No. 1360

Beef Steak, Hamburg Style

Bifteck a la Hambourgeoise

One pound of tenderloin of beef free of sinews and fat; chop it up on a chopping block with four ounces of beef kidney suet, free of nerves and skin or else the same quantity of marrow; add one ounce of chopped onions fried in butter without attaining color; season all with salt, pepper and nutmeg, and divide the preparation into balls, each one weighing four ounces; flatten them down, roll them in bread-crumbs and fry them in a saute pan in butter. When of a fine color on both sides, dish them up pouring a good thickened gravy (No. 405) Over.

← No. 1359 Salisbury Steak Beef No. 1361 Hamburg Steak a la Tartare →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer's Hamburg steak is a rich chopped-beef patty bound only by its own fat, so texture depends almost entirely on how the meat is cut and how cold it stays. A few notes before you start.

Chop, do not grind fineHand-chopping on a board gives the loose, coarse texture the dish depends on. If you use a grinder, take one pass through a coarse plate; a fine grind or a food processor turns tenderloin into paste.
Keep everything coldTenderloin has little fat of its own, and the four ounces of suet or marrow is what carries the flavor. Chill the meat and fat until nearly firm before chopping so the fat stays in distinct flecks rather than smearing.
Suet and marrow are not interchangeable in handlingBeef kidney suet is firm and chops cleanly; marrow is soft and will melt on contact with warm hands. Both are butcher-counter special orders now. Cold, coarsely chopped beef fat trim is the practical substitute.
OnionOne ounce is roughly three tablespoons chopped, softened in butter without browning, then cooled completely before it goes into the meat. Warm onion starts melting the fat.
NutmegUse a scrape of freshly grated nutmeg, not more than a pinch for the pound. It reads as savory depth here, not as sweet spice, and it is easy to overdo.
Yield and sizeA pound of beef with four ounces of fat and the onion comes to about twenty-one ounces, so roughly five four-ounce patties. Flatten them to about three-quarters of an inch.
FryingMedium heat in clarified butter or a butter-and-oil mix; whole butter alone will scorch the crumb coating before the centers are done. Figure three to four minutes a side.
DonenessBecause the beef is chopped, cook these through rather than treating them like a whole steak. The interior should reach 160F.
The gravyNo. 405 is Ranhofer's thickened brown gravy. Any good reduced beef stock thickened lightly with a brown roux, or a jus lie, serves the same purpose.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York, published The Epicurean in 1894 as a compendium of the French repertoire as it was cooked for American dining rooms, and this recipe sits among a small cluster of chopped-beef dishes: Salisbury steak before it, Hamburg steak a la Tartare after. The name is generally traced to Hamburg as a port rather than to any single German recipe; chopped or scraped beef preparations are often said to have been associated with the city's transatlantic trade through the middle of the nineteenth century, and "Hamburg steak" appears on American menus well before the hamburger sandwich did. What distinguishes Ranhofer's version from the modern burger is the deliberate addition of kidney suet or marrow to lean tenderloin, a crumb coating, and a finished brown sauce poured over at the table -- it is a restaurant entree in the French manner, served on a dish rather than in bread.