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Beef Loaf

A moist loaf of ground beef, salt pork, breadcrumbs, egg, milk, and seasoning baked in water.

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

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 ↓

Beef Loaf

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Mix and shape

  1. In a large bowl, combine ground beef, salt pork, bread crumbs, beaten egg, and seasoning.

  2. Add enough milk to make the mixture very moist.

  3. Mold the mixture into a loaf shape.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour boiling water over the loaf and place it in a 400°F (200°C) oven to roast.

  2. Use the drippings with milk and flour to make gravy if desired.

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

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

  2. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  3. Beef + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,759 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  4. Pork + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,386 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  5. Beef + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Ground beef
Provides the main structure and meaty flavor of the loaf.
Salt pork
Adds fat that keeps the loaf moist and flavorful as it roasts.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and help bind the mixture so the loaf holds its shape.
Egg
Binds the meat and crumbs together into a cohesive loaf as it sets.
Milk
Adds moisture that keeps the loaf tender rather than dry.

The step that matters

Adding enough milk to make the mixture very moist. Bread crumbs and lean meat absorb liquid as they cook. A very moist mixture keeps the loaf tender and juicy, while a dry one bakes tough and crumbly.

“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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