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Thinking a cheeseburger would have been impossible to make in the past would be like taking the famous I, Pencil essay to mean that pre-Industrial societies couldn't make any pencils at all, rather than that industrialisation allows disparate people to coordinate together to make complex products for incredibly cheap.

In the same way, a cheeseburger would have been certainly possible to make for any pre-Industrial European of moderate means - at its heart it's just ground meat and a slice of cheese between two fluffy buns, with a variety of optional condiments. The marvel of industrial civilisation is that you can get a cheeseburger anywhere, anytime, for an absurdly low price.

In fact, if you discount the tomato, a delicious cheese-burger would have been completely possible to make as early as Ancient Rome, see this excellent Reddit post: https://old.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/b4zdd5/would...



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