HAMBURGER HISTORY
CCSS ELA Review: Week 1
How a humble ground-beef patty became America’s most popular food
By Lauren Tarshis
What’s more American than a juicy
hamburger? We eat nearly 50 billion burgers
a year, from the $1/35 burgers we grab at
McDonald’s to the gourmet creations served
at some of the finest restaurants in the
country.
Many people have claimed credit for
inventing the hamburger. There’s Charlie
Nagreen, who insisted that the served up the
first burger, at a Wisconsin state fair in
1885. There is Ohio’s Frank Menches, who
took credit for having invented the
hamburger and the ice cream cone. There’s
Walker Anderson, who said he invented the
burger while working at a diner in Wichita,
Kansas.
One day during the lunchtime rush,
Anderson claimed, he was panicking
because so many hungry customers were
waiting for their food. He glared at a
meatball sizzling on the grill, furious that it
wouldn’t cook faster. Desperate, Anderson
took his spatula, and whack! He flatted the
round meatball into a disk. Minutes later, it
was all cooked. Ta-da! The hamburger was
born. Or was it?
Cheap Ground Beef
According to experts in food history,
no one person really deserves credit for
inventing the ground-meat patty. The recipe
for the modern hamburger was likely born in
Germany, a country famous for its sausages
and other spiced, ground meats. During the
1800s, millions of Germans immigrated to
the U.S. Their hearts were full of dreams of
a new life in America, but their stomachs
growled for foods from their native land.
Ground beef was cheap in the U.S., and
German factory workers in cities like
Chicago enjoyed lunching on beef patties
tucked inside sliced rolls. Soon enough, this
food gained a name – the Hamburg steak, in
honor of the city of Hamburg, in northern
Germany.
But the Hamburg steak didn’t catch
on outside of German neighborhoods. That’s
because ground beef had a bad reputation in
the 1800s, and for good reason. Very often,
dishonest butchers sold ground beef that was
actually a mash-up of spoiled meat, fat
scraps, and other parts of animals that no
person would ever knowingly eat. To most
Americans, ground beef was an unhealthy
food to be avoided.
But that was about to change.
Fit for a King
Remember Walt Anderson and his
smashed meatball? Even if he didn’t really
invent the hamburger, historians do credit
him with making the hamburger popular.
In 1921, Anderson teamed up with a
businessman named Billy Ingram to open
restaurant specializing in hamburgers. To
help their customers overcome their fear of
ground beef, the men would let diners peer
into the kitchen and watch workers grind up
hunks of fresh beef and turn them into
delicious patties. They created
advertisements that emphasized the
cleanliness of their restaurant and the
wholesomeness of their ingredients. They
gave their eatery a name that suggested a
sparkling-clean restaurant fit for a king:
White Castle.
The plan worked. White Castel was a
hit. By the 1950s, the hamburger was the
most popular food in America. Over the
decades, fast-food restaurants like White
Castel and McDonald’s have earned billions
of dollars satisfying the American hunger
for burgers.
Today, some believe that the
burger’s popularity will decline as
Americans focus more on healthy eating.
Sales at some fast-food restaurants are
already decreasing.
For now, though, the burger is still
America’s favorite food.
1
CCSS ELA Review: Week 1
TACOS TAKE OVER
How a Mexican food became an American classic
By Lauren Tarshis
It was 1951 in San Bernardino,
California, and 28-year-old Glen Bell was
grilling up burgers and hotdogs at his little
roadside stand, Bell’s Drive-In. For weeks,
Bell had been peering out the kitchen
window at the restaurant across the street,
the Mitla Café. Bell’s place was always
bustling, but Mitla’s was packed. During
most lunch times, people were lined up
around the corner waiting for a table.
What was happening in there?
Finally, Bell just had to see what the
fuss was about. He went to Mitla’s and
stood in line, the only white person in a
crowd of mostly Mexican immigrants. He
was warmly welcomed and served the house
specialty: a taco. Few non-Hispanic
Americans had ever tasted this Mexican
treat, a fried corn tortilla shell stuffed with
meat and cheese and topped with a spicy
tomato sauce. Bell picked up the taco,
breathing in the delicious scent. He took his
first bite.
Crunch.
Bell almost fell off his chair in
ecstasy.
Not only had he discovered his new
favorite food. He had just tasted his future.
A Taste of Home
California shares a border with
Mexico, and for decades Mexican
immigrants had been pouring into Southern
California cities, bringing with them recipes
for their favorite dishes. In many MexicanAmerican neighborhoods, the air was thick
with the aroma of meats spiced with dried
chile peppers, woodsy cumin, and
chocolate-tinged mole [MOH-lay] sauces.
By the 1950s, there were dozens of small
restaurants like Mitla’s, modest joints
serving up tacos and other dishes for
Mexicans longing for a taste of home.
Non-Hispanic Americans rarely
ventured into these Mexican restaurants.
Most Americans were not adventurous
eaters; many feared that Mexican food
would be too spicy, or that it would make
them sick. But Bell sensed that Americans
might be ready for something new. And was
the taco really so exotic? Americans already
used ground beef in their hamburgers.
Wasn’t the taco shell a little bit like a
hamburger bun? And was taco sauce so
different from ketchup?
Bell became determined to introduce
his favorite food to a wide American
audience and started making plans to open
his own taco stand. His first challenge was
to speed up the process for preparing tacos,
to satisfy the American craze for “fast food.”
It was no problem to prepare the beef
fillings in advance. But each taco shell had
to be fried moments before serving, or else it
became soggy.
Bell spent his evenings
experimenting in his home kitchen, finally
devising a method for making taco shells
that could be crisped up in advance. He
concocted a taco sauce that was less spicy
than a typical piquant Mexican sauce. He
designed his taco place to be modern, more
like a fast-food restaurant than a homey
Mexican taco stand.
Bell’s first taco restaurant, Taco Tia,
opened in 1954 and was an immediate
success. As Bell had hoped, most of his
customers were new to tacos and thrilled
with his milder fast-food version. Within the
year, he had opened two more restaurants.
By 1962, he had sold Taco Tia and founded
the fast-food chain Taco Bell. Today, there
are more than 5,500 Taco Bell restaurants in
the U.S., with thousands more around the
world.
Over the years, some have criticized
Glen Bell for “Americanizing” Mexican
food too much. But even critics agree that he
succeeded in introducing Mexican food to
picky Americans and helped to make the
taco as popular in the U.S. as apple pie.
2
CCSS ELA Review: Week 1
Compare & Contrast
Directions: Answer the questions in the left-hand column for both hamburgers and tacos. Then check the appropriate box to indicate whether the answers are
similar or different, or a bit of each. After completing the chart, respond to the writing prompt at the bottom of the page.
Hamburgers
Tacos
Similar
Different
What group of
people first made
and ate this food
in America?
Why did most
Americans stay
away from this
food at first?
Who made this
food popular in
America?
Was the food
changed so that
Americans would
like it? If so, how?
What made the
new restaurants
that served this
food appealing to
Americans?
Is the food still
popular today?
You Write It! Now you are ready to complete the writing prompt. What is similar about how the hamburger and the taco became popular in the U.S.? What is different?
Write your answers in two well-organized paragraph, using evidence from the texts.
3
CCSS ELA Review: Week 1
“Hamburger History” & “Tacos Take Over”
Directions: Read the articles “”Hamburger History” and “Tacos Take Over.” Then fill in the
bubble next to the best answer for each question below.
1. Which of the following is the main idea of
“Hamburger History”?
a. Several people have claimed credit for
inventing the hamburger.
b. Walt Anderson and White Castle made
hamburgers popular.
c. Burgers are the most popular food in
Germany.
d. People like to watch food being made.
5. In what way did hamburgers contribute
to the popularity of tacos in the U.S.?
a. Before hamburgers became popular,
few Americans were willing to eat
ground beef.
b. Before hamburgers became popular,
few Americans ate tomato sauce.
c. Burgers made spicy food popular.
d. Burgers made cheese popular.
2. Which line from the article supports the
answer to question 1?
a. “What’s more American than a juicy
hamburger?”
b. “He flattened the round meatball into a
disk.”
c. “The hamburger was born.”
d. “White Castle was a hit.”
6. Both articles tell you __________.
a. the name of a city in Germany
b. how foods from other countries
became popular n the U.S.
c. why ground beef was once seen as
unhealthy
d. ingredients in a taco
3. Walt Anderson named his restaurant
White Castle to show that it was _________.
a. large
b. very expensive
c. clean and high-quality
d. very old
4. “Tacos Take Over” says that Glen Bell
“almost fell off his chair in ecstasy” the
first time he tasted a taco. In other
words, he …
a. was amazed at how good the taco
tasted.
b. was shocked by how spicy it was.
c. was surprised by how popular tacos
were.
d. thought the taco was almost as
good as a burger.
7. “Tacos Take Over” shows that Glen Bell’s
idea for a fast-food taco restaurant was
__________.
a. a success
b. a failure
c. nothing new
d. quickly forgotten
8. Which sentence from the article
supports the answer to question 7?
a. “What was happening in there?”
b. “And was the taco really so exotic?”
c. “He took his first bite.”
d. “Within the year, he had opened two
more restaurants.”
9. Both Walt Anderson and Glen Bell made unfamiliar foods popular. In what
way were their methods similar?
10. Some people have criticized Glen Bell for “Americanizing” Mexican food. Why
might that be considered a bad thing?
4
CCSS ELA Review: Week 1
ANSWER KEY
Compare & Contrast
Directions: Answer the questions in the left-hand column for both hamburgers and tacos. Then check the appropriate box to indicate whether the answers are
similar or different, or a bit of each. After completing the chart, respond to the writing prompt at the bottom of the page.
Hamburgers
Tacos
Similar
What group of
people first made
and ate this food
in America?
German immigrants
Mexican immigrants
X
Why did most
Americans stay
away from this
food at first?
Americans thought ground beef was
unhealthy.
Americans thought they would be too
spicy or make them sick.
X
Walt Anderson and Billy Ingram
Glen Bell
Was the food
changed so that
Americans would
like it? If so, how?
Yes. The ground beef was fresh and
wholesome.
Yes. The sauce was made less spicy.
What made the
new restaurants
that served this
food appealing to
Americans?
Customers could get their food quickly.
Customers could get their food quickly.
The restaurant had a name that suggested The restaurant looked like other modern
cleanliness and royalty.
fast-food places.
X
Yes
X
Who made this
food popular in
America?
Is the food still
popular today?
Yes
Different
X
X
X
You Write It! Now you are ready to complete the writing prompt. What is similar about how the hamburger and the taco became popular in the U.S.? What is different?
Write your answers in two well-organized paragraph, using evidence from the texts.
5
CCSS ELA Review: Week 1
ANSWER KEY
“Hamburger History” & “Tacos Take Over” Quiz
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
B (main idea; R.2)
D (text evidence; R.1)
C (key detail; R.1)
A (vocabulary; R.4)
A (synthesizing; R.7)
B (compare and contrast; R.9)
A (main idea; R.2)
D (text evidence; R.1)
Both men created restaurants that would appeal to their
customers and make them more at ease with unfamiliar food.
Anderson emphasized cleanliness, and Bell created an Americanstyle fast-food restaurant. Bell also adjusted his recipe to make
tacos seem more similar to foods non-Hispanic Americans were
already familiar with. (synthesizing/compare and contrast; R.9)
Answers will vary. Students might say that “Americanizing”
Mexican food could give Americans an inaccurate idea of what
Mexican food is like and might imply that authentic Mexican
food isn’t good enough as it is. (inference; R.1) 6