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Yummy Meatloaf

"What makes this meatloaf so good is how you cook it! It's very important to cook this in a baking dish rather than a loaf pan. The grease will drain from the meatloaf this way, and it will be firmer and taste better."

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 17,091 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

The recipe

6 to 8 servings
Prep10 min
Cook1 hr

Ingredients

Contains: egg, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C) and lightly grease a loaf pan or baking dish.

  2. In a large bowl, combine the ground beef, chopped onion, crushed saltine crackers, salt, black pepper, steak sauce and eggs.

  3. Add a splash of water and mix with your hands until just combined. Do not overmix, or the meatloaf will be tough.

  4. Shape the mixture into a loaf and place it in the prepared pan.

  5. Bake for about 60 minutes until the center reaches 160°F (71°C) on an instant-read thermometer.

  6. Let the meatloaf rest for 10 minutes before slicing.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Beef + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together17,091 recipes

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

  2. Beef + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together18,971 recipes

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together68,463 recipes

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

  4. Onion + saucetop 11% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together10,465 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Beef + saucetop 13% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together3,650 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Onion and sauce share little aroma chemistry, yet 10,465 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

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

  1. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  2. Tomatobetter flavor fit
  3. Asparagusbetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, sauce, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).