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Hamburg Steak

A ground beef patty seasoned with salt, pepper, onion juice, and egg, coated in flour and fried, then simmered in boiling water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 meat

  1. Chop the meat very fine.

  2. Add the salt and pepper to the chopped meat.

  3. Beat the egg and mix it with the meat mixture.

  4. Divide the mixture into four equal portions.

  5. Shape each portion into a round cake about 1 inch thick.

Cook

  1. Dredge both sides of the cakes with flour.

  2. Fry the cakes in the drippings.

  3. Turn the cakes to brown both sides.

  4. Add the boiling water to the pan.

  5. Cover the pan closely.

  6. Simmer for 45 minutes.

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. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pepper + eggtop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together50,580 recipes

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

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Round steak
Forms the main body of the cakes, giving them their meaty texture and substance.
Egg
Binds the chopped meat so the cakes hold their shape while cooking.
Flour
Dredging coats the cakes, helping them brown in the drippings and thickening the pan juices.
Drippings
Fat for frying that browns the outside of the cakes and adds rich flavor.

The step that matters

Cover the pan closely and simmer. Once boiling water is added, a tight lid traps steam so the cakes cook through gently and stay moist. Lifting the lid or boiling hard would dry the meat and toughen it.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, egg, 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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