17 Comfort Foods For Deep Winter

Guests at The Onion’s Diamond Joe Biden’s Badass Balls-To-The-Walls Fiesta snacked on some of Diamond Joe’s culinary favorites, including these mini cheeseburgers on April 30, 2016, in Washington, DC.

14. Burgers

There have been about as many “inventors” of the hamburger as there are variations on the recipe. The earlier references to a “hamburg steak” appear in 1884, in the Boston Journal. Hamburg steak, however, is usually made of chopped beef, rather than ground meat. No one’s been able to conclusively pin down the origins of this American favorite, though it did start to gain widespread recognition after it was served at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis, Missouri. The first major U.S. vendor was White Castle burgers in Wichita, Kansas, which started serving its well-known sliders in 1921.

So, okay, you could just go out and get a hamburger. You could find a restaurant that serves an elaborate version, or just roll into your local fast food joint and order one there. Easy enough. But, once again, I’m not about anything too easy. Why not make your own, after all?

Basically, you can find some ground meat, form it into patties, and cook the patties on a grill or even in a pan. Traditionalists go for beef, but others like turkey, bison, venison, and even ostrich meat. And, as your friendly local vegetarian, I’m obligated to point out that there are many, many fine versions of veggie burgers to be had out there. There’s no reason your vegetarian friends can’t enjoy a burger right alongside you.

Recipe: 33 Best Burger Recipes (Food & Wine)

Healthy variation: Veggie Burgers (Food & Wine)