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Filipino Beef

A baked meatloaf of ground beef and pork with green pepper, onion, bacon, and tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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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 ↓

Filipino Beef

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.

Make the meatloaf

  1. Remove seeds from the green pepper and grind it with the beef, pork, and onion using a meat grinder.

  2. Add bread crumbs, egg, and salt to the meat mixture and form it into a roll.

  3. Place the roll in a shallow baking dish and pour the strained tomatoes around it.

  4. Top the roll with bacon and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 40 minutes, basting with the tomatoes.

Gravy and optional extras

  1. In a separate pan, cook flour in butter to thicken the gravy.

  2. For added flavor, consider seasoning the tomato sauce with a bay leaf, a clove, and a small piece of onion.

  3. If desired, fry the pepper and onion in a little fat before adding them to the mixture.

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

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

  2. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  3. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  5. Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,448 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Round beef
Provides the main meaty structure and chew of the loaf.
Lean fresh pork
Adds some richness and a softer texture to the beef.
Soft stale bread crumbs
Absorb juices and help keep the loaf moist and tender.
Egg
Binds the meat mixture so the roll holds its shape while baking.
Bacon
Its fat bastes the top of the loaf and adds savory browning and flavor.
Flour
Starch thickens the butter and tomato liquid into a smooth gravy.

The step that matters

Cooking the flour in butter for the gravy. Flour must be cooked in the fat long enough to lose its raw taste and to thicken fully, since starch only gels properly once heated.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Onionthe original
  4. Asparagusfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, bread, pork, tomato, pepper, butter, flour. 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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