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Meat Loaf (Lb chopped beef lb chopped)
1½ lb. chopped beef 1/2 lb. chopped lean pork (fresh) 4 crackers rolled fine 1/2 C milk 2 eggs 1 small can cooked spaghetti Salt and pepper Emma G. Smith. ½ lb. lean pork 1 egg
A church-supper ingredient list with the method left out, as was common when everyone at the table already knew how a meat loaf went together. The trailing "1½ lb. lean pork, 1 egg" is the beginning of the next contribution, not part of this one.
- No method givenMix the meats, cracker crumbs, milk, eggs and seasoning until just combined, fold in the drained spaghetti last, and pack into a loaf pan. Overworking ground meat compacts it and gives a dense, springy texture.
- Oven and temperatureA loaf of this size bakes at 350F for about 1 hour and 15 minutes. The pork is the reason to be exact: take it to 160F on an instant-read thermometer at the centre.
- "4 crackers rolled fine"Probably soda crackers, which were often larger than the modern saltine, so four may give something like ½ cup of crumbs; judge by eye. Soak the crumbs in the ½ cup milk for ten minutes before mixing so they swell and hold moisture in the loaf.
- Canned cooked spaghettiMost likely spaghetti in tomato sauce, which was on American grocery shelves by the early twentieth century; a "small can" would be somewhere in the 10–15 oz range. A modern equivalent is 1 cup cooked spaghetti cut short with 1/3 cup tomato sauce or passata; drain off any excess liquid or the loaf will not set.
- Chopped, not ground"chopped beef" in books of this vintage generally means meat the butcher put through the grinder to order. Use 80/20 ground beef and coarse ground pork shoulder; very lean modern grinds produce a dry loaf.
- Seasoning"Salt and pepper" alone is light for 2 lb of meat. Figure about 2 teaspoons salt and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, and fry a spoonful of the mix to taste before committing the loaf to the oven.
- Resting and yieldLet the loaf stand 10 minutes before slicing or it will crumble. Serves six to eight as a luncheon dish, and slices cold the next day, which is largely the point of it.
Community cookbooks are shorthand documents: each contributor submitted what he or she thought worth writing down and nothing more, which is why so many entries are bare lists under a name. The canned spaghetti here dates the recipe usefully — commercially canned spaghetti in tomato sauce became a cheap pantry staple in American groceries in the early twentieth century, and cooks folded it into loaves, casseroles and croquettes as both a starch extender and a source of tomato seasoning in one tin. Mixing beef with fresh pork was standard practice for meat loaf, the pork supplying fat and a softer texture; the combination survives in the "meatloaf mix" still sold at butcher counters. The loaf's real virtue was that it fed a crowd, stretched two pounds of meat with crackers and pasta, and was just as good sliced cold the next day.