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Baked Hamburg Steak

A baked ground beef patty mixed with eggs, bread crumbs, butter, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Summer savory and pepper work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 671 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Baked Hamburg Steak

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a large bowl, combine the ground beef, beaten eggs, bread crumbs, melted butter (or chopped fat salt pork), summer savory, salt, and pepper. Mix well and shape the mixture into a roll.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the roll in a baking pan with a small amount of water.

  2. Cover the pan and bake for one hour.

  3. Remove the cover and brown the top.

  4. Make gravy from the drippings in the pan.

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.

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. Summer savory + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together671 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  3. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  4. Beef + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Lean beef
Forms the main body of the loaf and gives it its meaty flavor and texture.
Eggs
Bind the meat and bread together so the roll holds its shape when sliced.
Stale bread
Absorbs moisture and keeps the meat tender rather than dense as it cooks.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and moistness, keeping the lean meat from drying out.

The step that matters

Cover the pan while baking. The covered pan with a little water traps steam, so the roll cooks through gently and stays moist. Uncovering too early can dry the outside before the centre is done.

Swap the summer savory

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Summer savorythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, egg, bread, butter, pepper. 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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