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Meat Loaf

A baked loaf of ground beef mixed with onion juice, suet, parsley, egg, salt, pepper, and optionally dredged in flour or breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Meat Loaf

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Grind the beef.

  2. Chop the suet.

  3. Mince the parsley.

  4. Mix all ingredients in the order given, omitting the flour or bread crumbs.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape the mixture into a roll.

  2. Dredge the roll with flour or roll it in bread crumbs.

  3. Place in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) to sear, then reduce heat.

  4. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve with brown gravy or tomato sauce.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  3. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Provides the main body and protein structure of the loaf as it cooks.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the loaf moist and tender during baking.
Egg
Binds the mixture so the loaf holds its shape when sliced.

The step that matters

Searing in a hot oven before reducing heat. A hot start browns the outside of the roll and helps it hold its shape. Reducing the heat afterward lets the centre cook through without drying or burning the surface.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, parsley, pepper, egg, flour):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, parsley, pepper, egg, flour. 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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