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Hamburg Loaf

A loaf made from ground beef, bread crumbs, egg, onion, salt, and pepper, baked until cooked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and pepper 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 Loaf

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. In a bowl, combine the Hamburg steak, 2 cups of bread crumbs, a few drops of beaten egg, chopped onion, salt, and pepper.

  2. Knead the mixture thoroughly and shape it into a loaf.

Bake and serve

  1. Brush the loaf with the remaining beaten egg and coat it with the remaining bread crumbs.

  2. Top with whole slices of onion.

  3. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 1 to 1½ hours.

  4. Serve with or without tomato sauce.

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. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Bread + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,676 recipes

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

  4. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

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

  5. Egg + peppertop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together50,580 recipes

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

Egg and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 50,580 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Hamburg steak
Forms the main body of the loaf and supplies most of its richness and meaty flavor.
Bread crumbs
Absorb juices and fat, helping the loaf hold its shape and stay moist while baking.
Egg
Binds the mixture together and helps the loaf hold its shape as it sets.
Onion
Adds aroma and savory flavor that permeates the loaf as it cooks.

The step that matters

Knead the mixture thoroughly and shape it into a loaf. Thorough kneading distributes the egg and crumbs evenly through the meat, so the loaf binds well and slices cleanly instead of crumbling apart.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, bread, 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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