Cookbook Club Results and Reminder #2: Hambagu (ハンバーグ) Au Poivre (Patreon)

Hi Cookbook Club Frienjis, Community Vibe Manager and Frienji-in-Chief Erin Kelly here.

It’s been a little over two weeks since we sent out our second Cookbook Club recipe, Hambagu (ハンバーグ) Au Poivre. We’re already seeing some beefy results with 105 Frienjis reporting back from their test kitchens!

The Report

Over 92% of you said the ingredients were easy or very easy to find! This comes in higher than our first recipe, Crunchy Roasted Chickpeas and Carrots with Mint, Yogurt, and Turkish Chili Butter, for which only 80% of you reported having an easy or very easy time finding ingredients.

The ingredient that’s giving Frienjis the most trouble? Dried porcini, by far. That’s where your creative solutions came to the rescue:

"Rather than buy porcini mushrooms, I used my Costco sized dry mushrooms and pulled out what looked the most like porcinis and ground those into a powder." — Trish

"Skipped porcini mushrooms and added a dash of MSG." — AParicioMoreau

“I didn't have porcini powder, so I used a rough tablespoon of fish sauce to add umami to the patties.” — Pyromaniacal

"Didn't have dried porcinis, but I did have dried shiitake which I attempted to powder by hand/knife (difficult; never doing that again)" — JD (JD, your dedication is unmatched!)

Unlike our first Cookbook Club recipe, more Frienjis doubled their portions this time around. The most common adjustment to the recipe, though, was upping the pork content in the hambagu patties. Rather than following the 3:1 beef to pork ratio, quite a few people veered towards a 1:1 ratio of beef and pork instead.

Now, let’s talk about the onions. You know the ones. Lots of you pointed out the recipes does not explicitly say to add the sautéed onions into the patty mixture. Plenty of you also pointed out that Step #6 originally mixed up butter and oil. (Both of these have now been edited in the live post on Patreon, but may still read incorrectly in your email inboxes.) As you can tell, this is a project we’re building from the ground up together, and I’m humbled by the care and attention this community is bringing to the table. Keep bringing it and we'll make these recipes the best they can be!

In the Test Kitchen(s)

Let's face it: Brown lumps in creamy brown sauce isn't the most photogenic dish out there. (Yes, we're all thinking the same thing—no need to name it). But, somehow, you all managed to make the dish look fantastically appetizing. Here are some of the ways you've been serving it.

Stephanie served her dish alongside some mashed yellow potatoes (skin on, roughly mashed with a bit of the leftover cream and some butter) and snapped this beautiful photo to top it off!

Kevin served his loco moco style, cushioned between furikake rice a beautifully crispy fried egg.

Chris's hambagu was served with mashed cauliflower, high-heat roasted broccoli, and pea shoots. I'm hungry just looking at it!

Dispatches from the Frienji Frontier

From right here in Seattle to the chilly climes of Sweden and back across the Pacific in Australia, Frienjis reported from all over the world with stories about making this month's recipe.

Karen reminds us how food connects us to our deepest memories:

"Growing up, I could always pick my birthday meal. Without fail, I would always pick beef stroganoff! My dad and I would often go mushroom hunting, so we would always have mushrooms on hand. Sometimes, I would just eat a big bunch of mushrooms seasoned with lemon pepper for dinner! This dish reminded me of those dishes from my childhood."

Michael is taking the win!

"My sister was visiting when I made this recipe. She is a lifelong mushroom-hater (she has literally screamed when confronted with an unexpected mushroom—long story), and enjoyed this dish. I had prepared salmon fillets for her, just in case. She had some of both."

Cheers to you, Bogatyr:

"My wife and I love the experience of opening the Cookbook Club recipe and debating how the end product will taste. A challenge this time was what wine to have with it.  We chose a Petite Mensang from a Virginia producer, Linden. A little unconventional but it worked for us."

Recipe #3 coming in the new year!

Thank you to everyone that has already tested this month's recipe. If you haven't yet: there is no rush! You're always welcome to return to previous recipes and continue filling out their feedback forms. For your convenience, all Cookbook Club recipes are available in this collection on Patreon, or you can jump straight to the Hambagu (ハンバーグ) Au Poivre recipe here.

Keep your eyes peeled in the new year for our next recipe. And until then, happy 2026!

With love sprinkled with perfectly sliced chives,

Erin, Kenji, and the Cookbook Club Team