Why it works: Egg and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. 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
In a large bowl, combine the ground steak, eggs, rolled crackers, butter, salt, and pepper. Mix with your hands until the mixture is like a rubber ball.
Shape and bake
Shape the mixture into a loaf and spread butter on the outside.
Place the loaf in a baking dish with a little hot water.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 1½ hours, basting often.
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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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Egg + peppertop 33% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together50,580 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Egg and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 50,580 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Round steak
- Forms the main body of the loaf and gives it its meaty texture.
- Eggs
- Bind the ground meat and crackers so the loaf holds its shape when sliced.
- Rolled crackers
- Absorb moisture and help keep the loaf tender rather than dense.
- Butter
- Adds fat for moisture and richness, and browns the outside of the loaf.
The step that matters
Mixing the meat mixture by hand. Working the mixture until it is firm and cohesive helps the eggs and crackers bind the ground meat, so the loaf holds together during baking and slicing.
“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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