Mike C. Frost, age 9, of Garden Grove, California, for his question:

Why is ground beef called hamburger?

We tend to think that the hamburger is a national American sandwich. We eat so many of them that this may be true in a way. But our national favorite was not always American. It was invented in the German town of Hamburg and brought here when people of Hamburg came to the New World to be American citizens. They introduced us to a sandwich stuffed with a juicy filling of ground beef. At first it was called the Hamburg steak. Later it was called the hamburg steak sandwich, and now we call it just a hamburger.

You might expect a hamburger to be made from ham. But it is beef and ham has nothing to do with it. Most of our American favorite foods were brought by people who came here from other lands. In the 1900's, many people from the German town of Hamburg adopted America as their homeland. They brought the recipes for many of their favorite foods with them. And one of them was a ground beef sandwich that they used to make in the old town of Hamburg.