Name: Beef Loaf or Cannelon
Ingredients: 2 pounds lean beef, ground; 1 square inch kidney suet, ground; 1 egg, beaten; ½ cup fine stale bread crumbs; 1 tablespoon lemon juice; 2 tablespoons chopped parsley; 2 teaspoons salt; ½ teaspoon pepper; thin slices of fat salt pork

Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Beef Loaf or Cannelon

Oven, in the book's wordsA very hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
In a bowl, combine ground beef, kidney suet, beaten egg, bread crumbs, lemon juice, parsley, salt, and pepper.

Shape and bake

Shape the mixture into a long loaf and place it on a greased flat pan.
Top the loaf with thin slices of fat salt pork.
Bake for 30 to 40 minutes.

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.

Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,037 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Beef + porktop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,690 recipes

Shared aroma: 12-methyltridecanal (tallowy, beefy).
Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 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

Lean beef: Forms the body of the loaf and gives it its rich, meaty flavor.
Egg: Binds the meat mixture so the loaf holds its shape when sliced.
Bread crumbs: Absorb juices and keep the loaf tender rather than dense.
Kidney suet: Adds fat that keeps the loaf moist and adds richness as it cooks.
Fat salt pork: Lays over the top, basting the loaf with fat as it bakes.

The step that matters

Shape the mixture into a long loaf. Mixing and shaping the meat too firmly makes the loaf tough and dense. Handle it gently so the crumbs and fat stay distributed and the loaf cooks evenly.

“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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Beef Loaf or Cannelon