60 Fun Facts About Hamburger

The word "hamburger" derives from the name of which German city?

Exactly how the city and the sandwich are linked is still contested; one theory credits Hamburg America Line ships that began sailing to New York in 1847.

"Hamburger Charlie" Nagreen claims to have sold the first hamburger at an 1885 county fair in which state?

He was 15 and flattened a meatball between two slices of bread so fairgoers could eat while walking; he returned to the Seymour fair every year until his death in 1951.

Louis' Lunch, which claims to have served the first hamburger in 1900, is in which city?

The Library of Congress endorsed the claim in 2000; the burgers are still cooked in cast-iron vertical broilers made in 1898 and served on toast.

Ask for which condiment at Louis' Lunch and you can be shown the door?

The only permitted toppings are cheese spread, tomato and onion, and a sign warns that this is not Burger King and you do not get it your way.

At which event was the hamburger called "the innovation of a food vendor on the pike"?

The Chicago Daily Tribune had already described a five-cent hamburger steak sandwich cooked "while you wait" back in 1896.

Hamburger claimant Fletcher 'Old Dave' Davis ran his 1880s lunch counter in Athens in which state?

His burger came with mustard, Bermuda onion and a pickle on the side, and he and his wife Ciddy later ran a stand at the 1904 World's Fair.

The Menches brothers said they invented the hamburger in 1885 after running out of which ingredient?

They found plain ground beef dry and bland, so they added coffee and brown sugar to the mix.

Which city did Oklahoma's governor proclaim 'The Real Birthplace of the Hamburger' in 1995?

The Bilby family says it was served on a yeast bun on July 4, 1891, at Grandpa Oscar's farm.

White Castle, credited as the first fast-food hamburger chain, opened in 1921 in which city?

Founders Walt Anderson and Billy Ingram started with $700; oddly, the chain has not had a restaurant in its birthplace since 1938.

How many holes are punched in each White Castle patty so it steams through without being flipped?

The patties cook on a bed of onions and water; in 2014 Time named the White Castle burger the most influential of all time.

White Castle's tiny square burgers are commonly known by what name?

The chain trademarked the spelling "Slyder" and used it from 1985 to 2009.

White Castle co-founder Walt Anderson is credited with inventing which burger staple?

He is also credited with turning the kitchen into an assembly line, the template for all fast food that followed.

Franchisee Jim Delligatti created the Big Mac in 1967 and first sold it in Uniontown, in which US state?

It cost 45 cents; Delligatti said he received no royalties for it, just a plaque, and ate one every week.

Before "Big Mac" stuck, the burger flopped in the marketplace under which name?

The Blue Ribbon Burger also failed; the winning name came from Esther Glickstein Rose, a 21-year-old advertising secretary at head office.

In which year was the Big Mac ingredients jingle, "two all-beef patties, special sauce...", commissioned?

When Malaysia revived it in 2008, anyone who could recite the whole thing in under four seconds won a free Big Mac.

In which year did The Economist begin publishing its burger-price Big Mac Index?

Pam Woodall introduced it as a semi-humorous illustration of purchasing-power parity, and it spawned the word "burgernomics".

Burger King's Whopper was introduced in which year, priced at 37 cents?

Co-founder James McLamore picked the name because he thought it conveyed "imagery of something big".

Where was the Whopper Jr. accidentally created in 1963 for lack of Whopper bun moulds?

Manager Luis Arenas-Perez used the smaller regular buns on hand, and the result was adopted worldwide.

For an April Fools' Day prank in 1998, Burger King advertised a Whopper designed for which customers?

The ad claimed all the condiments had been rotated 180 degrees to suit southpaws.

Which 1984 presidential hopeful used Wendy's "Where's the beef?" line in a debate against Gary Hart?

The director had wanted actress Clara Peller to say "Where is all the beef?", but her emphysema left her unable to manage the longer line.

Dave Thomas founded Wendy's on November 15, 1969, in which city?

Its square patties, with corners poking past the round bun to suggest plenty of meat, were modelled on Kewpee Hamburgers in Thomas's home town.

Fry cook Lionel Sternberger reputedly invented the cheeseburger in 1924 in which California city?

A 1928 menu from O'Dell's in Los Angeles listed a cheeseburger smothered in chili for 25 cents.

Two rival bars in which city claim the Jucy Lucy, a burger with molten cheese sealed inside the patty?

Matt's Bar and the 5-8 Club sit three miles apart on Cedar Avenue; Matt's drops the "i" from Juicy and calls correctly spelled versions a shameless rip-off.

Burger-mooching J. Wellington Wimpy debuted in 1931 in which comic strip?

Creator E. C. Segar based his personality on William Schuchert, a theatre manager fond of tall tales and hamburgers.

Britain's Wimpy Bar chain opened its first outlet in 1954 inside a Lyons Corner House in which city?

The brand began as Wimpy Grills in Bloomington, Indiana, in 1934, and many UK branches were rebranded as Burger Kings in 1989 and 1990.

In the United States, National Hamburger Day falls on which date?

Cheeseburgers get their own day on September 18, and the UK marks a National Burger Day in late August.

The heaviest hamburger ever recorded by Guinness, at 1,164.2 kg, was built in 2017 in which country?

A team of six cooked it in Pilsting, Bavaria, on 9 July 2017.

What did Juicys Outlaw Grill in Corvallis, Oregon, charge for its record 777-pound burger?

Listed at $5,000 with 48 hours' notice required, it was recognised by Guinness as the largest hamburger commercially available.

An In-N-Out burger ordered "Animal Style" is cooked in a thin layer of which condiment?

It also gets pickles, grilled onions and extra spread; the chain has trademarked both Animal Style and Protein Style.

Palm trees planted in an X outside In-N-Out nod to founder Harry Snyder's favourite film. Which one?

In the film, the treasure is buried under "the big W" formed by four palm trees.

In-N-Out prints what in small type on the underside of its cups and burger wrappers?

The practice began in the 1980s under president Rich Snyder and reflects the family's evangelical faith.

Which burger chain, founded in Arlington, Virginia, in 1986, gives out free in-shell peanuts?

Customers cannot take the peanuts off-site because of allergy concerns; the original five guys were Jerry Murrell and his four sons.

Hamburger Helper went national in August 1971 in response to what?

Its mascot Lefty, a four-fingered white glove with a face, arrived in 1977.

The Impossible Burger's meaty "blood" comes from heme based on a molecule from the roots of which plant?

The leghemoglobin is mass-produced by genetically engineered yeast in a fermentation much like brewing.

What ingredient makes the Beyond Burger "bleed"?

Its main protein is pea, supplied by France's Roquette Freres; Beyond Meat was founded by Ethan Brown in 2009.

Japan's MOS Burger introduced which alternative to the bread bun in 1987?

Founder Satoshi Sakurada modelled his cook-to-order concept on the Los Angeles chili-burger chain Original Tommy's.

The Japanese chain MOS Burger's name is a backronym for Mountain, Ocean and what?

Nobody at the company could explain what any of the three had to do with burgers; earlier marketing tried "MOSt delicious burger".

An Australian "burger with the lot" comes with which vegetable topping rarely seen on American burgers?

The lot also means cheese, pineapple, a fried egg and bacon, and traditionally never mayonnaise.

The ramen burger, with discs of compressed noodles standing in for the bun, was invented by whom?

It shares the Hamburger article's oddities section with the Luther Burger, a bacon cheeseburger served between two glazed doughnuts.

The oldest English-language menu listing of a ground-beef patty dates from 1873 at which New York restaurant?

Chef Charles Ranhofer's version cost 11 cents, twice the price of a plain fillet of beef.

The USDA recommends cooking a hamburger to what internal temperature?

At that temperature the patty counts as well-done; the worry is E. coli O157:H7 in undercooked ground beef.

The first burger grown from cow cells in a lab, served in 2013, was bankrolled by which tech billionaire?

The $300,000 project was led by Mark Post at Maastricht University.

Salisbury steak is named after James Salisbury, who was what by profession?

He pushed a fad diet built almost entirely on meat, and the name has been in use in the US since 1897.

Bob Wian's 1937 double-decker burger, the model for the Big Mac, launched which restaurant chain?

The name came when six-year-old Richard Woodruff walked in and Wian greeted him with "Hello, Big Boy".

The steamed cheeseburger, cooked in a steel cabinet, is a speciality almost exclusive to which US state?

It is thought to have been invented at Jack's Lunch in Middletown in the 1920s or 1930s, when steaming was touted as healthier than frying.

Hawaii's loco moco stacks a hamburger patty and a fried egg on white rice, topped with what?

It was reportedly created in 1949 at the Lincoln Grill in Hilo and named after a teenager nicknamed "Crazy".

The three-line "hamburger" menu icon was designed by Norm Cox in 1981 for which computer?

Cox used to joke to users that it was an "air vent" to keep the window cool.

Which fictional burger has a secret formula that Plankton spends an entire TV series trying to steal?

The special "Friend or Foe" reveals that Krabs and Plankton created it together to compete with Stinky Burgers.

Dale Mulder invented the bacon cheeseburger in 1963 as a Lansing franchisee of which chain?

He added it after repeated requests from one customer, though a Harrisburg menu was already selling bacon cheeseburgers in 1941.

McDonald's "Maharaja Mac" in India swaps the Big Mac's beef patties for what?

Most chains in India serve no beef at all, and the deep-fried potato vada pav is nicknamed the Bombay burger.

A "$100 hamburger" is slang for an excuse to make a short trip in which pastime?

The typical version is a flight of under two hours to an airport restaurant and back.

Chinese media claim the hamburger was invented in China, citing which meat-stuffed Qin-dynasty street food?

In China the word for burger covers any sandwich of a patty between two buns, thanks to McDonald's and KFC branding.

A 1960s Dairy Cheer cook in Ashland, Kentucky, reputedly made the first smash burger by pressing beef with what?

Indiana's Miner-Dunn claims to have served smashed patties continuously since the 1930s.

McDonald's original mascot, Speedee, had a head shaped like what?

The Golden Arches replaced Speedee as mascot in 1962, and Ronald McDonald arrived the following year.

Gus Belt coined the term "steakburger" in 1934 at the first outlet of which chain, in Normal, Illinois?

The chain later sued Burger King in 2004 over its use of the words Steak Burger, settling out of court.

The butter burger, an Upper Midwest speciality, is the signature item of which chain?

It butters the top bun rather than the patty; Solly's Grille in Milwaukee still piles up to three tablespoons of butter on the meat.

A 2012 study found the French eat 14 restaurant hamburgers per person a year, second in Europe behind whom?

By 2013 three-quarters of traditional French restaurants had at least one burger on the menu.

White Castle's headquarters moved in 1934 from Wichita to which city?

After Walt Anderson sold his half to Billy Ingram in 1933, the company moved its corporate HQ to Columbus, Ohio.

How much did the Big Mac cost when it debuted in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, on April 22, 1967?

The first Big Mac sold for 45 cents, designed to compete with the Big Boy hamburger.

How much startup money did Anderson and Ingram put into the original White Castle in 1921?

The pair started with only $700 for the first White Castle at First and Main in Wichita, Kansas.