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Beef Loaf

A loaf of seasoned ground beef mixed with milk-soaked crackers, eggs, and pork fat, baked until cooked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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. Soak the milk crackers in the milk.

  2. In a large bowl, combine the soaked crackers, chopped beef, fat pork, eggs, pepper, salt, and sage. Mix well until all ingredients are combined.

Bake

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

  2. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for one and a half hours.

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

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

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

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

  4. Pork + sagetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,527 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

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 meaty body and structure of the loaf.
Fat pork
Adds fat that keeps the loaf moist and tender as it bakes.
Eggs
Bind the mixture so the loaf holds its shape when sliced.
Milk crackers
Soaked in milk, they absorb liquid and help keep the loaf moist.

The step that matters

Mix well until all ingredients are combined. Thorough mixing spreads the eggs, soaked crackers and fat evenly through the meat. Uneven mixing can leave pockets that bind poorly or bake dry, so the loaf may crumble or taste uneven.

Swap the sage

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Marjoramfits about as well
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Sagethe original

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