Skip to main content
Main

Vienna Steaks

Vienna Steaks are minced steak and veal cakes fried and simmered in stock with a flour‑based sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Vienna Steaks

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the steaks

  1. Mince the steak and veal very finely.

  2. Add parsley, anchovy essence, lemon juice, egg, pepper, and salt. Mix well.

  3. Form the mixture into small round cakes.

  4. Brush the cakes with beaten egg.

  5. Coat the cakes with breadcrumbs.

Fry and simmer

  1. Fry the cakes in hot fat until golden brown.

  2. Heat the stock until hot.

  3. Add the fried cakes to the stock and let them simmer gently for 10 minutes.

Thicken and serve

  1. Mix the flour smoothly with cold water.

  2. Pour the mixture into the hot stock. Return the mixture to the pan.

  3. Bring to a boil. Season.

  4. Pour around the steaks.

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  3. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Anchovy + eggtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,330 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Steak
Provides the main meaty body and savoury flavour of the cakes.
Veal
Adds a mild, tender texture that softens the mince.
Egg
Binds the minced meat so the cakes hold their shape and gain a set coating.
Flour
Thickens the stock into a smooth, lightly bodied sauce.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, browned crust when the cakes are fried.
Anchovy essence
Adds a salty, savoury depth to the meat mixture.

The step that matters

Mixing the flour with cold water before adding it to the hot stock. Flour dropped into hot liquid clumps as its starch grains swell unevenly on the surface. Blending it smoothly into cold water first lets the starch disperse, so it thickens the stock evenly when heated.

“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.

You might also like

Lemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesVeal PattiesVeal Patties50 recipesBeef, Mutton, or Veal BrothBeef, Mutton, or Veal Broth6 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipes