National Hamburger Day: The Cost Of A Grill-Out In 2023 Vs. Last Year

ACROSS AMERICA — This year, National Hamburger Day on Sunday falls smack in the middle of Memorial Day Weekend, sandwiching it, so to speak.

National Hamburger Day is of those dreamed up “holidays” — as if Americans needed a reason to fire up the grill this weekend. In fact, a recent Harris Poll survey showed that nearly 9 out of 10 Americans plan to grill more often this summer

The meat for your burger won’t take as big a bite out of your food budget this year. The latest consumer price index shows the price of ground beef decreased 2.1 percent from April 2022 to April 2023.

But be prepared to pay more for almost everything else: Pickles, olive and relishes are up 13.8 percent, bread is up 12.6 percent, condiments are up 10.3 percent and cheeses are up 6.1 percent.

Beer and soda cost more this year. So do coffee and tea. If you plan to make potato salad, you’ll pay more for potatoes and, especially, eggs which cost about 21 percent more than a year ago. Dessert will cost more, too, with ice cream about 13 percent more expensive than a year ago, and bakery fresh cupcakes will cost about 12 percent more.

Overall, food at home cost about 7 percent more in April than in the same month in 2022, but if you’re looking for some good news about food that’s good for you: consumer prices for fresh fruits and vegetables were down 0.4 percent in April 2022 from the year prior.

There are ways to shave the cost: Beef prices vary, depending ont he lean-to-fat ratio. For the juiciest burgers, pick 70 percent lean ground beef, Better Homes & Gardens advise.

Some other foodies, including the folks who run the Memphis Barbecue Championship site, recommend 80-90 percent lean ground beef.

People who are counting calories or watching cholesterol may prefer ground beef that is 90 percent lean or greater has far fewer calories, but it costs more per pound than ground beef with higher fat content, and the burgers won’t be as juicy and moist.

Beef prices are expected to rise about 0.7 percent in 2023, according to a U.S. Department of Apriculture forecast, but that doesn’t appear to be a deterrent for serious grillers.

While 40 percent of the 2,000 U.S. adults surveyed in the Harris Poll, commissioned by Omaha Steaks, said they had cut back on other purchases, 55 percent of them draw the line at sacrificing summer grilling. The poll was taken April 1-6.

Hamburgers are among Americans’ favorite things to grill. Homemade burgers are easily customized to individual tastes: rare or well-done, with or without cheese, and with so many toppings that you’ll need an extra shelf in the refrigerator just to hold them all.

Bonus: What The Heck?

This whole National Hamburger Day thing, though. You may well find yourself asking why, if they’re made of beef, is ham, a pork product, in the name?

Historians are divided, but one explanation starts with the story that the Mongols stashed raw beef under their saddles so they wouldn’t have to dismount in their quest to conquer the known world and eventually brought the meat to Russia, where the dish we know as steak tartare originated. Several years later, seafarers brought the trade to the port city of Hamburg, Germany, where it was molded, cooked and sold as the “Hamburg steak.”

• Related: How Meat That Never Mooed, Oinked Or Clucked Is Changing How America Eats

The hamburger eventually made its way to America and was put between the slices of a bun. But who claims rights to the first American hamburger? It could be Louis’ Lunch, a New Haven, Connecticut, eatery established in 1895 that says on its website that it is recognized by the Library of Congress as the “birthplace of the hamburger sandwich.”

But Seymour, Wisconsin, also claims to be the “home of the hamburger.” As the story goes, an enterprising 15-year-old, “Hamburger” Charlie Nagreen started selling meatballs at agricultural fairs in 1885, but had little success because people wanted to continue walking through the exhibits as they ate. So he came up with the idea of sandwiching the meat between buns and called it a “hamburger.”

Not so, says Menches Bros., an Ohio-based chain, that claims brothers Frank and Charles Menches ran out of pork for their sausage patty sandwiches at the 1885 Erie County Fair. Their supplier was reluctant to butcher more hogs and suggested they use beef instead. Because their first attempt was tasteless and bland, “they added coffee, brown sugar and other ingredients to create the taste America knows today as the hamburger.”

By the way, pork was eventually added to the American hamburger. In 1963, A&W added bacon to its Teen Burger, creating the first bacon cheeseburger.

Here’s another thing you know now:

The most humongous hamburger in history (that anyone knows about) was a 2,566-pound, 9-ounce monster built it Pilsting, Germany, on July 9, 2017, according to Guinness World Records.