In the 1200s, mongolian soldiers learned to soften meat by placing it under the saddle of their horses while riding. Then they ate the meat without cooking it. It was the first kind of meat patty. Hundreds of years later, people in the town of hamburger, germany, developed "hamburger steak " a dish of salty meat on round bread. They brought this traditional german food with them when they came to live in America in the 1900s.