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Blanche Kammerer

Hamburg steaks are ground round steak patties cooked in a pan and served with a butter‑lemon sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Paidar, Marie, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Blanche Kammerer

six cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the patties

  1. Season one pound of ground round steak with salt, pepper, and a few drops of onion juice.

  2. Form into six cakes, handling as little as possible.

  3. Put the cakes in a slightly greased, hot frying pan.

Cook and serve

  1. Sear on one side. Turn and sear on the other side.

  2. Cook six minutes if you like rare, eight minutes if well done.

  3. Remove to a hot platter.

  4. Spread Maitre d'hotel butter over the platter.

  5. Put one-fourth cup butter in a bowl, beat until creamy. Add one-half teaspoon salt, one-eighth teaspoon pepper, and one-half tablespoon finely chopped parsley. Add very slowly three-fourths tablespoon of lemon juice.

  6. Garnish the platter with buttered cauliflower and sprigs of parsley.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

848Calories
41 gProtein
28 gFat
105 gCarbs

Counts 8 of 10 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Beef100g cooked250
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0
Cakenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Paidar, Marie, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp. 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. See the original page.

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  5. Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,448 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Ground round steak
Forms the patties and provides the meat that browns and holds the shape.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the Maitre d'hotel butter that is spread over the hot patties.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter.

The step that matters

Add the lemon juice very slowly. Adding acid too fast to softened butter can make it separate or curdle, so it is added gradually while beating to keep the butter smooth and emulsified.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pepper, lemon, flour, tea, beef, parsley):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, lemon, flour, tea, beef, parsley. 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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