window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} gtag('js', new Date()); gtag('config', 'G-GEQWY429QJ');
Culture September 14, 2017
If there's no "ham" in hamburger, where did the name even come from?!
Each year on November 16, people all around America hit the drive thrus in honor of National Fast Food Day. In the 1950s, fast food was born once automobiles became more affordable after World War I.
One of the first fast food joints was White Castle, which sold burgers at five cents a pop. And now, there are tons of places to go when you want a quick bite.
But in honor of National Fast Food Day, we wanted to give you some fun facts about fast food and its history. Here are the coolest things we found.
When Germans migrated to the U.S. in the 1840s, they brought their culture along with them. And one big aspect of their culture was their food.
Germany inspired America to have beer gardens and America also adopted Germany’s traditional styles of meat preparation. Hamburg, Germany was a major exporter of high-quality beef. Food establishments began offering steak that was labeled as “Hamburg-style.”
Raw meat in the 19th century, however, was a prescription for digestive issues. So New York doctor James H. Salisbury recommended that people cook their beef patties. Soon after this, meat grinders became popular and led the way for producing ready-made beef.
Then in 1921, White Castle became one of the first official fast food chains to sell hamburgers. What followed were fast food establishments, such as McDonald’s and In-N-Out Burger, which were founded in 1955 and 1948, respectively.
When chef George Crum was told by a customer that his potatoes were too soggy, he wanted to teach that customer a lesson. He sliced the potatoes really thin, fried them and then served them back to the customer. The crispy potatoes turned out to be a hit.
He then saw how much people fell in love with chips that he decided to open up his own restaurant named “Crumbs House” in 1860. George Crum did not patent the potato chips, though, because African Americans were not allowed to at the time. Thus, Crumbs House did not receive any credit and the snack was soon mass-produced.
Lays became the first national brand of potato chips in the 1920s.
The first accounts of pizza date back to 600 B.C.
But let’s fast-forward to 1700s Naples, Italy. At the time, Naples became notorious for having a poor working population. The fastest inexpensive food was a flat bread with various toppings, including tomatoes, cheese, anchovies and garlic.
Then while traveling to Naples in 1889, King Umberto I and Queen Margherita visited Naples and happened to stumble upon pizza. Rumor has it the couple was tired of French cuisine and fell in love with pizza at first slice. Thereafter, they went to ask for every type of pizza from the pizzeria hot spot named “Pizzeria Brandi.”
And in the 19th century, when Neapolitans migrated to America, they started experimenting with their pizza. One of the first documented accounts of pizza was at Lombardi’s on Spring Street in Manhattan, which was licensed to sell pizza in 1905.
The Chinese takeout we know today is not an actual representation of Chinese cuisine. Popular items, such as noodles and orange chicken are actually Cantonese dishes.
In the 1920s “Chop Suey” joints (Chinese food places) became popular and hip, affordable places to eat Chinese food. Then, Chinese food was popularized in the 1960s and 1970s, after President Nixon visited Beijing in 1972. Americans saw their president feast on Chinese cuisine, and from then on “Chinese food” exploded to what it is today.
There are over 45,000 Chinese food establishments in America today, according to the Chinese American Restaurant Association.
The soft shell that you see on a taco today, did not have soft beginnings. Jeffrey M. Pilcher, professor of history at the University of Minnesota theorizes that the word taco came from miners in Mexico.
“My theory is that it dates from the 18th century and the silver mines in Mexico because in those mines the word “taco” referred to the little charges they would use to excavate the ore. These were pieces of paper that they would wrap around gunpowder and insert into the holes they carved in the rock face,” Pilcher told TIME.
The first accounts of tacos – the delicious, not the dangerous kind – date back to 1905, when Mexicans migrated to work in mines and railroads. It was popularized by a group of women called the Chili Queens. The Chili Queens were based in Los Angeles and sold food during festivals. By the ’60s, tacos al pastor solidified a place for tacos in America.
At the end of the day, before you take a bite out of that burger, remember that you are also taking a bite out of history.