Hamburger & other Burgers (1953)

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

   The "--burger" is near the end, but the entire article is worth reading.  From the NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE, 16 April 1953, pg. 26, col. 6:

   _Just About Everything_
   By William Chapman White

   _Upward With the Hamburger_
NOW and then the dictionary can let the serious scholar down.  Just let one try to find the origin of the word "hamburger" in any book and see where he gets.  The history and origin of the hot dog are known, even as its contents may not always be.  Etymologically, however, "hamburger" remains a mystery.  It may come from the old word "hambargh," meaning horse's collar, which could describe the flavor and texture that some cooks impart to ground beef.  It could come from the older word "hamber," meaning hammer, which might describe how some cooks make their meat patties.  The chances are that it has something to do with the German seaport of Hamburg but what, how, or when, the dictionary isn't telling.  Hamburger does show up in an 1885 cookbook and probably goes back far beyond that.
   Considering the hamburger's influence on American culture, it's surprising that the Soviet Union hasn't yet claimed it was invented by a toothless Russian named Gamburg when confronted by a tough steak he couldn't manage without grinding.
   No matter where the name came from, what is really impressive about the hamburger is the height to which it has climbed.  Once scholars have settled the origin of the name they might explore the origin of Salisbury steak, a fancy dish that appears on luncheon menus which always turns out to be hamburger.  Salisbury is a charming English cathedral town, but nowhere in it is there a statue to the man who thought that one up.  Now and then "emince of tenderloin" turns up.  That's only hamburger gone snooty and priced higher.  In fancier restaurants there appears "chopped sirloin" or even "chopped filet mignon."  They may well be and they ought to be, from the prices asked.  They taste mighty like hamburger.
   In the home kitchen the hamburger is a natural for the man of the house who is always eager to push forward the frontiers of human experience.  The list of things that men on the prowl through the pantry have found to add to hamburger is long.  It includes onions, bread crumbs, crushed ginger snaps, (Col. 7--ed.) red wine, chopped mushrooms, chili powder, or most anything else the exploring male finds handy.
   The hamburger has made its most striking evolutionary advances, however, in roadside restaurants.  The cooks there were the first to see what happens to hamburger when it is put on the griddle on Monday and kept there until Saturday, ready to be served to a hungry traveler.  Cooked in this typical roadside manner, it has a toughness and consistency attained only by elephant hide, which, of course, is much more expensive to serve and which is a delicacy.  Other restaurateurs went further, trying to determine how thin a hamburger can really be.
   Yet, with the hamburger, it's ever onward.  It has been taken to lofty heights by the California drive-ins who invented the nutburger--hamburger with a sprinkling of nuts; the cheeseburger--ditto with cheese, and other fancy, tasty touches.  These Californians have also forsaken beef entirely and come up with the shrimpburger, the tunaburger, the chickenburger, the lambburger, and the whaleburger.  The lobsterburger and the crabburger are just around the corner.  Not far away are the beanburger, the beetburger and the peanutburger for vegetarians.
   But the apex or summit or something has been reached in Kansas City, where, according to reports, they are now serving the coonburger, made from carefully chopped raccoons, with onions and garlic salt added.  The Constitution guarantees every man the right to eat a coonburger if that's what he wants, and here it is--the finest flowering of the lowly hamburger.
   What comes out of American restaurants today is a far cry from what used to be a simple patty of chopped beef once called the hamburger.  It's a far cry from "Hamburg, a seaport of Germany, capital of the Free State of Hamburg, on the right bank of the northern arm of the Elbe, Pop. (1933) 1,079,126."  Isn't there one man among all those thousands who will stand up on his feet and file a suit for slander against the fair name of his city?

--------------------------------------------------------
SHRIMPBURGER
   From Clementine Paddleford in the NYHT, 11 August 1952, pg. 8, col. 6:
   SHRIMPBURGERS--Florida is home base for the shrimpburger.  At roadside stands and short-order places there the shrimpburger has superceded hamburgers and hot dogs.  Now shrimpburgers come north.

PASTRAMI BURGER
   From Clementine Paddleford in the NYHT, 29 October 1952, pg. 20, col. 7:
   New twist to a burger is one made of pastrami.  These are not (Col. 8--ed.) so tender as hamburgers, more chew to them, also more flavor, and a grand flavor it is.  We found this novelty being served at a luncheonette and hurried to call the Pastrami Burger of America Corporation for a word with Milton Berk, the creator of the new sandwich filler.  He tells us his stramiburgers are heading for the retail stores and right soon.