5 Fascinating Facts About Hamburgers: From History to Google’s Emoji Controversy
Fast food, made quickly and eaten conveniently, is a staple of many diets. When we think of fast food, burgers often come to mind. There are various franchise stores where you can taste different and unique burgers according to each brand. However, despite their delicious taste, burgers are often greasy and are recommended to be eaten sparingly. But have you ever wondered why there is no ham in a hamburger? And does eating a hamburger really have a hangover cure effect? Here, we introduce some interesting and useful stories about hamburgers.
The name ‘hamburger’ originates from Hamburg, Germany.
The name “hamburger” originates from the German port city of Hamburg. In the 13th century, the Mongols often consumed raw meat, which was tough to eat. They would place it under their saddles while riding, tenderizing the meat due to the horse’s movements and body heat. The Mongols would then eat this tenderized meat with salt and vegetables.
In the 13th century, Russia was under Mongol rule, and this raw meat dish spread to the Russian people. Afterward, in the 15th century, this dish went to the major European trading hub of Hamburg, where the raw meat dish was modified by grilling or frying. By the 19th century, this ground and grilled meat dish arrived in America. This was the Hamburg steak. The hamburger was born when the patties were placed between two pieces of bread in the late 19th century.
Google disrupted by a hamburger
In 2017, Danish journalist and media expert Thomas Baekdal pointed out on Twitter that “we need to talk about the Google burger emoji.” He observed that the cheese sits under the patty in the Google burger emoji, which deviates from the standard way of making a burger. Normally, chefs place the cheese directly on the patty as it cooks, allowing it to melt from the heat. If someone sold the burger as depicted in the emoji, the melted cheese would drip down, making the burger inconvenient to eat.
This tweet received over 50,000 likes in just two months, and the fallout was beyond imagination. Foreign netizens immediately reviewed and evaluated all IT industry cheeseburger emojis. Critics particularly praised Microsoft for its standard hamburger emoji. Then, Google’s CEO announced that he would stop all other work to fix the emoji, and reports say they have corrected it.
Eating a hamburger as a hangover cure is not good for your body
In Europe and the United States, where spicy food is less common, people often consume greasy foods like hamburgers and pizza to relieve hangovers. Recently, this trend has also emerged in South Korea, with an increasing number of people choosing fatty foods for hangover relief. The cause of a hangover is due to the breakdown of alcohol in our bodies, which irritates the stomach lining and affects the central nervous system. Eating food while hungover helps neutralize stomach acid, reducing symptoms of nausea and creating a feeling of hangover relief.
However, greasy foods like hamburgers can actually burden the stomach and slow down the body’s ability to detoxify alcohol. Spicy and stimulating foods like ramen and jjamppong can also irritate the stomach lining. Therefore, experts recommend consuming less stimulating foods like bean sprout soup or herring rice soup, which contain herring and bean sprouts that aid liver detoxification.
If the price of corn goes up, so does the price of hamburgers
Corn serves as a staple food worldwide and in animal feed, processed food, additives, natural medicine, and natural fiber, underscoring its versatility and high value. In the United States, leading in corn production, consumption, and exports, producers mainly use corn for animal feed and ethanol production. In January 2021, corn futures recorded their highest level in seven years.
‘The surge in corn prices leads to hamburger inflation.’ There is a saying that when grain prices rise, it affects the flow of cattle, causing the price of beef, an ingredient in hamburgers, to rise. If the price of beef increases, it is natural that hamburgers will also rise.
The reason why fries at a burger joint are long is because of the potato variety
Burger restaurants always sell French fries together with their burgers. You can often see unusually long fries when you eat fries at a burger shop. Do they become long because workers cut them from large potatoes like radishes, or do they make them from potato dough? The length of these fries is due to the type of potato used. The type of potato used for fries is the American russet potato.
The russet potato is large and long in shape. When this russet potato is sliced into strips, it becomes the long fries we commonly eat at burger shops. The United States is one of the leading potato-producing countries, with an excellent environment for growing and storing potatoes, resulting in high-quality potatoes. Domestic potatoes in Korea have a high moisture content, making the American russet potato more suitable for making fries.
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