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Beef Loaf

A steamed and baked loaf of beef and pork with eggs, salt, pepper, and bread, topped with crackers or crumbs.

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. Chop or grind the meat.

  2. Soak the stale bread in cold water, then squeeze out the excess water and measure.

Form and steam

  1. Mix the chopped beef, eggs, pork tenderloin, salt, and pepper together.

  2. Form the mixture into a long, round roll and place it in a pan.

  3. Steam the loaf for 1 hour.

Brown and serve

  1. Sprinkle the loaf with rolled crackers or browned bread crumbs.

  2. Dip gravy over the loaf.

  3. Brown the loaf in the oven at 350°F (175°C).

  4. Serve warm or cold.

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

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

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

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

  4. Pork + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,371 recipes

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

  5. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Chopped beef
Provides the main protein structure and rich, savory flavor of the loaf.
Eggs
Bind the meat together and help the loaf hold its shape when set by heat.
Pork tenderloin
Adds moisture and a milder flavor to the meat mixture.
Stale bread
Absorbs liquid and keeps the loaf moist and tender while cooking.

The step that matters

Steam the loaf for 1 hour. Steaming cooks the meat gently and evenly, so the proteins set without drying out. Cooking too hard or too fast can make the loaf tough or dry, so keep the heat gentle and steady.

“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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