Lindström Beef - Lindströmin Pihvit

Lindström Beef is based on beetroot. There are several stories about the origin of the Lindström Beef. One story says that the dish was invented by Maria Kristiina Lindström from Stockholm in the 19th century in Stockholm. She made a meat loaf from steaks, but she added beetroot to the dough, which brought flavour and gave it its distinctive colour.

Another story states Henrik Lindström, a Finnish lieutenant born in St. Petersburg  in 1862 was sitting in a restaurant and asked the waiter to bring him a steak made from raw tenderloin, which would include chopped onion, capers and beetroot. A third story says that a the Finnish-Swedish chef Karl August Lindström, who was originally from Kangasala near Tampere, invented the dish. Lindström served as the chef of Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich Romanov in St. Petersburg . It is claimed that Lindström created the recipe for Lindström beef.

Whatever the origin of the Lindström Beef was, it was very popular in cities during the 1940, when there was a severe shortage of food and feed had to be “stretched” and some of the recipes had only 50 g of minced meat per patty. Lindström Beef is typically served with mashed potatoes, lingonberries and white sauce.

This recipe is for 6 people. There are many variants of this recipe, some use vinegar preserved beetroots, cooked beetroots or add cooked potatoes.

The recipe gives 6 patties, they were just too big to put them all at once into my frying pan.

Ingredients:

500 kg Minced Meat

150 g Grated Beetroot (1 pieces)

2 dl Breadcrumbs

1 Onion

2 dl Cream or Finnish Yoghurt

1 Tablespoons of Capers

1 Eggs

1/2 Teaspoon Salt

White Pepper

Butter for frying

Sauce:

3 Tablespoon Flour

3/4 l Meat Broth

50 ml Cream

Salt

White Pepper

1-2 Teaspoons Concentrated Tomatoes pure

1-2 Teaspoons Mustard

Instructions:

Cut the beetroot into small pieces (you may want to wear single-use plastic gloves for that). Mash the potatoes and mix very well with the meat. Add beetroot and capers and very finely cut onions. Knead in the eggs and add salt and pepper.

Make patties of the size of small burger patties. Fry on each site till crisp.

For the sauce, mix the flour with a bit of water. Heath the broth and add the flour, stir well. Add cream and spices. Adjust the taste.

This dish is often served with fried onion, tomatoes, lingonberries or green salat along with ever present mashed potatoes.