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Meat Loaf

A loaf of seasoned beef and pork mixture baked for hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Meat 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. Chop the beef, pork, and onion finely.

  3. Season the meat mixture with salt, pepper, and sage.

  4. Soak the bread in water until soft, then press out the water.

Shape and bake

  1. Add the soaked bread and eggs to the meat mixture and combine well.

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

  3. Bake for 3 hours, basting often.

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

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 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

Beef
Provides the main meaty structure and rich flavor of the loaf.
Fresh pork
Adds fat, which keeps the loaf moist and tender as it cooks.
Eggs
Bind the meat and bread together so the loaf holds its shape when sliced.
Flour bread
Soaked and squeezed, it adds moisture and softness that keeps the meat from drying out.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aroma as it cooks into the meat.

The step that matters

Bake for 3 hours, basting often. Long baking at moderate heat cooks the meat through and gives a tender loaf, but it can dry out on the surface. Basting adds moisture and helps keep the exterior juicy and browned.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pork, pepper, sage, flour, bread, egg. 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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