Story of Hamburg steak – origin of hamburger

There is a history that in late eighteenth century, the largest port in Europe was in Germany. Sailors who visited port brought special food called “Hamburg steak” as a popular usage. Hamburg steak was a hard slab of salted minced beef, often slightly smoked, mixed with onions and breadcrumbs.

In the early 1800s German immigrants who settled along the Ohio River brought along their recipes for beef cooked in the style of Hamburg, Germany’s largest seaport.

It was one of the biggest ports on the transatlantic route to America. The majority of immigrants heading for the “New World”, to New York, would embark here. In the Big Apple, various restaurants would offer beef fillets in the Hamburg style in the hope of attracting German sailors to dine.

In 1834“Hamburger Steak” was listed at 10 cents, one of the costliest items on the menu, at Delmonico’s in New York.

The Boston Journal in 1884 quoted a local chef’s reference to chopped “Hamburg steak,” the first published reference to the beef patty.

Although the hamburger wasn’t called “fast food” then, the first business that can accurately be called a fast food restaurant was White Castle, which began in Wichita, Kansas in 1921. It sold hamburgers for five cents each.

Their burgers were different from today’s version: they were cooked with onions and they were smaller, so most customers ate more than one at meal.

The hamburger grew in popularity during the 20th Century along with the rise of the fast food industry, taking on a special symbolism throughout the century.

Story of Hamburg steak – origin of hamburger

First delicatessens in United States

Delicatessen is an adaptation, borrowing from the French, and German words referring to the place where one bought delicatesse, ‘delicious things’, such as cured meats and cheese. Germans prefer to open so-called delicatessens, retail stores that sold specialty food items.

According to Artemas Ward chronicler of the nineteenth century grocery trade, the first delicatessen in America opened on Grand Street in New York City around 1868. At that time, Manhattan’s Lower East had a substantial German immigrant population.

The deli evolved from an effort of the residents who began selling homemade foods from their tiny tenement apartments and pushcarts. At some point, the first budding entrepreneur saw a business opportunity and moved the home or mobile operation into storefront.

At the delicatessens, one could grocery shop for kosher foods, fresh meats, salads, fish, bread, pickles, knishes and other products or sit at the counter or tables to enjoy a gargantuan corned beef sandwich or piece of cheesecakes. German delicatessens stores in New York did a brisk business especially at Christmas time by purveying dozens of kind of sausages, smoked goose breast, apricot jam, honey cake and plum duff.

Delicatessens attracted not only German Americans but also passerbies who were enticed by the windows displaying foreign and ‘fancy’ foods.

As the flood of German immigrants into New York continued into the 1920s, the German delicatessen evolved. Some of the delis began to look less like meat shop and more like restaurants. Although centered in New York, where there were over five thousands delis by the mid 1930s, these institutions quickly spread across the United States.
First delicatessens in United States

Early history of The Wall Street Journal

Publisher of the Journal, Dow Jones & Company was founded in 1882 in a small basement office at 15 Wall Street in New York.  Dow Jones and Company soon bought the first financial printing press. The company was the first to use the telegraph to transmit financial news from London and Boston to New York.

Wall Street Journal was founded on July 8, 1889 by three journalists Charles Bergstresser, Charles Henry Dow, and Edward David Jones. One of the founder names Edward Jones then converted Customers’ Afternoon Letter into The Wall Street Journal which was first published in year 1889. Customers Afternoon Letter actually first published in year 1883 before conversion.

The Wall Street Journal was designed for the business community: Its object is to give fully and fairly the daily news attending the fluctuation in prices of stocks, bonds and some classes of commodities.

Although named for a small area on Manhattan Island in New York, the newspaper had a national scope and assured readers that it would search for and reports the news in the United States, Canada and Europe.

In January 1899, unexpectedly, and with no public reason given, Edward D. Jones retired from the firm of Dow Jones & Company. The remaining owners at that time Charles H. Dow, Charles M. Bergstresser, Thomas F. Woodlock and Franck M. Brady – assumed all assets and liabilities of the firm and retained the name.

Changed hand in 1902 bought by Clarence Walker Barron, circulation was around 7000 copies at that time increased to 50,000 copies by the end of 1920s.
Early history of The Wall Street Journal 

Cheese in United States

Many countries have developed one or more varieties of cheese peculiar to their own conditions and culture.

When the Pilgrims voyaged to America in 1620, they made sure that the Mayflower was stocked with cheese. When the colonists settled in the New World they brought with them their own methods of making their favorites kind of cheese. Cheese making in North America and specifically in the United States, remained a farmhouse process throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

In 1851, entrepreneur Jesse William had built the first US cheese factory near Rome, Oneida County, New York and introduced production in a grand scale.

After extensive experimentation, Williams regulated the timing as well as the temperature for converting milk to curds, regardless of volume.

In 1867, Robert McAdam introduced the English Cheddar system in a factory near Herkimer, New York. This introduction made Herkimer County famous for its cheese.

For many years during this period, the largest cheese market in world as at Little Falls, New York.

As the population increased in the East and there was a corresponding increase in the demand for market milk, the cheese industry gradually moved westward.
Cheese in United States

History of Nestlé in United States

The Company formed by the 1905 merger was called Nestlé and Anglo-Swiss Milk Company. In 1900, Nestlé first factory was opened in United States.

The factory is in Fulton, New York. As part of the arrangements of the 1905 merger, Nestlé agreed to withdraw from condensed milk market in the United States although it continued to produce baby food and milk chocolate at Fulton.

The World War I created tremendous new demand for Nestlé products, largely in the form of government contracts. To keep up, Nestlé purchased several existing factories in the United States.

In 1936, Nestlé had organized Unilac, Inc., incorporated in Panama. It’s served initially as the holding company for Nestlé’s activities in Latin America.

During war in Europe, Unilac opened and executive office in Stamford, Connecticut and from there Nestlé’s top leadership managed the international business.

In 1939, Nestlé began to manufacture and started marketing its first non-milk product, Nescafe in United States. In July 1940, it launched an impressive sales campaign to market the instant coffee.

Nescafe became an American staple after servicemen tasted it in Europe and Asia during World War II.

By the 1960s, as much as one third of home- prepared coffee was soluble.

Although Nestlé saw the opening of its first US production facility in 1900, the Nestlé USA subsidiary was not established until 1990.
History of Nestlé in United States