I'll respect your wishes by not getting into the history of the term "burger" (but if you wish to delve, you'll find it plenty creepy enough on its own, were you to take it literally). Point is, we tend to seek efficient language for terms we use frequently.
You might, once in a while, go to a good restaurant and order a meal in which you specify in excruciating detail what you wish to be served and how you wish it prepared. But most of us, most of the time, are selecting common ingredients and common preparations from a very limited set of options. Being excessively detailed in this context is just a waste of time.
Most places that serve burgers offer one option: beef. Ground-up cow or steer. You don't even get to choose the cut - the flesh is likely a mix of cuts, blended to a consistent flavor profile and fat content, pre-measured and machine-formed to ensure consistent results and fast preparation. You might, if you go upscale a bit, have the option of a burger made from turkey or buffalo, or perhaps even one that doesn't contain meat at all; you'll indicate your desire for these with a convenient prefix: "turkey burger", "buffalo burger", "walnut burger", etc. If folks at some point developed a taste for gamey Coloradoan, you might briefly have the option of ordering a "shog9 burger"...
...all of these would be shorthand for "ground-up, seasoned patties of [prefix], served on a bun".
At some point, you learned this. Hopefully, you learned it young, from your parents or caregivers, who taught you where the meat came from, how it was prepared, showed you the cost to all involved in transforming a beast of the field into a meal... Hopefully you learned before you'd built up too many false assumptions about what food is.
Many, sad to say, do not - there is a troubling breakdown in our culture that distances folks' notions of sustenance from the knowledge of the cycles and processes that are prerequisites to sustain life - whether the meal consumed is a burger or a cabbage.
You might, once in a while, go to a good restaurant and order a meal in which you specify in excruciating detail what you wish to be served and how you wish it prepared. But most of us, most of the time, are selecting common ingredients and common preparations from a very limited set of options. Being excessively detailed in this context is just a waste of time.
Most places that serve burgers offer one option: beef. Ground-up cow or steer. You don't even get to choose the cut - the flesh is likely a mix of cuts, blended to a consistent flavor profile and fat content, pre-measured and machine-formed to ensure consistent results and fast preparation. You might, if you go upscale a bit, have the option of a burger made from turkey or buffalo, or perhaps even one that doesn't contain meat at all; you'll indicate your desire for these with a convenient prefix: "turkey burger", "buffalo burger", "walnut burger", etc. If folks at some point developed a taste for gamey Coloradoan, you might briefly have the option of ordering a "shog9 burger"...
...all of these would be shorthand for "ground-up, seasoned patties of [prefix], served on a bun".
At some point, you learned this. Hopefully, you learned it young, from your parents or caregivers, who taught you where the meat came from, how it was prepared, showed you the cost to all involved in transforming a beast of the field into a meal... Hopefully you learned before you'd built up too many false assumptions about what food is.
Many, sad to say, do not - there is a troubling breakdown in our culture that distances folks' notions of sustenance from the knowledge of the cycles and processes that are prerequisites to sustain life - whether the meal consumed is a burger or a cabbage.
And that is truly disgusting.