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Ah, would Salisbury steak by any other name have quite the class?
Not that class was the issue when memory brought forth the well-worn legend of our fair city’s role in giving the lowly hamburger a name with rank.
The issue was pronouncing our name right.
Salisburian Meagen Worley was on national TV, trying to be a millionaire, and she had to correct Regis’ pronunciation of Salisbury, which left Mayor Susan Kluttz having a fit.
With the mayor of Salisbury, England, coming to visit next week, she knew there were a dozen Salisburys in the world. And high powered television personalities ought to know how to say it.
Especially when we gave Salisbury steak its name.
Legend has it a Southern Railway chef offered a traveler “Salisbury steak” when he ran out of the real thing just as the train pulled into the station here, and he saw the sign naming our town.
But Jeff Saleeby adds another version.
His cousin, Robert Saleeby, told him he was in Fred Saleeby’s longtime Red Swan Cafe on West Innes Street, where the post office now has a small branch, when Fred ran out of steak and offered a customer “Salisbury steak” instead, pepping up a largish hamburger patty with tomato sauce and seasonings.
“The fellow liked it,” Jeff says, “so Fred put it on the menu.”
And then we heard from Wendy Loveless of Statesville, who creates our www.salisburypost.com
Web page. She consulted a talk show host in O’Neill, Neb., who queried the “word detective.”
He’d thought the dish bore some connection to Salisbury, England, but the story is more complicated. It’s on the menu at high- and low-end spots.
The original Salisbury steak, according to the talk show host, was simply well-cooked plain hamburger “invented” in 1888 by Dr. James H. Salisbury, an English physician.
Dr. Salisbury believed well-cooked hamburger three times a day, with large glasses of very hot water, would cure almost any disease.
Salisbury steak would probably have faded away with the doctor except World War I inspired Britain and America to rename all things German.
Sauerkraut became “victory cabbage,” hamburgers (named after Hamburg, Germany) were “liberty sandwiches” and hamburger steak got a new name — “Salisbury steak.”
“Hamburger” and “sauerkraut” reappeared after the war, but “Salisbury steak” stuck. And when our guests from Salisbury, England, arrive next week, we’ll have to ask whether they eat “Salisbury steak.”
Meantime, Wendy added a P.S.
That Southern Railway chef catching sight of a Salisbury sign might be a legend, but, she added, a Southerner invented Worcestershire sauce.
He was the guy who finished his steak and then said, “Waitress, whas his here shaush?”
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Contact Rose Post at 704-797-4251 or rpost@salisburypost.com
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Rose Post
