Beef Lindstrom

The minced meat can be fried as it is (1), mixed with egg and breadcrumbs (2), with additional grated beetroot (3) or even with potatoes (4). Options three and four are considered Beef Lindstrom.

600 g / 1½ lb minced meat

2 canned beetroots

1 – 2 boiled potatoes (if desired)

½ – 1 dl / 2 – 3 fl oz breadcrumbs

1 dl / 3 fl oz milk

1 egg

1 onion

Black and white pepper, capers, salt

 

Beef Lindstrom is the king of minced meat foods. It is originally a Russian food which came to Finland through Sweden. The steak’s glorious stride began when Russian-born captain Henrik Lindstrom introduced it in Kalmar, Sweden, in 1862.

The most attractive feature of Beef Lindstrom to the engineer is the fact that the meat and vegetables in it are served as a single whole and other ingredients are hardly needed. It is also very tasty and easy to make.

Fundamentally, Beef Lindstrom is nothing but just another dish made out of a minced meat mix. A similar mix can be used to make regular minced meat stakes or meat balls. What sets Beef Lindstrom apart is the use of beetroot as an ingredient.

The best meat for Beef Lindstrom is a minced beef-pork mix. Beef alone is suitable when you want to fry hamburger steaks. Lamb is also fine, but more so for making meat balls. To make the dough, mix breadcrumbs into milk and add this, along with the chopped onion, egg and spices, to the minced meat. Let the mix stand for a moment before starting to shape and fry the steaks or balls.

If the mix is for making hamburger steaks, you should use as few other ingredients as possible – after all, the flavour of the meat is the main thing in that case. Even egg is not indispensable. It is possible to fry hamburger steaks directly from just minced meat but there is a risk that they will break and you will only be able to add spices on the surface of the stakes. If the steaks are served other than between buns, for example on a plate with potatoes and gravy, using additional ingredients is beneficial as the meat is usually the most expensive ingredient of them all.

When making Beef Lindstrom, grated, unsweetened canned beetroot is added to the minced meat. If you want to make more vegetable-heavy steaks, you can add a boiled potato or two into the mix and leave out the breadcrumbs. The quantity of meat in the mix, however, should not be less than half the total or otherwise the food will essentially become a vegetarian dish. In that case, you might as well make a vegetable Lindstrom – one encounters those too. In addition to regular spices, Beef Lindstrom requires a pinch of capers.

The beetroot should be mixed in so that it is not clearly visible as a separate ingredient in the ready steak. That is why grating it into fine strands is better than chopping it. The Swedish habit of cutting the beetroot into small cubes is the engineer’s nightmare. The end product is a minced meat steak with beetroot cubes, and not a proper, meaty beetroot stake.

Traditionally, Beef Lindstrom is served with mashed potato and pickled cucumber. This is a good choice but there are other options. Boiled pasta with grated parmesan cheese is a good alternative to mashed potato. When frying the steaks, try frying some onion which tastes excellent on top of the steak. This kind of steak can also easily be eaten between buns or on a slice of bread if you do not feel like boiling potatoes or pasta. In that case, Beef Lindstrom actually doubles up as a hamburger steak.