Skip to main content
Main

Beef Loaf

A baked loaf made from Hamburg steak, eggs, salt, sage, savory, and cracker crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Beef Loaf

Why it works: Egg and sage are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 32% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,100 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Beef Loaf

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Beat the eggs well in a bowl.

  3. Add salt, sage, savory, Hamburg steak, and enough cracker crumbs to form a stiff mixture.

  4. Roll the mixture very tightly into a compact loaf.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the loaf in the oven and roast for 1.5 to 2 hours, basting frequently.

  2. Serve sliced and cold for luncheon.

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. Egg + sagetop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,100 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Hamburg steak
Forms the body of the loaf and supplies the meat flavour and richness.
Eggs
Bind the meat together so the loaf holds its shape when sliced.
Cracker crumbs
Absorb juices and help the mixture set into a stiff, sliceable loaf.

The step that matters

Roll the mixture very tightly into a compact loaf. Packing the mixture firmly removes air pockets and lets the proteins bind as they cook, so the loaf holds together when sliced cold.

“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

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes