Skip to main content
Main

Beef or Veal Loaf

A loaf of ground beef or veal mixed with crushed crackers, eggs, spices, and butter, baked until cooked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Beef or Veal Loaf

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

Make and shape the loaf

  1. In a large bowl, combine the ground meat, crushed crackers, eggs, pepper, salt, nutmeg, and butter.

  2. Add enough water to form a mixture that is not too soft.

  3. Shape the mixture into a loaf and place it in a baking dish.

Bake

  1. Bake for about 2 hours.

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 + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Nutmeg + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Beef + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,495 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Ground beef or veal
Provides the main body and protein structure that holds the loaf together when cooked.
Crackers
Absorb juices and fat from the meat, keeping the loaf moist and tender rather than dense.
Eggs
Bind the meat and crumbs together so the loaf holds its shape when sliced.
Butter
Adds fat that enriches flavour and keeps the meat from drying out during baking.

The step that matters

Adding the water. Water must be added gradually until the mixture is firm but not too soft. Too much water makes the loaf loose and weakens its structure, while too little leaves it dry and crumbly after baking.

Swap the nutmeg

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, 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.

More beef loaf recipes

Spiced 9 See all 201 →

You might also like

Roast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesCorned BeefCorned Beef87 recipesBeef BrothBeef Broth67 recipesBeef CroquettesBeef Croquettes58 recipes