Whether you’ve a penchant for pizza or you’re a diehard fried-chicken fan, chances are you sometimes indulge in a fast-food feast. But have you ever thought about the origins of your fast-food favorites? We delve into the past to bring you surprising facts about the invention of burgers, French fries, hot dogs and more.
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Fried chicken
You might assume that fried chicken originated in the Southern United States. Here the dish is an enduring staple associated as much with big family-style dinners as fast food joints. The first printed record of a fried-chicken recipe in the States was back in 1824, in a cookbook named The Virginia House-Wife – the author, Mary Randolph, was a relative of president Thomas Jefferson, often dubbed “America’s first foodie”.
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Fried chicken
However, it might be that fried chicken has its roots a little farther north after all. Some food historians muse that the earliest fried chicken was cooked up in Scotland, with a British cookbook citing a recipe as early as 1747. It’s thought that the mouthwatering recipe for golden-fried chicken was passed on to enslaved people by Scottish slaveholders. African-American cooks ultimately took the dish on as their own, adding spicy twists and seasoning to perfection. A chicken shop in Ogden, Utah is papped here in the early 20th century.
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Pizza
Pizza has a long history – one that goes back millennia, in fact. The earliest forms of ‘pizza’ began with ancient cultures, who topped simple flatbreads with meat and cheese. But the more modern form of pizza took shape in Naples, Italy in the late 1700s after a population boom. Pizza was sold by street traders as a quick, cheap and convenient meal for an at-the-time impoverished population that was perpetually on the go. Here a young vendor hawks pizza in Naples later on in the 20th century.
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Pizza
Typically early pizzas were topped with simple ingredients like salt and garlic, and sometimes cheese, tomatoes and basil, and for decades, pizza was seen as the domain of the lower classes. But that all changed when King Umberto I and Queen Margherita paid a visit to Naples in the 1880s. The Queen especially developed a penchant for pizza, and the variety with mozzarella, tomato and basil was named as a tribute to her. Then, as Neapolitans migrated across the country through the late 19th and 20th centuries, they took their foodie innovations with them.
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Pizza
So how did pizza find its way to US soil? During the late 1800s and early 1900s, millions of Italian immigrants made their home in the United States, and pizza in its many guises traveled with them. Lombardi’s (pictured) – opened in New York City in 1905 and still going strong today – is widely credited as the first pizzeria in the States.
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Pizza
From here, pizza took on a life of its own, shapeshifting from Chicago deep dish – whose invention is typically credited to Pizzeria Uno, opened in 1943 – to thin and crunchy NY-style pizza. Heavyweights like Pizza Hut and Domino’s were founded in the Fifties and Sixties, cementing America’s love affair with pizza pies forever.
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Tacos
Are you partial to a Taco Bell? Us too. And while the roots of this fast-food favorite are undoubtedly Mexican, the exact origin story is hazy. It’s thought that ancient indigenous cultures in Mexico enjoyed corn tortillas loaded with offal and fish, prior to the Spanish conquest. Their history is also bound up with that of Mexican silver miners: it’s thought that this simple, filling food was the domain of the working classes, with records from the late 1800s referring to tacos de minero, or miner’s tacos.
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Tacos
Mexican migrants eventually brought their gourmet creations Stateside in the early 1900s and traditional tacos were typically sold out of street carts in states from California to Texas (this snap shows a woman preparing tacos from a street cart on Olvera Street, LA). By the 1920s, tacos began to adapt to American tastes and ingredients, with ground beef rather than offal filling shells, and extras like cheese and tomato piled on top. Records of hard taco shells first appear in the 1940s, with Glen Bell’s Taco Bell opening in the 1960s. Today there are more than 7,000 Taco Bell restaurants worldwide.
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Hot dogs
Myriad versions of the hot dog’s origin story are peddled today and it’s usually a battle between the Germans and the Austrians. Unsurprisingly, Germany’s Frankfurt is widely dubbed as the birthplace of the ‘frankfurter’ – they claim the hot dog sausage was cooked up here as far back as 1487. The folks of Vienna, Austria disagree. The ‘wiener’, they say, originated with them, and its North American nickname proves it.
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Hot dogs
How the hot dog came to be an American fast-food stalwart is another story. It’s generally agreed that the hot dog was introduced to the States by German immigrants arriving in New York in the 19th century. There are records of a German hot dog vendor operating in the Big Apple’s Bowery neighborhood in the 1860s. Then, in the 1870s, German Charles Feltman opened a hot-dog stand in Coney Island. He’s often tipped as the first vendor to put a hot dog sausage in a long bun, as he sold his wieners in milk rolls – it’s likely that the Germans had been eating their hot dogs with bread for centuries before that, though.
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Hot dogs
By the late 19th century, hot dog stands were becoming commonplace at baseball games and public expositions. The most famous of all was opened in 1916 by a Polish immigrant named Nathan Handwerker. He undercut his competition by 5 cents a pop at his Coney Island stand, and today Nathan’s Famous remains one of the most beloved hot dog companies in the States. Now hot dog spots abound in America, from no-frills hole-in-the-walls doling out classic offerings to hip places serving innovative toppings and sides too.
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Onion rings
Onion rings don’t have quite the same long history as some other fast-food icons – but they’ve still got a tale to tell. As far back as 1802, a recipe for “fried onions” – which saw onions cut into rings, doused in batter and fried in lard – appeared in a British cookbook named The Art of Cookery, Made Easy and Refined, by John Mollard.
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Onion rings
Other sources cite Pig Stand, a chain of fast-food restaurants originating in Texas in the 1920s, as the birthplace of the humble onion ring. The tasty morsels also featured in Burger King’s first ever dollar menu back in the 1990s and they’ve remained a menu stalwart for decades since.
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Burgers
It’s difficult to imagine this fast-food favorite originating anywhere other than the USA, but tales surrounding the birth of the burger are plentiful. And it might even owe its origins to Ancient Rome. Some food historians say the earliest burger was the Roman dish Isicia Omentata, which saw ground meat mixed up with spices and formed into patties. Others point to the Mongols, who conquered vast swathes of Eurasia in the 13th and 14th centuries. They kept helpings of beef under their saddles as they rode on horseback, so the meat became tenderized and workable.
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Burgers
The Mongol Empire and early globalization helped spread the idea of ground meat dishes across Europe, first to Russia, and later to Germany, and specifically Hamburg. It was here that ‘Hamburg steak’ – a ground beef patty cooked with spices – was popularized, first appearing in a printed cookbook in 1747. By the 19th century, German immigrants were traveling to the New World, bringing along their culinary delights with them. These early burgers were purportedly eaten on ships venturing to the Americas and served at food stands at ports and harbors.
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Burgers
But who invented the modern burger? The United States Library of Congress gives that honor to Louis Lassen of Louis’ Lunch. In 1900, Lassen thought on his feet when a customer came into his low-key lunch spot asking for a quick bite he could eat on the go. Lassen layered ground beef between two slices of toast and served what would be a precursor to the modern burger to his punter.
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Subs
Whether you call them hoagies, grinders, subs or something else, hearty submarine-shaped sandwiches are an all-American lunch classic. Regional names and varieties abound, but it’s generally agreed that the long rolls – traditionally filled with cured meats and cheeses – originated with Italian immigrants in New York City in the 19th century. This 1950s photo shows Vincente Dell’Orto of NYC’s now shuttered Manganaro’s deli with a teetering tray of submarine sandwiches.
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Subs
However, it’s thought that the name “sub”, short for submarine sandwiches, could have its roots in Connecticut. Italian Benedetto Capaldo began selling the rolls from his shop in New London, CT and workers from the nearby submarine base became his primary customers, especially during the Second World War. Given the sandwiches’ shape, they became nicknamed ‘subs’ and the moniker ultimately stuck. Connecticut is also the birthplace of sandwich behemoth Subway, which opened in Bridgeport in 1965.
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Donuts
From Krispy Kreme to Dunkin’ Donuts to Mcdonald’s own sugar-sprinkled offerings, donuts are a sweet-treat heavyweight in the fast food arena. And, as it turns out, they have a rather long history. Remnants of the doughy dessert have been found at prehistoric indigenous American sites over the years, but donuts as we know (and love) them seem to originate with the Dutch.
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Donuts
It’s thought that the Dutch had been making “oily cakes” (pictured), a precursor to the modern donut, for centuries and that Dutch immigrants brought their doughy creations to America – specifically to the early Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam, now in modern-day New York City. The invention of donuts is also linked to Hanson Gregory, an American seaman, and his mother, Elizabeth, in the mid-19th century. Elizabeth purportedly whipped up fried dough goods filled with nuts on board the ship, while Hanson pierced a hole through one of his mother’s bakes to create the first ever ringed donut.
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Donuts
Fast-forward to the 1920s and the first donut machine was invented – it was dreamt up by Russian-born Adolph Levitt in New York City and it would help spur on America’s love affair with the donut. They only gained further appeal when doled out to troops during the Second World War. Finally, mega-chain Dunkin’ Donuts was founded in 1950 in Quincy, Massachusetts (following in the footsteps of competitor Krispy Kreme).
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Gyros
Especially popular in New York City and Chicago, gyros (pronounced as “yee-rohs”) consist of pita bread packed with rotisserie meat, tzatziki and often shredded lettuce and tomatoes. The comforting sandwiches originated in Greece, likely inspired by the Turkish döner kebab, and have been linked back to the army of Alexander the Great, who roasted skewered meat on an open fire way back in the 4th century BC.
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Gyros
The Greek delicacy gained traction in New York in the 1970s, with gyro spots springing up across Manhattan. Some food historians suggest the rise in popularity was down to increased trans-Atlantic travel: as more Americans explored the Continent they brought a taste for Mediterranean food home with them. Today it’s easy to find this Greek-inspired classic at simple to-go spots and laid-back diners.
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Chicken nuggets
Wondering who you’ve got to thank for the invention of chicken nuggets? Turns out they’re a relatively new phenomena on the fast-food scene. These delicious golden bites are thought to have been cooked up in a laboratory in 1963 by Robert C. Baker, a professor at New York’s Cornell University. They were on McDonald’s menus by 1981.
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Milkshakes
A sweet fix and an enduring sidekick to burgers and fries, the milkshake was first referenced in 1885, in a British newspaper – but it looked rather different back then. The newspaper described the milkshake as a “healthful” recipe of eggs and cream whipped up with whiskey. However it’s thought that we owe the familiar soft, sweet dessert drink to drug-store chain Walgreens.
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Milkshakes
It’s said that manager Ivan “Pop” Coulson was experimenting with a way to improve the malted milk drink that Walgreens sold. He added scoops of vanilla ice cream to milk, chocolate syrup and malt powder, concocting what’s tipped as the first modern milkshake. The electric blender was invented by Steven J. Poplawski in 1922, allowing milkshakes to become an American staple served everywhere from retro-style diners to fast-food spots. A group of young women are snapped here drinking milkshakes at a soda fountain in 1926.
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French fries
There are few things more satisfying than a heap of fluffy French fries on the side of a burger. But who invented these moreish potatoey morsels? Despite being French in name, fries are purported to be Belgian in origin. In fact, many sources pin the French fry’s invention to the French-speaking town of Namur in south-central Belgium. So the story goes: Namur locals typically ate fried fish, but when the River Meuse froze over one biting cold winter in the 1600s, they fried up potatoes instead. And so the ‘French fry’ was born.
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French fries
It’s said that the name ‘French fry’ came from American soldiers stationed in that region of Belgium during the First World War. The French, though, insist the potato snack has its roots with them. According to some, fries originated back in the late 1700s with street-cart food vendors on Paris’ historic Pont-Neuf. The creator’s specific identity remains a mystery, however. This snap shows Parisians eating fries from a street vendor centuries later, in 1944.
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French fries
Still, to many, the French fry is quintessentially American. And the US origins of the food are bound up with America’s third president, Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson reportedly came across French fries in the 1780s, when serving as the American Minister to France. Jefferson then had enslaved man James Hemings train as a chef in Paris, and French fries were among the recipes in Hemings’ portfolio. Here’s another American president – Ronald Reagan – digging into a burger and French fries hundreds of years later.
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