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Beef Loaf

A savory loaf made from finely chopped beef and pork mixed with eggs, spices, onion, and bread, baked and served with a sour cream gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 19 ingredients
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Beef Loaf

Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Beef 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 the meat

  1. In a skillet, fry the chopped onion in butter until golden brown.

  2. Soak the dry bread in milk, then add it to the beef and pork mixture.

  3. Add the beaten eggs, garlic, marjoram, allspice, ginger, pepper, and the fried onion to the meat mixture.

  4. Stir thoroughly and add more milk if the mixture is too dry.

Shape and bake

  1. Form the mixture into a loaf and place it in a buttered pan.

  2. Top with sliced bacon and bay leaves if desired.

  3. Add 1 cup of water and bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 1.5 hours.

Make the gravy

  1. Strain the gravy, skim off the fat, and mix in the sour cream and flour.

  2. Boil the gravy until thick.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Beef + porktop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,690 recipes

    Shared aroma: 12-methyltridecanal (tallowy, beefy).

  5. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef and pork
Provide the main body and rich flavour of the loaf.
Eggs
Bind the meat together so the loaf holds its shape when sliced.
Dry bread
Soaked in milk, it keeps the loaf moist and tender rather than dense.
Onion
Fried in butter first, it adds sweetness and savoury depth to the loaf.
Sour cream
Adds richness and tang to the gravy.
Flour
Thickens the gravy as it is cooked.

The step that matters

Boil the gravy until thick. Flour needs to be fully heated in liquid to cook out its raw taste and reach full thickening power. Sour cream can split if it boils hard, so keep the heat gentle once it is in.

Swap the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pork, egg, allspice, ginger, pepper, clove):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pork, egg, allspice, ginger, pepper, clove. 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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