Home › Luncheon Dishes › Meat Loaf (Lb Hamburger egg cup cracker)
Meat Loaf (Lb Hamburger egg cup cracker)
1 lb. Hamburger 1 egg 1/2 cup cracker or stale bread crumbs Mrs. W. J. Fendick. . 1/2 C sweet milk or water 1 small onion Pepper and salt Mrs. Geo. Smith.
This is a contributor's ingredient list with the method left to the cook's common sense, as was normal in a church cookbook where everyone already knew how a meat loaf went together. The two names at the end suggest two nearly identical submissions were run together on one line.
- The missing methodSoak the crumbs in the milk or water for a few minutes, then mix in the beaten egg, grated or finely minced onion, salt and pepper, and work the mixture into the beef with your hands only until combined. Overworking compacts the protein and gives a dense, springy loaf.
- Oven and timeNo temperature or time is given. For a modern cook, 350F for about an hour suits a 1 lb loaf; check the centre reads 160F on a thermometer.
- "Hamburger" in 1900s usage"Hamburger" in period usage -- Generally plain ground beef rather than a seasoned patty mix. Chuck at roughly 80/20 works well; a very lean grind risks baking out dry with only half a cup of liquid in the mix.
- Sweet milkFresh unsoured whole milk, the term distinguishing it from the buttermilk or clabbered milk also kept in the kitchen. Either milk or water works here; milk browns the crust a little more.
- Cracker crumbsMost likely soda crackers, crushed fine. Crackers are drier and saltier than modern dried breadcrumbs, so taste before adding much salt; about a teaspoon total is right for a pound of beef.
- ShapingA loaf tin gives soft sides and steams the meat in its own fat. Patted into a free-form loaf on a shallow baking pan, it browns on all surfaces.
- YieldOne pound feeds three, or four in a luncheon portion with a vegetable. It slices far more cleanly after ten minutes' rest.
Meat loaf as an American household staple grew out of two older habits meeting: the European forcemeat tradition of binding chopped meat with egg and soaked bread, and the thrift of stretching a pound of beef with whatever dry crumbs were in the pantry. Mechanical meat grinders became common domestic equipment in the later nineteenth century, and cheap ground beef followed. That two contributors sent in the same short list of ingredients is itself a period detail, since a compiled parish cookbook recorded what women actually cooked rather than what an author thought they should.