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Beef Loaf

A loaf of beef mixed with crushed milk crackers, egg, spices, topped with salt pork.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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

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).

Shape and top

  1. In a large bowl, mix together the chopped beef, crushed milk crackers, beaten egg, nutmeg, pepper, and coarse sea salt until well combined.

  2. Shape the mixture into a loaf and place it on a baking sheet.

  3. Lay small pieces of salt pork across the top of the loaf.

Bake

  1. Bake for 1 hour or until cooked through.

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. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  5. Milk + porktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,386 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Chopped beef
Forms the body of the loaf and provides the main savory flavor.
Milk crackers
Absorb moisture and help the loaf hold together and stay tender.
Egg
Binds the mixture so the loaf holds its shape when sliced.

The step that matters

Combining the mixture until well combined. Mixing the meat with the crumbs and egg evenly distributes the binder, so the loaf holds together and cooks uniformly. Uneven mixing can leave dry or crumbly pockets.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Nutmegthe original
  2. Marjoramfits about as well
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Thymefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, milk, egg, pepper, pork. 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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