Do you have a Favorite HoCo Burger?
Do you have a Favorite HoCo Burger?
I’ve been eating healthier of late but sometimes a woman just gets tired eating of carrots and quinoa and begins craving a juicy hamburger.
In Howard County there are so many great restaurants to choose from all serving wonderful food and hamburgers. But I began to wonder where the hamburger came from.
The hamburger has a long history, tracing its earliest incarnation to Genghis Khan’s Mongol Hoard. Ground meat patties were the original to go food and carried by the warring horsemen. Through them ground meat arrived in Russia to become known as steak tartar, the Russian word for Mongol.
In the 18th and 19th century Hamburg Steak, named for the German Port, emigrated to the new world with the German people for whom the fresh minced meat patties were standard fare. Not long after “Hamburg Steak” appeared on the streets of New York being grilled on open fires and slapped between two pieces of bread.
The single greatest invention in the history of the hamburger has to be the invention of the mechanical grinder. Not long after the advent of the grinder, the coining of the word “Hamburger” is credited to a 15 year old Wisconsin lad, Charlie Nagreen. The enterprising young man, selling meatballs at county fair in 1885 decided round objects were too difficult for his patrons to eat on the run so he flattened them and put them between two slices of bread and called them Hamburgers. The rest is history
Or maybe not. A number of other folk claim to be the originator of the hamburger and/or the hamburger bun. Whoever named them I think we can all agree on one thing—they are tasty. And who makes the best is strictly a matter of opinion. (For more than you ever wanted to know about the history of the hamburger go to https://whatscookingamerica.net/History/HamburgerHistory.html )
My favorite source for a really good hamburger (if I am going have all those calories it better be good) is the White Oak Tavern. Their burger boast of being made from “dry-aged grass fed beef.” It is served with a “porter-glazed caramelized onion, The White Oak Special Sauce, arugula, and white cheddar on Atwater’s brioche bun.” I’ve enjoyed their burger for Sunday brunch and at dinner. Both times the patty was cooked to the perfect temperature and was moist but not too fatty. I loved the roll and the caramelized onion. I recommend having the White Oak special sauce put on the side. I found the sauce to be a little over powering. For more about the White Oak Tavern see their website (https://thewhiteoaktavern.com/)
My second choice is the buffalo burger at The Ellicott Mill Brewing Company. (Yes. I said buffalo as in bison.) Bison is a super-lean meat that is both higher in protein and lower in fat than beef. Beef is about 9 percent fat while buffalo is only 2 percent. That means it is a lower guilt splurge for those trying to eat healthy. The Ellicott Mills Brewing Company doesn’t let the low fat content of their burger make it dry or any less tasty.
Those are my choices for Howard County’s Best Burger. What’s yours?