Hamburger Day

Boilermaker Triple Decker, Triple X Diner. 6/2/2009 dwm

The origin of the hamburger may go back to 1758 and a recipe for an entree called "Hamburg Sausage."

Another possibility could be a ship line called the Hamburg America that served passengers a similar dish in the mid-1800s.

My favorite is from Seymour, Wisconsin where a 15-year old, Charlie Nagreen, flattened meatballs between two slices of bread at the Seymour fair so people could eat on the go.

The burger can be made beef, chicken, or Impossible meat. It can be the least expensive item on the menu or the fanciest.

The average American eats four burgers a week according to statistics shared by NationalToday.com; in a year Americans eat 40 billion hamburgers!

Dotty Dumpling's Dowry, Madison. 8/17/13 dm

I like a burger made with a nice cut of beef cooked medium-well. The burgers at McDonald's aren't as tasty, but if I'm hungry and need to eat on the go, I know what I'm going to get, and there's something to say for reliability.

Years ago, I liked cutting into the burger then putting ketchup and mustard inside the patty. My toppings of choice are ketchup, mustard, pickles, lettuce, and tomato (fresh is best). I defer on onions unless they are fried first.

Over the last year, one of the best burgers I had was from Pete's Hamburgers in Prairie du Chien. The secret sauce for Pete was pouring a half-inch of water on the grill, place several pounds of sliced Vidalia onions on the grill top and fry the burgers in the bath.

The bath puts Pete's hamburgers in my Top Five.

In some places, the burger is meat or faux meat in a bun or between two slices of bread, when I'm talking hamburgers, they are made with beef.

Enjoy a burger for lunch, dinner, or a late-night snack - I wouldn't suggest having one for every meal or every day - but I would miss it if I didn't have at least one a week.

Here's my National Hamburger Day Photo Gallery: