The original hamburger, known as a frikadellen, is typically served with string beans, salad, and a flattened meatball. I also enjoy making Swedish meatballs with this recipe, but I leave off the paprika. I learned how to make this recipe from my aunt in Hamburg, Germany, and I’ve been doing it ever since. Serve alongside a tossed salad and cooked string beans. Alternately, serve on a Kaiser roll with curry ketchup, lettuce, tomato, pickled cucumbers, and deep-fried onions that have been thinly sliced.
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 10 mins |
| Additional Time: | 10 mins |
| Total Time: | 40 mins |
| Servings: | 4 |
Ingredients
- 1 kaiser roll
- ⅔ pound ground beef
- ⅓ pound ground pork
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- ¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon Hungarian hot paprika (Optional)
- salt and ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Soak kaiser roll in a medium bowl of water for 10 minutes. Drain and squeeze out excess water; crumble into a large bowl.
- Add ground meats, onion, parsley, egg, paprika, salt, and black pepper to crumbled roll; mix until well blended. Shape mixture into large flattened meatballs.
- Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Fry meatballs in the hot skillet until browned and no longer pink in the center, about 5 minutes per side. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the center of a patty should read at least 160 degrees F (70 degrees C).
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 272 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 9 g |
| Cholesterol | 117 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 22 g |
| Saturated Fat | 6 g |
| Sodium | 138 mg |
| Sugars | 2 g |
| Fat | 16 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Every frikadelle I’ve ever seen or eaten is shaped differently, kinda like a torpedo and then breaded with breadcrumbs on the outside. Otherwise it’s pretty traditional. Loved to see it pop up! Einigkeit u. Recht u. Freiheit!
I German and you beat me on this one ,Thank you it’s what I was looking for awesome
This is a meal that is celebrated in many countries! Especially Europe and the Scandinavian countries. Part of the appeal is those seared edges and the softer centers. Putting the whole blob in a loaf pan and cooking as a loaf with NONE of the seared edges is not the recipe. If you want a meatloaf, make a meatloaf. If you want Frikadellen, follow the directions. But do not slam someone’s recipe because you screwed it up and didn’t like the mess you made. I do not think folks who totally change a recipe should have their rating counted. Just saying.
Delicious if properly seared, of course. Or you could change the recipe to a meatloaf and complain about it.
I followed the recipe exactly, but used dried minced onions instead of fresh. They were delicious! I tripled the recipe and froze the extras. The burgers are very tasty and moist. Served like an American hamburger on a bun with mayo, mustard, relish. and ketsup. Have made these twice, and my husband loved them!
Made as written. Very traditional German cooking, which brought back fond memories of my childhood. Thanks for sharing.
Great recipe!!! This works well with unflavored breadcrumbs too. I used Smoked paprika, not hot and added fresh Thyme. It always goes well with German dishes. We serve it with either a white milk gravy or saute mushrooms and serve with Hunter Gravy. It goes really well with a chilled cucumber/onion salad.
I’m not sure I’ve ever tasted Frikadellen so bland. I gave it a shot… even though there were so many ingredients missing. Where’s the mustard, mace, onion, marjoram, milk, cardamom, etc? Luckily, I was able to crumble the meat and make s.o.s. with it. Wasn’t good for much more than that.
Love love love this recipe!! Made as described. Very tasty and just yummy!
This recipe is identical to my grandmother’s who was from Germany and died in 1940. The only difference is mine has cut up bread in the recipe. This was a something my father use to make when I was growing up, It was one of my favorites
Been making these for many many years. You can use regular sweet paprika if you do t want the heat. I also soak my stale crusty bread in milk instead of water. I need to go Make some more. They do well in the freezer or in the fridge, then take one, slice it in half width wise make a sandwich with mustard HMMMMMMM
I added lots of 12+ hour roast garlic.
GIving it a 5 star but for another country…Denmark…My wife is 100% Dane and they make them in meatball form and the name is changed just slightly..Frikadellar. Always look forward to having them with Aebleskiver( pancake balls as this German American calls them) at Christmas as our traditional Danish meal.
I often make these but make them the way my German mother did. It is basically the same recipe but we don’t add parsley. And the other thing I do is coat each Frikadell in either cornflake crumbs or bread crumbs. I fry them up in butter and oil and add milk towards the end to create a super yummy gravy! Sheesh….now I’m hungry!!!!
Not sure how I got here, but here I am. Facebook, I believe. At any rate, I’ve been making this for decades, except I call it meatloaf burgers. I use the same recipe as meat loaf except I make them into patties. It’s a great food, obviously, in any culture.
Made them twice this way and so far, they’ve come out great both times. My grandmother used to make these a lot and my mother as well. Only thing different they did was to put them in a little breadcrumb right before frying them up. So the second time around, I did that as well. I even flattened the leftover patties out a little bit more and tried a few on the BBQ (without the breading). Also good!
Great Burger, had it on a Kaiser, with lettuce, onions and sauces of your choice, it was great! One of the kids in another house microwaved theirs a day or two later and still loved it!
They were delicious. I used venison burger instead of beef. It did a great job of hiding the “wild” taste
Yummy! Just like I remembered from Germany.
Terrible and completely unauthentic. Consistency was bad and the “burgers” fell apart easily. This is more an American meatloaf. Not a german hamburger.
I used leftover buns I had not kaisers roll. Also soaked in milk rather than water. Taste was good with the parsley.