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Meat Loaf with Eggs

A loaf of finely chopped beef, veal, and pork mixed with egg, crackers, and seasonings, baked with hard-boiled eggs inside.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Meat Loaf with Eggs

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the meat

  1. Mix the chopped beef, veal, and pork in a bowl.

  2. Add the beaten egg, crushed soda crackers, salt, and pepper; mix well.

  3. Form the mixture into an oblong roll, packing it firmly.

  4. Create a groove down the center and place the hardboiled eggs end to end in the groove.

  5. Press the meat around the eggs and roll in cracker crumbs.

Bake and serve

  1. Place in a shallow pan and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 2 hours, basting occasionally with water and melted butter.

  2. Slice the loaf to ensure each piece has a slice of egg.

  3. Garnish with parsley or lettuce before serving.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  4. Veal + porktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,930 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  5. Beef + vealtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef, veal, and pork
Provides the main body and savory flavor of the loaf as it cooks.
Egg
Binds the chopped meat together so the loaf holds its shape when sliced.
Soda crackers
Absorb juices and help keep the meat tender and moist while binding.
Hardboiled eggs
Form a visible center that shows as a slice of egg in each piece.

The step that matters

Packing the meat around the eggs. Meat packed loosely around the eggs can open gaps or crack, so the loaf may fall apart when sliced. Firm packing removes air pockets and helps the loaf hold together.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Sagefits about as well
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Nutmegfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, veal, pork, egg, pepper, butter. 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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