-Out Burger, Five Guys, Fatburger, Burgerville, Back Yard Burgers, Lick's Homeburger, Roy Rogers, and Sonic - also rely heavily on hamburger sales. Fuddruckers and Red Robin are popular hamburger chains that specialize in mid-tier "restaurant-style" variety of hamburgers. The "slider" style of mini hamburger is still popular regionally in the White Castle and Krystal chains.
Some American establishments offer a unique take on the hamburger beyond what is offered in fast food restaurants, using upscale ingredients such as sirloin or other steak along with a variety of different cheeses, toppings, and sauces.
Hamburgers are often served as a picnic and party food, cooked outdoors on barbecue grills. Raw hamburger may contain harmful bacteria that can produce food-borne illness such as Escherichia coli O157:H7, so caution is needed when handling them. Hamburger patties can be cooked rare, medium rare, medium, medium well, or well done. These terms refer to how thoroughly the meat is cooked, ranging from having a little bit of pink coloring to being dark brown, cooked almost to a crisp. However because of the potential for food-borne illness, it is recommended by the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service that hamburgers (as all ground beef) should be cooked to an internal temperature of 160°F (71°C). If cooked to this temperature, they will be well done.

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