Isicium Hamburgense

Haec pars progressura est.

Isicium Hamburgense, Anglice Hamburg steak (antea Hamburg sausage; rariusHamburg balls, Hamburger), est ofella vel isicium a

Pastillum Hamburgense

11 December 1875, Cincinnati (OH) Daily Gazette, pg. 4: We can buy it for 'mince-meat,' or course; but out of that amount we get a steak or two -- we have to pound it some to make it tender! -- and sometimes we have what the Germans call Hamburger steak, that is, the meat chopped fine like sausage, flavored delicately with onions, and broiled rapidly;...

27 April 1883, The Sun (New York, NY), pg. 3, col. 3: NOT EATEN ON THE PREMISES. Hamburg Steaks and Pork Chops which Cost but Little and Are in Great Demand. "Give me six Hamburgers, four chops, half a pound of sliced ham and five cents' worth of pickles," said a bareheaded girl, as she entered a small store that stands near a towering cigar factory on Second Avenue. (...) "Those flat, brown meat cakes on that dish there are Hamburg steaks; the people call them 'Hamburgers.' They are made from raw meat chopped up with onions and spices, and are very good."

August 1885, The Caterer and Household Magazine, pg. 435, col. 1: "Innominatus" writes desiring the best mode of cooking a Hamburger Steak.

This dish, when well prepared, is, as our correspondent evidently knows, a dish not to be despised. Yet, as he says, the various cook-books, from Francatelli down, are generally silent regarding the mode of its preparation. We have tried a Hamburger cooked in the following method and know of no manner in which it can be improved.

A HAMBURGER STEAK. In the first place the steak itself must be good. Any economy practiced in this respect toward the Hamburger will be just as fatal to its excellence as to that of any other mode of cooking a steak. A good sirloin or a good rump, entirely free from any stringiness, should be used, and the proportion of fat, to lean, to please most tastes would probably be one fourth, or perhaps a little less, of the former and three-fourths of the latter. The meat should be minced very finely, and seasoned thus: For each half-pound of the meat add two teaspoonfuls of finely-minced onion, a half of a clove of garlic also chopped very fine, and pepper and salt, a half a teaspoonful of each of the two latter would probably suit most palates. After the seasoning is thoroughly mixed through it, the meat is to be formed into rather thin cakes and fried, on both sides, in butter, the pan, of course, being thoroughly heated before the meat is put in; when done, dish up and serve with the gravy poured over it, garnishing with Lyonnaise potatoes. Many persons may object to the addition of garlic and onion, and the steak can, of course, be prepared without them; yet in that case it is hardly entitled to the name of Hamburger. 23 April 1887, Newark (Ohio) Daily Advocate, pg. 3, col. 7: BEEFSTEAK JOHN. ONE OF THE ODDEST PLACES TO BE FOUND IN NEW YORK.

An Eating House Where Good Fare is Given to Hungry Folks at Remarkably Cheap Rates. But it Requires Curious Expe- dients to Manage the Business.

NEW YORK, April 20. -- "Walk right in, old man, we've got something for you!" It was a tottering chap of seventy or so who was thus hailed, and the speaker stood in the open doorway of a Bowery restaurant. A considerable share of the traffic in this famous street, good and bad, is done by portal solicitation, from the clothing store to the dime museum; but this time the place was a cheap eating house, and I wondered at it. The old man entered, and I followed him in.

"What you want," said the waiter who had half-seriously and half jocosely enticed the customer in, "is a Hamburger steak."

"Can I eat it?" was the nervous query.

"Can a kitten lap milk?" was the vociferous response.

We were in a locally noted establishment -- one worth description. In war times, a keen and thrifty Switzer, whose first name was John, opened a little place on the Bowery for the sale of pork and beans; and by giving more beans for less money than anybody else he acquired reputation, money and the nickname of "Pork-and-beans-John." Two or three years after the war, the demand for beans having subsided, John changed his location and his bill of fare; and public opinion, or whatever it may be called, change his nickname. He moved a few blocks up the Bowery and devoted his entire attention to broiling beefsteaks at low rated for hungry folks. John thought a steady diet of beefsteak was good enough for anybody, and he didn't pretend to cook anything else, except the few vegetables that went with the meat. Therefore, forgeting (sic) and putting altogether aside the bean period and its accompaniments, the Bowery fastened upon the steak broiler the name of Beefsteak John, and by that name has the Swiss been known ever since. (...) There is one inviolate beefsteak rule here. Every steak is cooked with onions. Appeal and protest make no difference. The steak must and shall be fried with onions, and a little wad of that odoriferous vegetable, hot and greasy, has to be served on the plate with the piece of meat. "Steak AND onions" is the chief article sold here, and it can't be varied to "steak, with an option of onions." Nevertheless, a modification very remarkable has been made by Beefsteak John in his business, and that was what the old man's attention was called to by the puller-in. A steak that can be sold at a profit for ten cents has some peculiarities of its own that distinguish it from a Delmonico tenderloin, and as John's patrons get along in years they are no longer able to chew up the leathery food. As an entire steak, of even the limited size known in this restaurant, cannot well be swallowed whole, the customers had to drop off, one after another, as they grew toothless. To supply a long-felt want Beefsteak John lately introduced the Hamburger steak. That is a formation of chopped beef, pressed into the shape of a steak, and fried brown. The dental damage done in days gone by or feared today may be estimated from John's statement that he sells and his guests devour 300 pounds of Hamburg steak daily, and his old original beefsteak trade has fallen off sadly. He feeds about 1,800 persons each day, and he looks prosperous.

25 April 1893, Syracuse (NY) Evening Herald, pg. 6, col. 2: A Hamburg steak is very nice with this sauce. As every good housekeeper should know, a Hamburg steak is not a steak at all, but a mince of beef moulded in flat balls, which are either fried or broiled, but must in any case be kept rare. It is an acceptable way in which to dispose of the tough end of a porter house steak, which should never be allowed to come on the table with the rest of the steak, but should be either minced for Hamburg balls or used in a stew. To season a pound and a half of Hamburg steak add a teaspoonful of onion juice, a liberal teaspoonful of salt and a saltspoonful of pepper. The meat must be minced as fine as sausage meat, and there should be neither fat nor sinews with it. A chopped onion minced very fine or a good sized shallot may take the place of the onion juice. The minced beef may now be moulded into little cakes and broiled, or, if you prefer, dipped into the yolk of egg and bread crumbs, and fried brown. This will keep it rare in the centre, as it should be. Indeed, a Hamburg steak is sometimes served at gentleman's suppers without cooking. It must then be made of the tenderest meat and garnished with anchovies, capers and parsley ,and highly seasoned. This practice of eating raw beef however, is not now recommended by physicians as it formerly was, when mothers often gave little children well seasoned scraped beef as a tonic.

1 August 1900, Eau Claire (WI) Evening Free Press, pg. 2, col. 3: Just an Ordinary Steak. "When in Hamburg, we supposed we must do as the Hamburgers did, so at our first meal there we asked for Hamburg steak," said the woman. "Besides, we wanted to see how that viand would taste upon its native heath, anyway. But to all our requests, couched in our best scholastic German, the waiter shook his head. Like many another prophet, the Hamburg steak was apparently without honor in its own country. At all events, our waiter hadn't heard of it. "Oh, well," we said, "just bring us an ordinary beef steak. But, lo and behold, when the meat was served there it was all chopped up and made into small cakes -- what Americans call, in fact, "Hamburg steak." To Hamburgers a Hamburg steak was an "ordinary steak." -- New York Sun.

Praecepta

"Aunt Babette's" Cook Book By Aunt Babette Cincinnati, OH: Block Publishing and Printing Company 1889 Pg. 56: HAMBURGER STEAK Is made of round steak chopped extremely fine and seasoned with salt and pepper. You may grate in part of an onion or fry with onions. For invalids, scrape the steak instead of chopping. Very fine indeed.