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Minced Beef

A baked loaf of finely chopped beef mixed with crackers, eggs, spices, milk, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Minced Beef

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. In a large bowl, mix the chopped beef, crushed crackers, eggs, salt, pepper, grated nutmeg, milk, and butter thoroughly.

  3. Transfer the mixture into a loaf pan.

Bake

  1. Bake for 2 hours, basting occasionally with roast beef gravy.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 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. Beef + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,759 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  5. Nutmeg + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Lean beef
Forms the main body of the loaf and supplies most of its savory flavor.
Crackers
Absorb liquid and help the loaf hold together with a tender texture.
Eggs
Bind the mixture so it sets into a sliceable loaf when baked.
Milk
Adds moisture so the meatloaf stays tender rather than dry.
Butter
Adds fat that enriches flavor and keeps the meat juicy.

The step that matters

Mixing the meat mixture thoroughly. Mixing evenly distributes the eggs, crackers and milk through the meat so the loaf binds and sets uniformly. Overworking lean ground meat, however, can make it dense and firm, so combine until just uniform.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Nutmegthe original
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Cinnamonfits about as well
  4. Tarragonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, egg, pepper, milk, 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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