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Southern Meat Loaf

A baked loaf of ground beef, sausage, onion, eggs, bread, flour, pepper, salt, and corn.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Southern Meat Loaf

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

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

Make and bake the loaf

  1. In a large bowl, mix together the ground beef, sausage meat, chopped onion, eggs, soaked bread (or cracker crumbs), flour, pepper, salt, and corn until well combined.

  2. Transfer the mixture to a well-buttered individual bread pan.

  3. Bake for about 40 minutes or until nicely browned.

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

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

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

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

  3. Pepper + corntop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,324 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Beef + corntop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,028 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

Ground beef
Provides the main meaty body and savory flavor of the loaf.
Sausage meat
Adds fat and seasoning, keeping the loaf moister and richer in flavor.
Eggs
Bind the mixture so the loaf holds its shape when sliced.
Bread
Soaked bread absorbs meat juices and fat, keeping the loaf tender and moist.
Flour
Helps absorb liquid and gives the mixture a firmer, more stable texture.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and moisture as it cooks in the loaf.

The step that matters

Squeezing the soaked bread dry. Bread soaked in hot water holds a lot of liquid; if it is not squeezed dry, the extra moisture dilutes the binding and can leave the loaf soft and crumbly rather than set.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, meat, egg, bread, flour, pepper, corn. 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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