National dish

What is the national dish of the United States?

The United States has no official national dish, but the hamburger is the one most often cited: a patty of ground beef, grilled or pan-fried and served in a sliced bun with lettuce, tomato, onion and condiments such as ketchup and mustard. Topped with melted cheese it becomes a cheeseburger. Apple pie, the hot dog and the Thanksgiving turkey are also named.

Updated 2026-10-124 min read

Does the United States have an official national dish?

No. The United States has never designated a national dish, so the title is a matter of usage rather than law. The hamburger is the dish most often described as a national dish of the United States, and it is the one the rest of the world associates with American food.

Several other dishes are regularly put forward:

Apple pie, through the phrase "as American as apple pie", even though the pie itself came from England. Our article on the national dish of the United Kingdom covers the other side of the Atlantic.
The hot dog, a street food built on German-style frankfurters and wieners.
Roast turkey, the centrepiece of Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner.
Fried chicken and the cheeseburger, which also appear among the dishes most often suggested.

What is in a hamburger?

A hamburger is a patty of ground meat, almost always beef, placed inside a sliced bun. The standard toppings are lettuce, tomato, onion and sliced pickles, with ketchup, mustard or mayonnaise. French fries are the usual side.

A cheeseburger is the same burger with cheese melted onto the patty near the end of cooking. Fast-food chains mostly use processed cheese slices, while home cooks and restaurants often use cheddar, Swiss, pepper jack or blue cheese.

How a cheeseburger is made

Our cheeseburger recipe keeps to the basics. Divide 500 g of ground beef into 4 equal patties and season them on both sides with salt and black pepper.

Cook them on a grill or skillet over medium-high heat for 4 to 5 minutes per side. In the last minute, lay a slice of cheddar on each patty so it melts on the meat. Toast the buns on the same surface until golden.

Build each burger from the bottom up: lettuce, tomato slices and onion rings on the lower bun, then the patty, then the top bun. Ketchup and mustard go on at the table.

The two things that matter most are heat and timing. A properly hot surface browns the outside of the patty before the inside dries out, and adding the cheese only in the final minute lets it melt over the meat without sliding off.

Where the hamburger comes from

The name comes from Hamburg in Germany, but how the dish got it is still disputed. A "Hamburg steak" appears in The Boston Journal in 1884, and in 1896 the Chicago Daily Tribune described a five-cent "Hamburger steak sandwich" cooked to order.

Several people claim to have invented it: Charlie Nagreen at the Seymour Fair in Wisconsin in 1885, Frank and Charles Menches at the Erie County Fair in Hamburg, New York, and Louis Lassen at Louis' Lunch in New Haven, Connecticut, around 1900. None of these claims has been proven, and an English recipe for "Hamburgh sausage" served on toasted bread already appeared in Hannah Glasse's cookbook in 1758. What is documented is that the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair gave the hamburger national attention, and that White Castle, founded in Wichita, Kansas, in 1921, turned it into a chain-restaurant product. At a time when ground beef had a poor reputation, White Castle cooked in full view of customers and sold small square burgers, later called sliders, with five holes punched in each patty so they cooked through without flipping.

Adding cheese became popular in the 1920s. Lionel Sternberger is said to have dropped a slice of American cheese on a burger in 1924 at his father's sandwich shop in Pasadena, California, and in 1935 Louis Ballast of Denver was granted a trademark for the name "cheeseburger".

Other dishes to know from the United States

Buffalo wings are named after Buffalo, New York. The most common story credits Teressa Bellissimo at the Anchor Bar in 1964. The wings are never breaded: they are fried at 190°C for 8 to 10 minutes, then tossed while hot in melted butter and cayenne pepper hot sauce, and served with celery and blue cheese dressing.

Baked mac and cheese has a long American history: Thomas Jefferson served "a pie called macaroni" at a state dinner in 1802, and Kraft launched its boxed version in 1937. Our recipe makes a roux, whisks in 500 ml of milk, melts in 200 g of cheddar and bakes the pasta under bread crumbs for 20 minutes.

In Canada, the boxed version, Kraft Dinner, has even been proposed as a national dish; see our article on the national dish of Canada. All three American dishes, with full methods, are on our page about the food of the United States.

For the neighbouring kitchens, see our guide to North American food.

The recipes

Questions people ask

Is the hamburger American or German?

The name comes from Hamburg, Germany, and like the hot dog it is based on traditional German dishes. The hamburger as a sandwich in a bun developed in the United States in the late 19th century.

Is apple pie the national dish of the United States?

Apple pie is a national symbol through the phrase "as American as apple pie", but the dish originated in England. The hamburger is cited more often as the national dish.

Who invented the cheeseburger?

There are competing claims. Lionel Sternberger is said to have made one in Pasadena in 1924, and Louis Ballast of Denver trademarked the name "cheeseburger" in 1935.

Why is it called a hamburger if there is no ham?

The name refers to the city of Hamburg, Germany, not to ham. It comes from the "Hamburg steak", a patty of minced beef.

What is the traditional American Thanksgiving dish?

Roast turkey is the centrepiece of Thanksgiving dinner and is sometimes named alongside the hamburger as a national dish.

Keep reading

Sources

Download

← All articles