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Beef Loaf

A baked loaf of ground beef mixed with breadcrumbs, onion, eggs, and seasonings, served with a pan gravy.

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

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Beef 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).

  2. In a large bowl, mix the hamburg steak, bread crumbs, chopped onion, salt, pepper, eggs, and butter or beef drippings until well combined.

  3. Shape the mixture into an oblong mound and place it in a baking pan.

Bake and serve

  1. Add water to the pan as you would for roast chicken and baste the loaf frequently.

  2. Bake for about 45 minutes or until cooked through.

  3. Transfer the meat to a serving dish and make a thickened gravy with the pan juices to pour over the loaf.

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

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

  2. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  3. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Bread + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,676 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Hamburg steak
Provides the main body of the loaf and its meaty flavor, with fat keeping it moist as it cooks.
Eggs
Bind the meat and crumbs together so the loaf holds its shape when sliced.
Bread crumbs
Absorb juices and soften the texture, keeping the loaf tender rather than dense.
Butter or beef drippings
Adds fat, which contributes richness and moisture to the cooked loaf.
Onion
Adds savory aroma and sweetness as it softens through the cooking.

The step that matters

Baste the loaf frequently. Basting spreads the pan juices over the surface, helping keep the outside from drying out while the centre cooks through. The pan juices also become the base for the gravy, so they should not be left to scorch.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, pepper, egg, 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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