Poll: What do you call...

[Tammy]

Same here....hamburger meat! I grew up in SC.

[Doran]

It was always ground beef in our house. My mother grew up in New Jersey but her mother was from Iowa. ETA: I was born in Kansas, moved to NC when I was six, and spent the remainder of my childhood there.

 

My MIL and husband call it chop meat, and I have never told them that I think that sounds like a bad horror movie. MIL was Brooklyn born, dh Manhattan. :001_smile:

 

Doran

[Pajama Mama]

Ground beef--I'm from Philly. Here in Pittsburgh it's hamburger(or hamburger meat)

[Aubrey]

Ground beef. All over Tx.

 

BUT...mil calls it hamburger meat, & she grew up in S Tx. And...I think that's what we called it as kids. My parents grew up in Tx, but they were from poor families. That may make a difference.

[Ellie]

Hamburger. Grew up in the South but spent the last 30 years in California.

[Hannah]

South Africans call it minced meat.

[Vida Winter]

:D

[theodwyn]

Ground beef now; growing up it was hamburg (grew up in NH).

[Diann]

I have always called it ground beef because that's what my mother called it. I grew up in Indiana.

 

Diann

[KidsHappen]

I also thought it was a southern thing! You go to a place and say you want a coke (as in a soda) and they say what kind. Kind of like generic for xerox or q-tip. I haven't heard that much outside the south though!

[Guest Lorna]

mince - Scotland

[DIY-DY]

Even if it is for tacos or meatloaf instead of burgers...it is hamburger.

 

Grew up in S. California (of Kansas-reared parents).

 

Even if it's venison. LOL. Doesn't matter. It's hamburger.

 

Grew up in AZ. DH says it the same way. He grew up in NM. :)

[violin69]

Ground Beef. Elementary years in MD and upper years in New England

[j.griff]

ground beef, grew up in the South. I think my mom calls it hamburger meat and ground chuck. I don't make hamburgers with it though, LOL, so I don't call it hamburger meat.

[nrg]

my parents labeled each type:

Ground Chuck

Ground Round

Ground Sirloin.

 

I used the term "ground round" in a paper in fourth grade and the teacher made fun of it in front of the whole class, so I, shy and mortified, stopped using those terms.

[Susan in TX]

I call it hamburger because that's what my Mom called it. I grew up in CA but my Mom grew up in Minnesota.

 

Susan in TX

[Janet in Toronto]

Ground beef....I grew up in Ottawa, Canada.

 

We found an old recipe of my grandmother's that said "hamburger meat" in it. Her ancestors were from England but she was born in Canada.

[Mommieeeee]

We called it hamburger meat.

 

We are from CA.

[Heather in Neverland]

I'm from Michigan and I call it "hamburger meat"...but my mom is from Alabama and I got it from her.

[Blue Hen]

ground beef

 

Philadelphia area

[Cindy in NY]

"hamburger meat" growing up in Oklahoma

 

Now I live on Long Island and here it is called "chopped meat".

[Shannon in MO]

grew up in central MO. Now we live in rural MO & mostly eat my dh's catch of venison - YUM! I call that deer burger. Oh, a funny: a friend of mine's daughter asked her mom why hamburger wasn't really made of ham ;0)

Shannon

[Storm Bay]

I grew up calling it hamburger meat, in Canada. But Canada, like the States, varies with where you grow up. I grew up in BC right by the ocean, my mother is from Manitoba, and I don't remember if I picked that up just from her or if everyone there said it that way. Now I say ground meat or ground beef/pork/chicken/turkey to be more specific, and I live in New England. I have heard hamburg, probably when I worked in Boston, and maybe people right here say it but I haven't paid that much attention.

 

fwiw, I grew up saying pop (now say soda), chocolate bars (instead of candy bars), and pronouncing dicotyledon with the emphasis on the tyl syllable and no long e (just saying that because dh and I had the biggest laughs when each of us, both with postsecondary education relating to plants, learned how the other pronounces it.)

[jail warden]

We've always called it Hamburger.

[3lilreds in NC]

Ground beef. I'm from Michigan. What else would you call it?:D

[Guest Katia]

Growing up in Ohio it was "hamburger".

 

Now, in Iowa it is "ground beef".

[Hillary in KS]

Ground beef.

 

(Except we usually buy ground chuck, which is different than just "beef.")

 

I grew up in the northeastern US until age 9, and then moved to Idaho. I've heard linguists say that when listening for accents, etc., you want to know where people grrew up from ages 6-12. I kind of split my time, though....

[Storm Bay]

Ground beef.

 

I've heard linguists say that when listening for accents, etc., you want to know where people grrew up from ages 6-12. I kind of split my time, though....

 

This is interesting. I split my time, too. But what about for people like me who change accents with where they are, and not on purpose? I've always wondered if a good linguist would be able to place where I grew up if they met me here.

[1bassoon]

hmmmmm. . . . . .or maybe I remember calling it hamburger when I was little? Definitely call it ground beef now.

 

I lived in Ohio 'til I was 9, then moved to CT.

 

What are you finding out? Do tell!

[Staci in MO]

First generation to grow up with electricity and indoor plumbing.

[Raders Fan]

Hamburger. Born and raised in So. California, lived in Reno, NV, for 20 years before moving to KCMO.

 

Jennifer

[HS in NZ]

California - ground beef. Here, in New Zealand it's called mince... beef mince, pork mince, mutton mince (yuck).

[RoughCollie]

I call it ground beef (grew up in the South). I have a friend from here (Mass) who calls it hamburg.

[Plaid Dad]

What are you finding out? Do tell!

 

Well, the main thing I wanted to know was whether "hamburg" was as narrowly regional as I suspected it to be. It clearly is. What's interesting is that it's used in areas that haven't picked up other Boston food words, like "tonic" as the generic term for carbonated beverages. "Chopmeat" is also limited to a very specific area, which doesn't surprise me. I actually wonder if it's a translation from another language (Hackfleisch? maybe via Yiddish?) that has come into English. A lot of American regionalisms are like that.

 

For the rest, I'd have to plot it out on a map, which is probably more than I'm up for, research-wise! ;) Thank you all for the information - it's fascinating!

[Jean in Wisc]

My mom always called it hamburger, but in a household of 3 4-H meat judgers, we call it ground beef.

 

My kids have memorized the meat cuts of pork, beef, and lamb; know which part of the animal the cuts come from; and know if it is to be cooked dry, moist or dry-moist. Need anyone to judge 3 hanging carcasses and give an on-the-spot memorized speech on why one is better than the other? LOL!

 

Wisconsin.

[Just Me]

Ground Beef

 

I have always lived in NC, but my dad is from Illinois. I am not sure what either parent says, although I believe dad says "ground beef" also.

[DB in NJ]

When I lived in Syracuse, everyone said "hamburg". Had me all confuddled, lemme tell ya!!

 

dh calls it hamburger, and he's from Iowa (where they speak a foreign language).

[lamarley]

Hamburger meat. Orange County, CA.

[tsuche]

We call it gound beef and I grew up in Md but live in NC

[TrixieB]

In the Pacific Northwest, we called it hamburger.

[Stacy]

And I grew up in Minnesota.

[Suzanne in ABQ]

It's just plain Hamburger here in New Mexico.

[Lizzie in Ma]

Still do. :)

[Liz CA]

This is the reason that I love the German language. It is just so doggone descriptive. "Hacked flesh", right?

Love it!!

 

nt

[OhM]

Midwest (OH) - have always called it hamburger.

 

When we order our side of beef each year, they always ask, "And do you want the rest ground into hamburger?"

[Punkinelly]

Ground beef. I grew up in WV.

 

A homesteader I knew in western New York called it "hamburg."

 

MRY

[Merry]

Grew up in California too. I call it ground beef also.

[Whisperlily]

Growing up in the Pacific NW, with parents raised in MI, we called it hamburger.

 

Somewhere along the line I switched, (still living in the Pacific NW) and now usually call it ground beef. I didn't realize I'd made a switch until you posted this question! LOL

 

 

I also grew up calling carbonated beverages "Pop" and somewhere (college, probably... still PNW) switched to calling it Soda.

[Scarlett]

Hamburger meat. And I grew up in the South. Arkansas.

[Cinder]

My dw, who grew up in NH with Boston-born parents, calls it "hamburg." I even see that on menus here, but I've never heard it in any other part of the country.

 

Dh grew up in southern VT where they also called it "hamburg." I had never heard that before. I'm from Hawaii and we called it "hamburger." I know, not much difference but it still sounded strange the first time I heard it.

 

Cinder