Despite its history full of lies, it is the most ordered and admired food in the world. Who invented it, how did it enter our lives, where to eat the best hamburger? Are you ready to enter the controversial, calorie-filled and titillating world of hamburgers?

According to a rumor, in 1900, a customer entered Louis’s Lunch in Connecticut and asked if there was anything he could eat on the way, and the owner of the restaurant, Louis Lassen, gave him a sandwich consisting of steak pieces placed on toast, and the fate of the world suddenly changed. It is not known how much this story convinced you, but when you do some research for the first hamburger reference, this will be the first story you come across.

Indeed, it is not limited to this. When you dig a little deeper, it is possible to find references to hamburgers in newspapers published in the late 1800s. These findings refute the legend of Louis’s Lunch, but when looking at the history of the hamburger, it is useful to be prepared for such things. Because you will be faced with many claims that refute each other. For example, many people in Wisconsin think that the hamburger was invented by Charlie Nagreen in 1885. In Texas, Fletcher Davis is credited with giving the hamburger its name. If we look at Europe, in the mid-1700s, Hannah Glasse’s book The Art of Cooking Made Simple and Easy mentions a Hamburg sausage served on toast. The “meatballs on bread” formula called Rundstück Warm, which was famous in Germany in the 1870s, actually points to a similar story.

We know that the formula most similar to the hamburger we know today emerged in America in the 1870s. The simple formula consisting of hand-chopped beef mince, onion and bread was on menus as a cheap and satisfying option that was not given much thought at the time. As can be seen from the book Hamburger: A Global History written by Andrew F. Smith in 2008, the story, whose origins were not clear, became more complicated over time and spread to America from many branches.

Nowadays, hamburgers even have a day celebrated on May 28 every year. How could it not be?! Wherever you go in the world, it is possible to find it, its namesake, or its substitute. The best ones are listed on YouTube every day, consumed by the trays, turning into food porn. The good is good, the bad is terrible. So, is there a formula for hamburger?

Of course, there is. First of all, the taste of the meat is the most important. While mostly beef is used in America, in Turkey it is prepared from a mixed veal-lamb minced meat. The important thing, of course, is which parts of the animal you use. The fat content of ground meat is definitely one of the critical points. Although chefs’ personal preferences come into play here, 15 percent fat rate is generally accepted.