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Beef Loaf

Beef loaf made with ground beef, pork fat, eggs, cream, crackers, spices, baked and basted.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Beef Loaf

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

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).

  2. In a bowl, mix the cream and beaten eggs together.

Shape the loaf

  1. Combine the beef, salt pork, crushed crackers, black pepper, sage, and coarse sea salt in a large mixing bowl.

  2. Add the cream and egg mixture to the meat mixture and mix well.

  3. Form the mixture into a loaf shape.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the loaf in a baking dish and bake for 2 hours, basting with butter and water periodically.

  2. Once cooked, cut the loaf into thin slices to serve.

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

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

  2. Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

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

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  5. Pork + sagetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,527 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Raw beef
Forms the main body of the loaf and provides savory, meaty flavor.
Salt pork
Adds fat that keeps the loaf moist and adds richness as it cooks.
Eggs
Bind the meat mixture so the loaf holds its shape when sliced.
Crackers
Absorb juices and fat, helping the loaf stay tender and hold together.
Cream
Adds moisture and softens the texture of the loaf.

The step that matters

Basting during baking. Lean ground meat dries out over a long bake, so periodic basting with butter and water adds moisture and helps keep the surface from drying and toughening.

Swap the sage

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Sagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pork, egg, cream, 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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