According to White Castle, in 1891 Otto Kuase was the inventor of the hamburger. You see, in 1802 the Oxford English Dictionary defined ‘Hamburg steak’ as salt beef. Although it was a budget meat for the time, it wasn’t a hamburger — or ground hamburg steak on a bun. In 1891 Kuase supposedly created a beef patty cooked in butter, topped with a fried egg. German sailors brought the recipe to the United States, where the egg was dropped.

I’m noticing that some of these "claims" to hamburger fame involve German sailors!