Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Wichita Kansas And the Rise of Fast Food

I was watching the History Channel this morning on the history of American fast food. It is interesting because there is a tie-in to Wichita, Kansas, home of both Broadus and Durling forebears.

The first part was on Pizza, which of course came from Italy and grew up in New York and Chicago in America. However, the first Pizza chain began in Wichita in 1958. Brothers Dan and Frank Carney borrowed $600.00 from their mother. They interviewed Dan Carney who remembers that they found a small building in which to start. Someone donated a sign that had room for only three letters after Pizza, so after much deliberation, Dan's wife came up with the word Hut, and thus began Pizza Hut.

More interesting was the development of the modern day Hamburger. It began in 13th Century Russia when the Russian Tartars would tenderize their meat by placing it under their saddles. Then they would finely chop it and add onions and eat it raw. A form of that is still served raw today in Europe and some fancy American restaurants and goes by the name Steak Tatare.

In the early 1700's, travelers to Russia from Hamburg Germany brought back the recipe or concept of ground meat, and cooked it with onions. German immigrants brought it to American in the 1800's and it became known as the hamburger, and showed up on the menu at Delmonico's, a fancy New York restaurant, as a hamburger steak. It was still served as meat only, as one would serve a steak or pork shop.

There are several stories of who actually married the hamburger to bread, but the first recorded evidence of beef between two slices of bread was at the St Louis World's Fair where a vendor was serving ground beef on bread. Factory workers popularized the hamburger as a quick meal on short lunch hours. For a while it languished as a Blue Collar food, shunned by the middle and upper classes, mainly because they distrusted the ingredients, fearing that grinding meat was an excuse to add in bad meat or even dog or horse meat.

This attitude did not change until two significant events occurred. First was the publishing of the expose of the Chicago meat packing industry in Sinclair Lewis's classic book, The Jungle, written in 1906. The stories he told of the meat processing plants were so bad that meat consumption dropped by a half. That prompted the meat industry to self-police itself, doing a major clean-up and opening their plants to the public.

The second event occurred, again, in Wichita, Kansas around 1915, where a cook at at small grill was cooking meat balls on the grill, and hearing complaints from customers who were impatient at the time it took to cook the meat balls. The short-order cook and Swedish immigrant named J Walter Anderson grew frustrated and smashed the meat ball with his metal spatula. He immediately saw that the resulting patty was thin enough to cook quickly, and, it fit perfectly on a round bun. In 1916 he opened his first restaurant in Wichita, and a few years later he wanted to expand, so he teamed up with a respected Wichita real estate developer, Edgar Waldo "Billy" Ingram, and in 1921 they formed the company called White Castle.

The hamburger still had a reputation as greasy and dirty, so they countered that image by naming their stores White Castle--the white for purity and the castle for permanence and stability. They originally hired only men and insisted they be clean and neat, dressed in white uniforms that would show dirt and stains. They also hired a full-time cleaning man who was responsible for cleaning the facility inside and outside daily. The original White Castles were served on round rolls and sold for 5 cents each. By 1931 they were so popular that the bun was changed to square so it would be easier to make and serve. In 1933 Ingram bought out Anderson and moved the headquarters to Cincinnati, where his grandson, E.W. Ingram III still owns and runs the chain.

Most of us (in my generation) grew up eating White Castle burgers at some point, and as recently as last year Dave and Carolyn Snow met Ed and Junie Broadus in St Louis and on their way home, Dave and Carolyn stopped south of St Louis at Cape Girardeau, MO (famous as the birthplace and boyhood home of Rush Limbaugh), at a White Castle. The following picture is a woman thoroughly enjoying her White Castle, but looking somewhat like a kid caught with her hand in the cookie jar:

8 Comments:

Blogger David R. Snow said...

This may do some injury to your story, however, the photograh was made at a White Castle all right, but in Cape Girardeau, Mo. on the way back to Marshall from The St. Louis meeting.

Wednesday, May 24, 2006 12:43:00 PM  
Blogger David R. Snow said...

No, Rush was evidently in Florida on that particular day.

Wednesday, May 24, 2006 12:44:00 PM  
Blogger David Broadus said...

Close enough for government work...I got the state right...

Wednesday, May 24, 2006 4:12:00 PM  
Blogger Russell Snow said...

I have never eaten a White Castle hamburger, never even heard of one till I read about it on this blog. Think there is one in Tucson?

Wednesday, May 24, 2006 4:18:00 PM  
Blogger David R. Snow said...

It is amazing to me that my own son, having been around me for lo these almost 42 years, has never heard of a White Castle. Wonder what else he never heard?

Wednesday, May 24, 2006 4:30:00 PM  
Blogger David Broadus said...

Don't think I will venture into that swamp.

Wednesday, May 24, 2006 4:47:00 PM  
Blogger David Broadus said...

Russell

According to the White Castle web site the furtherest west they have retail outlets is Minneapolis. You can go to Walmart and buy frozen burgers and heat them at home, but it cannot be the same as made fresh.

Wednesday, May 24, 2006 4:51:00 PM  
Blogger David Broadus said...

OK--I have duly updated the post with the corrections submitted by those actually present.

Wednesday, May 24, 2006 10:20:00 PM  

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