Word Origins

Have you ever wondered why a ground beef patty on a bun is called a hamburger?  Or why another fast-food favorite, the hot dog is called a frankfurter, or frank for short?  How about steak tartare?  Where the heck did that name come from?

One thing all three of these meat treats have in common is that they are ground, or minced, and there is a very good reason for that; in their original form, they were not derived from the best cuts of the meats.  One way to make a tough, gristly or fatty cut into a more tender and chewable meal is to grind it up.  And believe me, the first of the hamburgers or frankfurters were composed of the worst parts of the cow or pig.  They were, in short, the poor man's steak.

As to the name origins, there are several stories, myths, or claims as to how they came to be known as hamburger, frankfurter, or steak tartare.  The last one is maybe the easiest to reveal. 

Classic steak tartare is seasoned raw ground beef with raw egg and chopped onion mixed into it.  I've only had it one time, and it is almost impossible to find on any menu nowadays due to the danger of salmonella or bacteria poisoning when using raw materials, plus the risk associated with mad cow disease.  As to the name, it was first eaten by and introduced to Europeans by the Tartars who came from Asia in a hostile time to conquer and enslave.  If you can find it, and you're willing to take the risk - and what sushi eater isn't - it is a really good, and quite filling meal.

The frankfurter; well, that one is a lot easier, because it is merely one form or another of the sausage that was first made in Frankfurt-am-Main in Germany.  We haven't called them Franks, or Frankfurters, in a long time, as hot dog rolls off the tongue so much easier.  As to their resemblance to the originals, that is obscure.  There are so many different varieties of hot dogs today that the original one probably isn't even close.

And then there's the myth that the original was made from all the table and floor scraps of meat in the processing plant after the good stuff was all cut and packaged.  I doubt that there is any truth to that, but it was a popular tale back when I was a kid, along with the story that scrapple (a Pennsylvania Dutch breakfast treat) was also made from all the leftover scraps on the floor and in the equipment at meat processing plants.

Now we come to that wonderful all-American fast food, the hamburger.  How did it come by its name?  Did it really come from that city in Germany, or was it invented here in America?

I won't bore you with all the claims to fame for the hamburger, but I do believe that the first ones did come from Hamburg, Germany when sailors and immigrants from that city came to New York.  They had a primitive version of today's ground beef patty, but it probably wasn't in a bun with all the toppings.  It was more likely a simple plain beef patty similar to a salisbury steak (OMG - another one to track down!) 

Regardless of your belief in how the hamburger came by its name, we can all agree that it is one of the most loved hand-to-mouth taste treats in the history of food.  Call it a hamburger, hamburg, burger, or any one of the trademarked names the fast food chains use - ever notice that all of them have their own special name for it? - but unless your a  vegetarian, you can't resist one.