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Spiced Beef or Veal Loaf

A loaf of spiced beef or veal mixed with butter, crackers, salt, pepper, and sage, baked until cooked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Spiced Beef or Veal 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. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Mix and shape

  1. In a large bowl, combine the chopped beef or veal, salt, pepper, sage, melted butter, and rolled crackers. Mix well until all ingredients are combined.

  2. Transfer the mixture into bread tins.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in the preheated oven until cooked through.

  2. Allow to cool before slicing.

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. Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  3. Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,847 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  4. Sage + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,312 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Beef + sagetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together847 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

Beef or veal
Provides the protein and bulk that set into the body of the loaf.
Rolled crackers
Absorb juices and fat, helping the loaf hold together and stay moist.
Melted butter
Adds fat that keeps the loaf moist and rich as it cooks.
Dried sage
Contributes the main herbal aroma of the loaf.

The step that matters

Mix well until all ingredients are combined. Even distribution of the crackers, fat and seasonings keeps the loaf uniformly bound and seasoned. Uneven mixing can leave dry or dense pockets and bland areas after baking.

Swap the sage

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Sagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, 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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