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Beef Loaf

A baked loaf made from round steak, salt pork, crackers, eggs, milk, pepper, salt, and sage.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Beef Loaf

Why it works: Pepper and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Beef Loaf

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. In a large bowl, combine the round steak, salt pork, rolled crackers, eggs, milk, pepper, salt, and sage, then mix well until all ingredients are combined.

Bake and serve

  1. Transfer the mixture to a loaf pan and smooth the top.

  2. Bake for 3 hours.

  3. Once cooled, slice thinly and garnish with parsley or lemon slices.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Pork + sagetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,527 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Pork + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,386 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  4. Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Round steak
Forms the main body of the loaf and gives it its meaty texture.
Salt pork
Adds fat and richness, keeping the lean meat moist during baking.
Rolled crackers
Absorb liquid and help bind the meat so the loaf holds together when sliced.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set firm as it bakes.
Milk
Adds moisture so the loaf stays tender rather than dry.

The step that matters

Baking low and slow. Baking at a low 300°F for a long time lets the meat cook through gently and the binders set without drying out. Raising the heat to hurry the loaf can leave the center underset or the outside dry and tough.

Swap the sage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, egg, milk, pepper):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Sagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, egg, milk, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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