burger vs. Sandwich - What's the difference?

There’s nothing like a good debate about food facts. We know we’re not the only ones who have wondered if a burger and a sandwich are different.

Well, we’ve done some digging, and the facts may surprise you. You can make your own final decision.

What is the difference between a hamburger and a sandwich? A burger will always have a patty grilled between two circular buns, while a sandwich can have a multitude of different fillings and shapes. However, a hamburger is arguably a subclass of a sandwich.

Don’t worry, you’re not the first person to have an existential crisis over the differences between sandwiches and burgers, or the first to get into a heated debate with a friend or loved one over it.

You might be surprised at how much thought has gone into the research around the world.

Until there’s a formal decision, it’s up to you what you believe, so read on to learn more about the debate and make a more informed decision.

We even tried to determine if a chicken sandwich is really a sandwich and looked at the patty melt classification.

Burgers and sandwiches

It’s easy to look at a hamburger and a sandwich and find differences on entry, but it’s also easy to spot the similarities.

Ignoring the enjoyment some find in debates like this, it’s hard to argue that, to simplify the process of ordering food, burgers and sandwiches are different.

Most Americans would probably agree that the two are, in fact, different, arguing that in normal interactions, everyone understands conversational distinctions.

If you tell someone you’re craving a burger or a sandwich, they’ll probably make the same distinction as you. But if someone asked you for a butter and jelly sandwich, you probably wouldn’t give them a tuna fish.

So it can also be argued that even sandwiches have their distinctions, i.e. subs, melts, paninis, etc., and that calling a burger a different name doesn’t necessarily make it not a sandwich.

The most widely used, and probably the strongest, piece of evidence for why burgers and sandwiches are different is the way the bun is sliced.

This refers not only to how the bread was physically cut, but also how much bread was used. The bread argument states that a sandwich is two flat pieces of bread filled with meat and other ingredients.

This argument also claims that the bread is cut vertically from a loaf, but including that specification ultimately leads to the sub/hoagie/grinder/po’boy dilemma.

The bun argument goes on to say that the filling for hamburgers is usually a patty of grilled or seared ground beef and other ingredients that is placed between a whole piece of horizontally sliced bun.

This is where the variable of how much bread is used comes into play, but there are certainly some easy counterarguments to this part as well. What about sandwiches, like hoagies, that use the whole bun?

This argument is further muddied today, when you might find a hamburger sandwiched between two doughnuts, a black bean burger sandwiched between two pieces of eggplant, or another no-bun option.

The truth is that this discussion can be quite complicated. If you do enough research on this topic (as we have), you may even realize that those who claim that a hamburger is just one type of sandwich may not be wrong.

There is some solid evidence to support that claim. There is a strong similarity between the two that may seem to support the claim that hamburgers are simply a type of sandwich.

Both were invented to solve the same problem; only one of them is much older.

What is a sandwich?

Food historians cite that the first sandwich was prepared at the request of the Earl of Sandwich.

He was an 18th-century British nobleman who asked his kitchen servants to put his meat between buns, so he could eat it without having to stop playing cards.

Before long, the sandwich was well known, and it caught on so quickly that another nobleman noted in his diary that he had seen more than 30 people eating a sandwich just a few months after the earl had ordered the sandwich’s creation.

To give you all the information, in addition to the bread argument, there are other arguments that are usually used to distinguish a sandwich from a hamburger.

To recap, the bread argument states that sandwich bread is typically sliced vertically and is flat, while hamburger bun is typically a bun or other whole piece of bread that is cut in half horizontally.

Other observations about sandwiches that are often used to distinguish them from hamburgers refer to the variety of filling options and the way the fillings themselves are cut.

The filling argument supports the bread-cutting argument, noting that bread fillings are also often flat and thin. But a sliced bread burger might defy the rules of flatness in this case.

The variety of fillings argument centers on the fact that a hamburger usually has a patty made from some type of ground meat or other food.

A sandwich can have a much wider range of fillings, such as grilled cheese and PB&J.

What is a hamburger?

The biggest argument that would support the claim that a hamburger is a specific type of sandwich is that the first hamburger was not introduced until the late 19th century.

We have to say here that there is more than one claim that someone invented the hamburger.

One of the most widely accepted stories is that it was introduced by Louis Lassan, who put cooked mincemeat between two slices of bread to make it easier to eat, much like the creation of the sandwich much earlier.

Another interesting story tells that a food vendor at a Wisconsin fair decided to squash a meatball between slices of bread so fairgoers could eat and keep walking. It’s not the same as the game, but the idea is similar.

The other distinction goes back to the stuffing argument, which claims that a hamburger is identifiable because its primary filling is a patty of ground beef or other food items that is then topped with different vegetables and seasoned with seasonings.

What is the difference?

The answer to this question depends, again, on you. If you stick with the simplest description of a piece of meat inside two pieces of bread, then they are both the same.

That description also supports the claim that a hamburger is a type of sandwich, since hamburgers were not created until later, with full knowledge of sandwiches’ existence.

When you start to consider the common differences in how bread is cut, how ingredients are placed, and possible toppings like peanut butter, jelly, and banana, it’s easy to see the differences. There is also the hamburger argument.

Of course, we can’t forget the observation that most Americans know that when someone says they want a hamburger, they probably don’t mean to go to the neighborhood deli.

The strongest argument, in our opinion, is that burgers have grilled ground beef patties and are almost always circular.

Is a chicken sandwich a hamburger?

This brings us to the first of the two notable rule-breaking foods we mentioned earlier.

First, let’s look at the chicken sandwich, which is typically a whole piece of grilled or fried chicken sandwiched between what many would say is a hamburger bun.

The first thing to note is that despite being on a singular loaf cut in half and not normally flat, everyone still calls it a sandwich.

If you stick to the differences introduced by the bread cutting and stuffing argument, the chicken sandwich should be a hamburger if the chicken has been shredded and made into a hamburger.

Unless you eat somewhere that likes to use big chunks of sourdough or garlic bread, that piece of chicken is technically on a bun cut in half horizontally.

That’s pretty strong proof that maybe the chicken sandwich should be called a hamburger.

But let’s go back to the chicken. Is it a fried ground chicken patty or a whole piece grilled or fried? A grilled hamburger may be a reason to call a chicken sandwich a hamburger.

The answer to whether a chicken sandwich can be called a hamburger is likely to vary from person to person and from restaurant to restaurant.

It may even still show up as a chicken sandwich, but in the burger section. There is no real standard or committee that decides this.

Is a Patty Melt a hamburger or a sandwich?

Now we have another fun example. Patty melts usually appear in the sandwich section of the menu, unless the place primarily has burgers, then of course the patty melt appears with the burgers.

It is sometimes considered a specialty burger. Most people may not have even thought about it. The confusion is due to the fact that the patty melt does not follow the rules of cutting bread or filling.

Some would say that a patty melt is a patty squashed between two pieces of toasted bread (and, of course, the melted cheese). The bun indicates sandwich, while the hamburger says hamburger.

The burger melt is more like a middle ground between a sandwich and a hamburger which purists might say borders on sacrilege.