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Beef Cheese

A meat loaf made with beef, veal, ham, bacon, and seasonings, baked slowly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Beef Cheese

Oven, in the book's wordsA very slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Mince the steak, ham, veal, and 4 ounces of bacon together.

  2. Mix in salt, pepper, shallot, parsley, and mixed herbs.

  3. Add brown stock and light wine; mix thoroughly.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line a dish or oval jar with bacon slices, leaving some for the top.

  2. Press the meat mixture firmly into the dish, cover with bacon, and seal with a flour-and-water paste.

  3. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for 3 to 4 hours.

Cool and serve

  1. Cool for 24 hours before removing the paste.

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.

  1. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + shallottop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,898 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Shallot + winetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together841 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptenal (green).

  5. Veal + hamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,264 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Steak
Forms the main body of the meat mass and gives the cheese its beefy flavor.
Veal
Adds mildness and a softer texture to the minced meat mixture.
Ham
Contributes salty, savory flavor to the filling.
Bacon
Adds fat that keeps the mixture moist during slow baking and flavors the meat.
Brown stock
Adds moisture and savory depth so the mixture binds and stays juicy.
Light wine
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the savory meat.

The step that matters

Pressing and sealing the meat mixture. Firm packing removes air pockets so the loaf holds together when cooled and sliced. A tight flour-and-water seal keeps moisture in during the long, slow bake, preventing the meat from drying out.

Swap the shallot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, ham, pepper, parsley, wine):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Shallotthe original
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Capsicumfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, pepper, parsley, wine. 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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