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Hamburg Steak

A ground meat patty seasoned with onion, salt, and pepper, baked or broiled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Hamburg Steak

Why it works: Meat and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,364 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Hamburg Steak

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, mix the ground meat, onion, salt, and white pepper thoroughly.

  2. Shape the mixture into a square about 1 inch thick.

  3. Dredge the shaped meat lightly with flour.

Cook

  1. Cook on a broiler over hot coals, turning every 10 seconds.

  2. Alternatively, pan-broil on an oiled griddle.

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. Meat + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,364 recipes

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

  2. Onion + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Meat + flourtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,529 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Onion + white peppertop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  5. Meat + white peppertop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together363 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl butyrate (fruity, apple).

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 steak and provides its savory flavor and juiciness.
Onion
Adds aroma and moisture to the meat mixture.
Flour
Lightly dredged on the surface to help the outside brown during cooking.

The step that matters

Turning every 10 seconds on the broiler. Frequent turning over hot coals keeps the surface from scorching before the interior cooks through, and it helps the exterior brown evenly. Flipping too rarely lets one side char while the center stays underdone.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, onion, flour):

  1. Jalapenofits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, onion, flour. 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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