3 Fun Burger Facts That Will Surprise You, According to a Burger Scholar

Is there any food more closely associated with American food culture than the hamburger? Even though the ubiquitous sandwich ironically started with chopped steaks from Hamburg, Germany — which were brought to the United States by immigrants — it’s now one of the most popular dishes in the country, and one we often consider part of our identity.

Historian and chef-owner of acclaimed restaurant Hamburger America in New York City, George Motz, has made it his life’s mission to understand, document, and share the unique history of burgers in the United States. (He’s even written a comprehensive book on regional burgers across the states, Hamburger America: A State-by-State Guide to 200 Great Burger Joints, and covered them in a 2004 documentary also titled Hamburger America.)

As a professional burger scholar and someone whose life centers around this humble sandwich, Motz has a lot of juicy insights that you might be unfamiliar with — and he recently shared several of them on an episode of The Splendid Table, the food and culture podcast hosted by cookbook editor and food writer Francis Lam.

Bust out these burger facts the next time you need to impress someone at a party, or just hold them in your heart and appreciate a deeper understanding of America’s most iconic sandwich.

The first condiment on a burger was probably onions

Although we know that early versions of the American hamburger first arose in the late 19th century, a lot of its more precise history is disputed. There are several claimants of the invention of the burger — including Fletcher Davis in Athens, Texas; Charlie Nagreen in Seymour, Wisconsin; and Oscar Weber Bilby in Tulsa, Oklahoma — each with their own story and slightly different variation on the dish. Consequently, it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly what the very first burger was, and what it looked like, but according to Motz, “the very first condiment on a hamburger was likely onion.” (He also noted that onions, pickles, and mustard were the first three condiments out there for burgers.)

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Considering that the ancestor of the hamburg is the “Hamburg steak” (the minced beef dish that Germans brought to the United States), which typically contained onions, it makes sense that the allium was also the first ingredient used to add more nuanced flavor to burgers. However, this raises another question: Can an onion be considered a condiment?

There are more regional burgers in the United States than you may realize

You’re likely familiar with many restaurants’ unique spins on the hamburger. These days, everyone seems to be vying to develop a completely new take on the dish, from sandwiching it between glazed doughnuts to adding fried bananas and peanut butter.

But when I say regional burger, I don’t mean new inventions; instead, I’m talking about long-existing burger styles with rich histories tied to specific areas. Think of it like Italy, where different regions have their own signature pasta traditions.

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This diversity of burger traditions is exactly where Motz’s expertise lies — it’s the focus of his book and documentary, and his New York restaurant Hamburger America offers some of his favorite hamburger styles. When Lam asks the burger scholar on The Splendid Table, “So what are some of those [regional] burgers?” Motz explains that, “There's hundreds and hundreds of [them], thousands… I mean, there's so many of them. See, to me, the regional burger in America is everywhere.”

If you visit Hamburger America, you’ll always see “George Motz’s Fried Onion Burger” on the menu, and despite its name, this is a rendition of the classic Oklahoma onion burger. Created in the 1920s as a way to use less beef (a more costly ingredient) per sandwich, the burger has a pile of thinly sliced, griddled onions. Another local specialty he points out to Lam — and one that hasn’t reached quite as far as the Oklahoma onion burger — is the olive burger from central and western Michigan. The burger scholar explains that this delicacy is named for its special sauce, made of “chopped green olives, mayonnaise, and a little bit of olive brine,” with a touch of sugar for some sweetness.

Smashburgers were the original burger technique

It may be easy to think of smash burgers as a modern method — after all, they’ve become increasingly popular over the past decade thanks to social media and chains like Shake Shack. But Motz points out that “the smash burger technique predates preformed patties… by 50, 60 years.”

The first burgers were created by shaping balls of ground beef and then flattening them out, AKA smashing, once they were on the pan. This not only made it easier for cooks to create equally sized burgers by comparing the balls of ground beef, but it was also logical. Motz says, “You go back to the 1880s when they were smashing little balls of beef in skillets at state fairs or whatever, and it was just done for speed. They realized if a thick burger takes 10 minutes to cook and a smash burger takes two, why am I spending that extra eight minutes?”

The role that smash burgers played in the history of the sandwich is part of why Motz is so attached to the style. There’s something reverent about honoring tradition, and you’ll always find a smash burger on the menu at Hamburger America.

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