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Hamburg Steak

A patty of seasoned ground meat formed into balls, coated in flour, and browned in butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Hamburg Steak

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Hamburg Steak

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Season the ground meat with salt, pepper, and minced onion.

  2. Add bread crumbs and beaten eggs, mixing well.

  3. Form the mixture into balls.

  4. Coat each ball in flour.

Cook

  1. Heat butter in a pan and brown the balls on each side.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Meat + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Ground meat
Forms the main body of the patty and provides savory flavor and richness.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and keep the patties tender rather than dense.
Eggs
Bind the mixture together so the balls hold their shape while cooking.
Flour
Creates a dry coating that helps the outside brown well in the pan.
Butter
Adds fat for browning and a rich, nutty flavor on the crust.

The step that matters

Browning the balls in butter. The surface needs enough heat to brown without burning. Browning from the Maillard reaction builds flavor and color, while the centre must still cook through. Moderate heat and turning each side gently help achieve both.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, pepper, bread, egg, flour, butter):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, pepper, bread, egg, flour, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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