I though I’d reprint Matthew’s comment from the last post and include some links:
1) The hamburger has its origin in a medieval culinary practice popular among warring Mongolian and Turkic tribes known as Tartars: low quality, tough meat from Asia cattle grazing on the Russian steppes was shredded to make it more palatable and digestible. As the violent Tartars derived their name from the infernal abyss, Tartarus, of Greek mythology, they in turn gave their name to the phrase “to catch a tartar” meaning to attack a superior opponent, and to the shredded raw meat dish, tartar steak. When this became popular in the seaside town of Hamburg, it became known as hamburg steak. (Panati’s Extrordinary beginings of Ordinary things)
Hamburg Steak La Tartare recipe
“1916:
Short-order cook, J. Walter Anderson, later owner and creator of White Castle, creates the first hamburger bun. Prior to 1916, hamburgers were generally served between two slices of bread.”
2)In 1862, Edmund McIlhenny, a successful New Orleans banker, fled with his wife when the Union Army entered the city. They took refuge on Avery Island, where her family owned a salt-mining business. Salt, though, was vital in preserving meat for the war’s troops, and in 1863 Union forces invaded the island, capturing the mines. The McIlhennys fled to Texas, and returning at wars end, found their plantation ruined, their mansion plundered. One posession remained: a crop of cpsicum hot peppers. McIlhenny chopped them up, added vinegar, salt and let them stew in barrels for several days, poured them into emtpy cologne bottles and had invented Tabasco sauce. (also Panatis).
Here’s a very complete history of the man and his sauce.
Excavating the Birthplace of Tabasco. Archealogy on Avery Island
A few War related Tabasco facts from Wacky Uses:
During the Vietnam war, the McIlhenny Company sent thousands of copies of the Charley Ration Cookbook, filled with recipes for spicing up C-rations with Tabasco pepper sauce, wrapped around two-ounce bottles of Tabasco pepper sauce in waterproof canisters.
During Operation Desert Storm, a miniature bottle of Tabasco pepper sauce was included in one out of every three ration kits sent to troops in the Gulf. The United States military now packs Tabasco pepper sauce in every ration kit.
Other food-war connections include the canning process which “is a product of the Napoleonic wars. Malnutrition was rampant among the 18th century French armed forces. As Napoleon prepared for his Russian campaign, he searched for a new and better means of preserving food for his troops and offered a prize of 12,000 francs to anyone who could find one. Nicolas Appert, a Parisian candy maker, was awarded the prize in 1809.”
And for those of you looking for recipes: Civil War recipes including such favorites as hardtack and a coffee subsitute using acorns roasted with bacon fat.