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Hamburg Steaks

Ground beef patties mixed with onion, parsley, eggs, and breadcrumbs, then fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Hamburg Steaks

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the beef very fine.

  2. Chop the onion and parsley finely.

  3. In a bowl, combine the beef, onion, parsley, and eggs.

  4. Season with salt and pepper.

Shape and fry

  1. Form the mixture into small cakes or rolls.

  2. Sprinkle with bread or cracker crumbs.

  3. Fry in hot butter until golden brown.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

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

Lean beef
Provides the main body and meaty flavor of the patties.
Eggs
Bind the mixture so the cakes hold their shape while cooking.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and moisture to the meat.
Bread or cracker crumbs
Absorb moisture and help keep the cakes tender and light.
Butter
Conducts heat for frying and promotes browning on the surface.

The step that matters

Fry in hot butter until golden brown. The butter must be hot enough to brown the surface quickly. Browning builds flavor through the Maillard reaction, and a cool pan lets the cakes steam, turn grey, and stick or fall apart.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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