Skip to main content
Main

Beef Loaf, I

A loaf of ground beef mixed with butter, salt pork, milk, crackers, and eggs, baked until cooked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Beef Loaf, I

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).

Mix and shape

  1. In a bowl, mix the beef, butter, salt pork, milk, rolled crackers, and beaten eggs lightly.

  2. Transfer the mixture to a greased loaf pan.

  3. Brush the top with the remaining rolled crackers.

Bake

  1. Bake for 1 hour 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.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  4. Beef + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,759 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  5. Pork + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,386 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Round beef
Forms the bulk of the loaf and provides the main meaty structure.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help the loaf hold its shape as it sets.
Crackers
Absorb milk and juices, keeping the loaf moist and giving it body.
Milk
Adds moisture, keeping the loaf tender rather than dry.
Salt pork
Adds fat and flavour that keeps the lean beef juicy.

The step that matters

Bake for 1 hour until cooked through. Ground meat loaves must reach a safe internal temperature throughout. Starting from a dense mixture, the centre heats slowly, so cooking time alone is not a reliable check and a thermometer is the safer test.

“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.

More beef loaf recipes

Spiced 9 See all 201 →

You might also like

Roast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesPork CakePork Cake107 recipesCorned BeefCorned Beef87 recipesRoast PorkRoast Pork82 recipes