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Meat Loaf with Eggs

A loaf of beef, veal, and pork mixed with eggs and crackers, baked with hardboiled eggs inside.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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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 ↓

Meat Loaf with Eggs

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the meat

  1. Mix the chopped beef, veal, and pork in a bowl.

  2. Add the beaten egg, crushed soda crackers, salt, and pepper; mix well.

  3. Form the mixture into an oblong roll and create a groove down the center.

  4. Place the hardboiled eggs in the groove, pressing them in firmly.

  5. Roll the meat in cracker crumbs to coat evenly.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a shallow pan at 350°F (175°C) for 2 hours, basting occasionally with water and melted butter.

  2. Slice the loaf to ensure each piece has a slice of egg, and garnish with parsley or lettuce.

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. Beef + porktop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,690 recipes

    Shared aroma: 12-methyltridecanal (tallowy, beefy).

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

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

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

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

  4. Veal + porktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,930 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  5. Beef + vealtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Lean beef
Provides the main meaty body and structure of the loaf.
Veal
Adds a tender, mild texture that keeps the loaf from tasting heavy.
Pork
Adds fat and moisture, keeping the loaf juicy as it bakes.
Egg
Binds the meat together so the loaf holds its shape when sliced.
Soda crackers
Absorb juices and add body, helping the loaf stay moist and tender.

The step that matters

Pressing the hardboiled eggs into the groove. If the eggs are not pressed in firmly, gaps can form around them and the loaf may crack or fall apart when sliced. Firm packing keeps the egg centered in each slice.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Sagefits about as well
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Nutmegfits about as well

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