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Hamburgher Steaks

A baked pork and beef patty seasoned with onion, thyme, parsley, spices, and served with brown gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Hamburgher Steaks

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Pass the beef and pork twice through a mincing machine.

  2. Mix in the remaining ingredients thoroughly.

  3. Shape the mixture into cakes.

Bake and serve

  1. Place them in a baking tin with a little hot dripping.

  2. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C), basting occasionally.

  3. Serve hot with the brown gravy on the side.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Pork + beeftop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,690 recipes

    Shared aroma: 12-methyltridecanal (tallowy, beefy).

  3. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  5. Thyme + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,907 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Lean pork and beef
Fat and protein in the minced meat give the patties their body and juiciness.
Egg
Binds the minced meat so the cakes hold their shape while cooking.
Minced onion
Adds moisture and savoury flavour to the meat mixture.

The step that matters

Shaping the cakes. Packing the mixture too firmly makes dense, tough patties, while loose shaping lets them fall apart in the tin. Shape gently so the cakes stay tender and hold together when baked.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, beef, thyme, parsley, pepper, egg, nutmeg):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, beef, thyme, parsley, pepper, egg, nutmeg. 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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