Western New York has been a hotbed of culinary innovation: we've got Beef on Weck, the chicken wing, and the hamburger!
September 18th is "National Birth of the Burger Day!"
Hamburg officials and Erie County Fair reps celebrated by frying up a whopping three-pound hamburger to act as a birthday cake.
Here's the history: The Menches Brothers, Frank and Charles, were food vendors at the 1885 Erie County Fair, known then as the Hamburg Fair. Legend has it that during the Fair, the brothers ran out of their signature pork sausage sandwich. A local Hamburg butcher suggested using ground beef. The brothers fired some up, added coffee and brown sugar to create a unique taste, and ta-da: the beef burger was born!
They named the beef sandwich the "hamburger", after the Erie County Fair's home town of the Hamburg, New York.
