Today we made Hamburg Steak from the Great Depression. It was simply delicious!!
During the Great Depression, they would have bought a cut of meat from the butcher, and then chopped it fine or put the meat through a grinder to mince it up, then to that they’d have added the remaining ingredients, shaped into patties, cooked it and served it with vegetables and a slice of bread. Since we have access to ground beef, I’ll be using that which we picked up from our local butcher.
This recipe is from the 1936 Blue Ribbon Cookbook. Here’s the original recipe for Hamburg Steak:
I shared this cookbook from 1936 last week — you can watch flipping through the pages here!
And here is our video on how we make Hamburg Steak!
Let’s get to it!
The recipe calls for one pound of ground beef, milk, an egg (which is optional), salt and pepper along with onion juice. Instead of onion juice, I am using half of a small onion that has been chopped fine.
Combine everything together. I think perhaps my 1 cup measure is different than that of the 1930s. My gramma often used coffee cups and teacups to measure so I think they may have used a teacupful of milk. That’s ok, let’s mix.
The meat mixture was quite wet and there’s no way I would be able to form into patties, so I added two pieces of bread. That helped soak up the extra milk.
Form into patties. Initially I was going to make six patties but I decided to make a few smaller patties, since I made eight.
Time to cook!! Melt lard or tallow in skillet.
I am using tallow. Once melted, add patties to pan.
Cook until browned and flip. Continue cooking until browned and cooked through. You can serve the patties as is.
But I decided to treat them as mini meatloaves. So my daughter put catsup (or ketchup) on half the patties. I made a dilly-onion milk gravy to go over top the other half.
Bake at 350F for 30 minutes.
I baked it in the oven and they turned out amazing!
We had it with simple sides as would have been served in the 1930s – peas and carrots and mashed potatoes. It was so good and a meal I’ll definitely make again.
Hamburg Steak from the Great Depression
1 lb ground beef
1/2 cup milk
1 egg (which is optional)
Sprinkle salt and pepper
1/2 of a small onion, chopped fine
Combine altogether. Shape into patties. Cook in some lard in skillet until browned on each side and cooked through. Serve as is or with gravy or catsup/ketchup over top.
