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Beef Loaf

A loaf made from ground round steak, sweet milk, eggs, rolled crackers, pepper, salt, and sage.

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

Why it works: Pepper and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. 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).

Make and shape the loaf

  1. In a large bowl, combine the round steak, sweet milk, eggs, rolled crackers, pepper, salt, and sage. Mix well until all ingredients are combined.

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

Bake

  1. Bake for 30 minutes 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. Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

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

  2. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Milk + peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26,984 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  4. Milk + sagetop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together719 recipes

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

  5. Egg + sagetop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,100 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Round steak
Forms the bulk of the loaf and provides the meaty texture and flavour.
Eggs
Bind the meat and crackers so the loaf holds its shape when sliced.
Rolled crackers
Absorb liquid and soak up juices, keeping the loaf moist and tender.
Sweet milk
Adds moisture and softens the meat so the loaf stays juicy.

The step that matters

Mix well until all ingredients are combined. Mixing evenly spreads the eggs, milk and crackers through the meat so the binder sets consistently. Overworking ground or chopped meat can make it dense and tough, so stop once combined.

Swap the sage

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. Sagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, 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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