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Hamburg Loaf with Baked Bananas
1 pound chuck of beef (ground) 1 small onion (minced) 1 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon pepper 1/2 cup milk (or stock) suet liquid 4 bananas 2 tablespoons lemon juice 1 tablespoon shortening Work onion, seasonings and liquid into meat and mold into a large flat cake to fit center of plank. Dot tops with bits of suet. Set under broiler and cook 20 minutes, watching so that top does not get too brown. When done, arrange halves of broiled bananas as a border around meat. To prepare bananas, remove skins, cut in halves lengthwise, rub with a bit of lemon juice and shortening, and place under the broiling flame for about 3 or 4 minutes. Serves 4.
A planked Hamburg steak with broiled bananas — a one-dish supper built around the broiler rather than the oven. Two things need translating: the plank itself, and the fact that a solid inch-thick beef cake will not cook through under a modern broiler in the way the original assumes.
- The plankA cooking plank is a thick slab of untreated hardwood (oak or hickory), seasoned with oil and heated before use. A heavy cast-iron skillet or a rimmed sheet pan will stand in for it; if you use wood, oil and preheat it, and keep it well clear of the broiler element, since it will scorch.
- Broiler distance and donenessTwenty minutes under a modern broiler will blacken the top long before the center is done. Set the rack 5-6 inches down, turn the cake once, and cook to 160F on an instant-read thermometer — ground beef needs that temperature throughout, not just a browned surface.
- ChuckGround chuck at roughly 80/20 is still sold under that name and is the right choice here. Leaner ground beef will dry out badly under direct heat with no binder in the mix.
- SuetBeef suet is the hard fat from around the kidneys; a butcher can supply it, though it is no longer a supermarket item. Its job is self-basting, and small pieces of cold butter or a brush of beef drippings do the same work.
- The liquidHalf a cup of milk or stock per pound of beef is a generous amount and makes a soft, loose mixture. Mix it in with a fork rather than kneading, and chill the shaped cake for fifteen minutes so it holds together on the pan.
- The bananasUse firm, barely-ripe fruit. Fully ripe bananas collapse into mush under a broiler flame in the three or four minutes given. Lemon juice keeps them from browning; the shortening can be melted butter.
- YieldFour servings as written, and it wants something starchy alongside — the bananas are a garnish and a sweet counterpoint, not a vegetable course.