Why it works: Beef and pork match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,690 recipes. Both carry 12-methyltridecanal, which smells tallowy, beefy. The science ↓
Beef Loaf
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the meat
Wash the beef and cover it with boiling water in a large pot.
Add the salt pork. Ensure all meat is clean and untainted.
Bring the mixture to a boil and skim off any impurities, repeating if necessary.
Reduce the heat and let the mixture simmer all day.
Remove the meat, chop it, and pick out any hard pieces and bones.
Make the loaf
Add the crackers and gradually mix in the boiling liquid until thick.
Season the mixture with salt and pepper to taste.
Butter a deep bread tin and pack the meat mixture solidly into it.
Bake the loaf in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 10 minutes or until heated through.
Set and serve
Cool the loaf in a cold place. If not solid enough, apply pressure.
Loosen the loaf from the edges, hold it in boiling water for 1-2 minutes, then turn it out.
Slice the loaf.
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.
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Beef + porktop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,690 recipes
Shared aroma: 12-methyltridecanal (tallowy, beefy).
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Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,971 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,121 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 of the loaf and its rich meaty flavor.
- Salt pork
- Adds fat and savory flavor, keeping the loaf moist as it cooks.
- Crackers
- Absorb the cooking liquid and help bind the chopped meat so the loaf holds its shape.
The step that matters
Skimming the broth. Impurities that rise during the first boil can cloud the liquid and taint the flavor, so they should be removed as they form. Keeping the simmer gentle prevents the meat from toughening and the broth from turning cloudy.
“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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