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Meat Loaf

A savory loaf made from finely chopped round steak, crackers, milk, egg, butter, salt, pepper, and summer savory, steamed until cooked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and summer savory work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 671 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Meat Loaf

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove all fat and gristle from the round steak and chop it very fine.

  2. In a bowl, combine the chopped steak, rolled crackers, milk, egg, butter, salt, pepper, and summer savory.

  3. Grease a dish and press the mixture in firmly.

Cook

  1. Steam for 1½ hours.

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. Pepper + summer savorytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together671 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Round steak
Provides the meat base and bulk that gives the loaf its body.
Rolled crackers
Absorb liquid and help bind the meat so the loaf holds its shape.
Milk
Adds moisture that keeps the mixture tender during cooking.
Egg
Binds the mixture as it sets, helping the loaf hold together when sliced.
Butter
Adds fat that contributes richness and softens the texture.

The step that matters

Press the mixture in firmly. Packing the mixture firmly removes air pockets and lets the egg and crackers bind the meat, so the loaf holds together rather than crumbling when cut.

Swap the summer savory

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. Summer savorythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, butter, 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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