5 Different People Claim To Have Invented The Hamburger

The hamburger: a meal so simple and universally beloved, it's hard to imagine that once upon a time it never even existed. All it takes is a sliced bun, a slab of meat, and a dollop of sauce, and suddenly you've created a true beauty that's ready for feasting.

Fifty billion burgers are said to be devoured in the United States every year, according to USA Today, eagerly picked up from street vendors, takeout joints, stadiums, and pretty much anywhere with a functioning grill. However, perhaps because of its obvious popularity, the original creation of the hamburger is a topic of heated debate.

Despite being an unquestionable food icon, nobody can actually decide who invented the hamburger. CNN Travel reports that the hamburger can trace its origins to 13th century Mongolia, where Tatars would dine on raw mutton, served warm and likely chopped and seasoned with spices. The dish made its way to Germany — where it was transformed into "chopped cooked beef, which is known today as frikadellen" — and was finally shipped to the U.S. in the mid-1800s with the name Hamburg steak. From that point on, the truth is up in the air, with at least five different people linked to devising the hamburger in its current form.

The Erie County Fair in Hamburg, New York, claims that the Menches brothers developed the first proper hamburger in 1885 when they ran out of sausages at the event. Improvising, they mixed ground beef with coffee and brown sugar and shoved it into a sandwich with ketchup and onions, naming it a hamburger in honor of the fair's location. However, Food & Wine calls this claim "dubious." That same year, food cart operator Charlie Nagreen is said to have whacked ground beef and onions into a sandwich in Seymour, Wisconsin, reports Atlas Obscura. The town is certainly convinced by this story, dedicating a 12-foot statue to "Hamburger Charlie."

In 1895, a third contender came along: Louis' Lunch in New Haven, Connecticut. The Library of Congress credits Louis Lassen with forming the first hamburger by grilling beef from leftover steak sandwiches and serving it between bread. Following that in 1891, Oscar Weber Bilby put flame-grilled beef patties into a bun, potentially giving him the hamburger creator title. Finally, in 1904, Fletcher Davis is believed to have showcased his beef patties on bread at the World Fair in St. Louis, Missouri, having made them in Texas since the 1880s, details ABC News.

To make matters more confusing, The Washington Post casts doubt on all these theories, having located newspaper advertisements for "hamburger steak sandwiches" in Texas in 1894. Still, maybe the sandwich can't be credited to an American at all: In 1869 Germany, people were eating Rundstück Warm — a meat patty between bread.