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Hamburg Steak

A patty made from chopped lean steak mixed with egg yolk, oyster crackers, pepper, and salt, then fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Hamburg Steak

Why it works: Pepper and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Hamburg Steak

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the patties

  1. In a bowl, combine the chopped steak, egg yolk, crushed oyster crackers, pepper, and coarse sea salt.

  2. Form the mixture into small flat cakes.

Cook

  1. In a skillet, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Fry the cakes in the butter until browned, adding the onion juice while cooking.

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

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

  2. Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  3. Egg + oystertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,103 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Chopped lean steak
Forms the main body of the cakes and provides the meaty flavor and texture.
Egg yolk
Binds the meat mixture so the cakes hold their flat shape.
Oyster crackers
Absorb moisture and help keep the cakes tender rather than dense.
Butter
Conducts heat for frying and adds richness and browning to the surface.

The step that matters

Frying the cakes until browned. Medium heat in the butter lets the surface brown through the Maillard reaction while the centre cooks, without burning the butter or drying the meat.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, oyster, pepper, 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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