The Historic Reason Ground Beef Is Sometimes Called Hamburger

American food is broader in scope, and certainly more sophisticated, than most people give it credit for. That being said, it's hard to argue against burgers being America's most famous food. The numbers back it up, with survey data from the U.K. analytics firm YouGov showing an 85% popularity rating (tied for the top spot with french fries).

It's safe to say that hamburgers are an American icon, but there's something in that name that throws their American-ness into question. You may have heard that hamburgers are named for the place they originated from — Hamburg, Germany — which wouldn't make them so American after all, right? Well, the truth is a lot more complicated.

Hamburg has become so closely associated with ground beef that the terms are sometimes used interchangeably, but there is a distinction between ground beef and hamburger, believe it or not. What's more, the relationship between the German city and the sandwich-style burgers we enjoy today doesn't go far beyond the name. Burgers on buns are, it seems, an American innovation – and a recent one at that. Why then do they bear this German name?

Hamburgers as we know them — a beef patty sandwiched between two buns — came around in late-1800s America, although their exact point of origin has been subject to a great deal of heated debate. Ground beef, on the other hand, has quite an ancient history, and it appears that burgers are descended from a dish with a markedly different reputation which has become a restaurant staple: steak tartare. This minced beef dish originated in Central Asia around the 13th century, when a violent conflict arose between the Mongols and Tatars. The latter group was known to eat raw minced mutton, and to this day, raw minced meat dishes bear the name tartare in their honor.

Tartare's popularity spread to the shores of the Baltic Sea, where German merchants discovered it and brought it back to their country's primary seaport, located in, you guessed it, Hamburg. Minced beef caught on with the locals, but one major change was made – they started cooking the beef. By the mid-1700s, English cookbooks were speaking of Hamburg sausage.

The 1800s saw a massive wave of German immigration to the United States, bringing with it the Hamburg style of beef. An early fan of the dish was physician James H. Salisbury, who gave his name to the food's Americanized version: Salisbury steak (which is different from meatloaf). However, many restaurants simply served it under the moniker of Hamburg steak. The Germans, however, never used that name, instead referring to ground beef patties as frikadellen.

It was only natural for the terms ground beef and hamburger to become synonymous because, for many decades, there was no difference. That's not the case anymore, as nowadays, the USDA has different definitions for ground beef and hamburger. However, the distinction is a minute one. Both terms refer to ground beef trimmings, and, under federal law, cannot contain more than 30% fat. However, it's the nature of that fat that makes a difference.

For a product to count as ground beef, it must only include the fat that was naturally attached to the beef trimmings used to make it. However, hamburger meat is a little different. In that case, producers are allowed to supplement the meat's fat content by adding pieces of pure beef fat to the mix. Fat adds both flavor and moisture to the meat, so a manufacturer making ground beef from a particularly lean cow might be inclined to add a little extra fat, kicking the percentage up. If they did so, their product would then be considered hamburger.