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Meat Loaf

A baked loaf made from ground beef, bread crumbs, milk, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,466 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Meat Loaf

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Shape and bake

  1. In a large bowl, mix the Hamburg steak, bread crumbs, sweet milk, salt, and pepper thoroughly.

  2. Shape the mixture into a loaf and place it in a pan that fits it snugly.

  3. Add a small amount of milk to the pan to prevent drying.

  4. Bake until fully cooked.

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. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  2. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 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).

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

What each ingredient does

Hamburg steak
Provides the main body and protein structure of the loaf as it cooks.
Rolled dry bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and help hold the loaf together while keeping it tender.
Sweet milk
Adds moisture that keeps the bread crumbs soft and the loaf juicy.

The step that matters

Bake until fully cooked. Ground meat must reach a safe internal temperature throughout. Judging by appearance alone can leave the centre undercooked, so check the loaf's internal temperature with a thermometer.

“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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