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Hamburg Steak

A seasoned steak mixture of round steak, pork fat, milk, spices, and parsley, pan‑fried and finished with a stock gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Hamburg Steak

Why it works: Parsley and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Hamburg Steak

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the patty

  1. Mix the round steak, chopped salt pork, milk, salt, cayenne, parsley, and celery salt thoroughly.

  2. Shape the mixture into a flat steak.

Cook and serve

  1. Heat a pan and add the butter.

  2. Brown the steak on each side in the hot pan.

  3. Add the stock, cover, and cook slowly for 5 minutes.

  4. Remove the cover, place the meat on a hot platter, and thicken the gravy.

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. Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  4. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Pork + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,386 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

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

What each ingredient does

Round steak
Forms the main body of the patty and gives it its meaty texture.
Salt pork
Adds fat that keeps the patty moist and adds savory richness.
Milk
Adds moisture that keeps the mixture tender while it cooks.
Butter
Fat for the pan that helps the outside brown.
Stock
Liquid that cooks the steak gently and forms the base of the gravy.

The step that matters

Brown the steak on each side in the hot pan. A properly hot pan and dry surface give browning through the Maillard reaction, which builds deep savory flavor. A pan that is too cool steams the patty grey instead of browning it.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, milk, pepper, parsley, butter):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Sagefits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, milk, pepper, parsley, 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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