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Beef Loaf

A loaf of ground beef mixed with eggs, milk, cracker crumbs, and salt, baked with water and optional butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Beef Loaf

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. 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

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

  2. Season the ground steak with coarse sea salt.

Make and shape the loaf

  1. In a bowl, combine the beaten eggs, milk, and cracker crumbs.

  2. Mix the egg mixture into the seasoned ground steak until well combined.

  3. Mold the mixture into a loaf shape.

Bake

  1. Place the loaf in a baking dish and add enough water to cover half of it.

  2. Bake until cooked through, adding a lump of butter if the beef is lean.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 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

Raw steak, ground
Forms the body of the loaf and provides the main meaty texture and flavor.
Eggs
Bind the meat together and help the loaf hold its shape as it sets.
Cracker crumbs
Absorb moisture from the meat and egg mixture, keeping the loaf tender rather than dense.
Milk
Adds moisture, keeping the loaf juicy as it cooks.

The step that matters

Mixing the egg mixture into the steak. Mixing just until combined keeps the meat tender. Overworking ground meat develops a firm, dense texture as the proteins bind tightly.

“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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