hamburger steak

2.6

A cooked flat piece of ground beef served without a bun

noun
/ˈhæmˌbɜrɡər steɪk/

: hamburguesa a la plancha

After a long day, he enjoyed a hearty hamburger steak cooked to perfection.

Examples

We thought that a hamburger steak (what the rest of the boys were having) sounded just lovely.

Blog text (26)
They're having hamburger steak.

At Close Range (1986)
For dinner, I ordered a delicious hamburger steak served with mashed potatoes and gravy.
They decided to have hamburger steak for lunch, topped with onion and pepper sauce.

Synonyms

patty

vshamburger steak

46 2.1

A small flat cake of ground meat or vegetables cooked to eat

is this food shape when made from beef and eaten without a bun

Salisbury steak

vshamburger steak

11 3.9

A cooked seasoned ground beef patty served with sauce or gravy

is served without sauce and usually without a bread bun

beef patty

vshamburger steak

3 1.6

A flat round piece of cooked ground beef used in burgers

is the same form specifically made to be eaten without a bun

chopped steak

vshamburger steak

1 2.2

A flat piece of ground beef that is cooked and served as a main dish

is similar but usually presented without a bread bun

chop steak

vshamburger steak

3.5

A flat piece of cooked ground beef served without a bun, often with gravy

is the same dish but typically cooked by frying or grilling

chopsteak

vshamburger steak

3.7

A flat round patty of ground beef often served as a main dish

is similar but usually served plain without bread

Surface Forms

hamburger steak singular

hamburger steaks plural

Morphology

hamburger + steak

The meaning is directly derivable from the parts: 'hamburger' (ground beef/patty) + 'steak' (a meat dish) signals a steak-like dish made from ground beef patties. This regular noun+noun composition is cross-linguistically common (e.g., 'Hamburg steak'/'ハンバーグ') and a B1 learner who knows both words can infer the intended dish.

Etymology

Hamburger steak gets its name from Hamburger (after the city Hamburg) and steak, so it joins a Hamburg-style meat patty with the idea of a 'steak'. Long ago cooks served a flat ground beef patty called a 'Hamburg steak' without a 'bun', so today Hamburger steak means a cooked beef patty served on its own.