The Burger
Debunking myths is one of the reasons why Nutro decided to start this blog, and it’s why our popularity has been skyrocketing. Quite clearly, people are sick to the back teeth of reading falsehoods about food and drink.
One of the most brazen inaccuracies around is the notion that one of the most popular dishes available, the Burger, originated in Hamburg (hence the term Hamburger).
The lie can easily be explained with the Germans’ chronic obsession with dominance. Even when it comes to a patty with a slab of meat in the middle, they can’t help it. They want to take over the world.
Well, meine Freunde, I have news for you. The hamburger is something else. It’s got nothing to do with the burger. Just look at the word. Ham.
Ham, you know, the cooked pork, the cold cut, the sliced jambòn, the carved delicacy that we discussed at length here. Not, and I mean not, the maritime city of Hamburg, famous for airplane manufacturing, a lake in the middle of town, and WWII retaliation.
The burger actually comes from Manchester and the etimology of the word stems from the old Mancunian buh-guh.
In fact - as we live in an age of ignorance - when people are anxious to shed their roots and give in to the newest fad, very few are aware that the Manchester area had its own language as recent as the XVIII century.
Dishes like Chips ‘n’ Graveh, Pasty Barm or Eccles Keh-ks. Drinks like Vimto (Old Manc for “sweet drink”). Names like Donnuh (Donnah) or Andeh (Andy), or even Cooli-eh (Coolio). Expressions like owt (anything), nowt (nothing) and -of course- sowt (something). Quite simply, there are tons of examples proving that the old Manc was a world apart from English.
As for buh-guh, this was none other than the precusor of today’s trendy “burger”, a simple but tasty meat patty which can be enjoyed by the whole family, anytime, anywhere, anyhow.
The problem is that those snotty southerners and those domineering Germans would sooner neglect Manchester’s proudest son than admit that, in the old days of the industrial revolution, a steak consumed with mustard and Bermuda onion between two slices of bread was the workman’s best way to enjoy supper.
It was in fact in 1734, when the drizzle was pouring relentlessly, and the smoke from those steam engines was darkening the Lancashire skyline, that a workman called Andeh Salford came up with the idea of a buhguh.
Like all brilliant ideas, the buh-guh too was the spawn of pure chance.
Ravenous after a long day’s work slaving away on the shopfloor, Andeh Salford walked back to his modest back-to-back dwelling, took his hungry 7 children to bed, and was about to assault his ground beef sandwich in his kitchen while listening to the radio.
It was at this moment that his sandwich slipped out of his callous hands. The sliced bread wasn’t much cop when it came to offering a tight grip for the ground beef. Desperate to still enjoy his carne with some bread, Andeh Salford spotted a lone bun on his kitchen appliances.
He grabbed a knife, sliced the pattybun into two halves, shoved the slab of ground beef in the middle and decided on the spot to stick a couple of onion rings on top. The buh-guh was born.
Andeh was so delighted with his dinner that he told all his mates about his invention. “Eh, every won. Ah’m talkin’ to thee! Here’s the buh-guh!”, he told them all.
A culinary star was born. Soon after his death, an important district of Manchester was named after Mr Salford, but it was at this point that the hawks of fame took over, claiming that the burger was from Hamburg rather than the direct descendant of the buh-guh.
Don’t give in to bad myths. Next time you dig your gnashers into a juicy burger and get ketchup squirting all over your greasy fingers, spare a thought for the true creator of the buh-guh. His legacy lives on.