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Beef Loaf with Tomatoes

A loaf of ground beef and pork mixed with bread crumbs, onions, and tomatoes, baked until cooked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 with Tomatoes

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).

  2. Soak the bread crumbs in cold water and then drain.

Mix and bake

  1. In a large bowl, combine the chopped beef, chopped pork, soaked bread crumbs, and finely chopped onion.

  2. Add the tomatoes and season with pepper and coarse sea salt. Mix all ingredients thoroughly.

  3. Transfer the mixture to a loaf pan and bake for about 1 hour.

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

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

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

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

  3. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  5. Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,448 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

Chopped beef
Provides the main body and rich meaty flavor of the loaf.
Chopped pork
Adds fat and moisture, keeping the loaf tender rather than dry.
Bread crumbs
Soaked first, they absorb liquid and help the loaf hold together and stay moist.
Tomatoes
Add moisture and acidity, balancing the richness of the meat.
Onion
Contributes sweetness and aroma as it cooks in the loaf.

The step that matters

Mix all ingredients thoroughly. Even mixing distributes the bread crumbs and moisture through the meat, so the loaf bakes evenly and slices cleanly instead of crumbling or turning dry in patches.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pork, tomato, bread, butter, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Onionthe original
  4. Asparagusfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pork, tomato, bread, butter, pepper. 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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