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Meat Loaf

A loaf made from ground pork and steak mixed with butter, water, crackers, salt, and pepper, baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pork and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,933 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓

Meat Loaf

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Mix and shape

  1. In a large bowl, mix the ground pork, ground steak, butter, hot water, rolled soda crackers, salt, and pepper thoroughly.

  2. Shape the mixture into a loaf using your hands.

Bake

  1. Place the loaf in a dripping pan and bake for 1.5 hours.

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.

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. Pork + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,933 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

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

  3. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Ground pork
Provides fat and richness, which keeps the loaf moist and flavourful as it cooks.
Ground round steak
Adds meaty flavour and body to the loaf's texture.
Butter
Adds fat that keeps the loaf tender and moist while it bakes.
Soda crackers
Absorb liquid and bind the meat so the loaf holds its shape.

The step that matters

Mixing the meat with the other ingredients. Mixing thoroughly spreads the fat, liquid and crackers evenly through the meat. Overworking ground meat can make it dense and tough, so mix only until combined.

“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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