A Brief History of the Hamburger

The history of the hamburger is admittedly a bit nebulous, but for fun we can trace it as far back as the thirteenth-century Mongol Empire. Apparently, the Mongols used to place bits of raw mutton under their saddles as they rode, thus tenderizing the meat for their dinner. Soon after, the Russians adopted a minced version of this dish, added spices, and called it tartar, presumably after the Mongolian people of Central Asia, who were known as Tartars. At this point the basis of the dish shifted from raw mutton to raw beef. It took three hundred years, but the dish eventually made its way across the Baltic Sea to Germany, where the chopped beef was served cooked.