No one knows the name of the first cook to shape scraped or chopped beef into a patty and broil it, but we do know that the very first hamburgers were browned on the outside and almost raw inside. When the hamburger arrived in the U.S., it was eaten quite raw, the way the French, for instance, still prefer their meat.
The English and Irish were the first to cook their beef patties well done throughout. The English called the burger Salisbury Steak after Dr. James H. Salisbury, who in the 1880s recommended to his patients that they eat well-done beef patties three times daily, with hot water before and after, to relieve colitis, anemia and other illnesses.