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Beef Loaf

A loaf of ground beef mixed with pork, eggs, bread, and seasonings, baked until cooked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Beef Loaf

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 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Chop the beef and salt pork very fine.

  2. In a bowl, combine the chopped meat with eggs, grated bread, sweet cream, summer savory, salt, and pepper. Mix all ingredients together well.

Bake

  1. Transfer the mixture to a loaf pan.

  2. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 2 hours, basting often.

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

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

  2. Summer savory + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together671 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  4. Pork + summer savorytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together239 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  5. Beef + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Round beef
Forms the main body of the loaf, giving it its meaty structure and bulk.
Salt pork
Adds fat, which keeps the loaf moist and adds savory richness as it cooks.
Eggs
Bind the chopped meat together and help the loaf hold its shape when set by heat.
Grated bread
Absorbs liquid and softens the texture, keeping the loaf tender rather than dense.

The step that matters

Chop the beef and salt pork very fine. Fine chopping spreads fat and meat evenly through the mixture, so the loaf cooks uniformly and stays tender rather than crumbly or coarse.

Swap the summer savory

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

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Summer savorythe original
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Marjoramfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pork, egg, bread, cream, 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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