This brings us to the end of the Finnish recipes in Mr. Big Food’s Big Food Manual and Survivalist Flourishing Guide. I am not going to vouch for the authenticity of this recipe, though I can imagine it may very well be. The issue is that frequently good old Bull Cook is full of bull–not so much the actual recipes, but the stories he attaches to them. The only other caution is that we’re not talking about putting the meat on a slice of squishy bread. Get or bake a good dense loaf and slice thick.

From Bull Cook and Authentic Historical Recipes and Practices by George Leonard Herter and Berthe E. Herter (1960/1970)

FINNISH HAMBURGER

“When the Finlanders came to Minnesota, they settled in the northern areas as it was very similar to their native Finland. The Finns are wonderful fish cooks and also meat cooks. The early Finnish method of preparing hamburger makes it a dish worth walking miles to get.

“Take a large tablespoon of butter and put it in a large frying pan. Cut up a medium-sized onion into small pieces and fry the pieces in the butter until they are just half done, not completely cooked. Salt and pepper a pound of hamburger well and add it to the onions. Stir the hamburger with a fork while you cook it so that it breaks up as it cooks into small pieces. When cooked, spread it hot on buttered bread so that it melts the butter. Eat it while it is hot.”