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Hamburg and Rice Loaf
One lb. hamburg, 1 cup cooked rice, 1 onion fried, 1/2 tsp. salt, pinch pepper, 1/2 cup milk, 1 egg. Mold all together, shape into loaf and bake one-half hour. When done, tomato sauce may be poured over loaf.
— Mrs. R. Josephson
A plain wartime-style meat loaf stretched with rice. The original assumes you know your own oven and your own loaf pan, so the two things to supply are a temperature and a doneness test.
- "Hamburg"Period shorthand for ground beef, not a seasoned patty mix. Ground chuck at around 80/20 gives the best result here; very lean beef plus rice makes a dry, crumbly loaf.
- Oven temperatureNone is given. A moderate oven, 350F, is right for a loaf of this size and richness.
- The half hour is optimisticA free-formed 1 lb loaf will take 40 to 50 minutes at 350F, longer in a loaf pan where the sides insulate it. Cook to an internal temperature of 160F at the centre rather than by the clock.
- The onion"1 onion fried" means a medium onion chopped and cooked in butter or drippings until soft and lightly coloured, then cooled before mixing. Adding it raw leaves crunchy pieces and a harsh taste; adding it hot begins to cook the egg.
- RiceCooked and cooled. Leftover long-grain rice works well here; freshly cooked hot rice can make the mixture pasty. It absorbs the milk and keeps the loaf tender.
- Shaping"Shape into loaf" means free-form on a shallow pan, which gives browned surfaces all round. A loaf pan works but steams the sides and needs the extra time noted above.
- Tomato sauceMost likely a simple cooked tomato sauce or thinned canned tomato rather than a sweet ketchup glaze, though the recipe does not specify. Pour it over after baking, as written, or spoon it on for the last ten minutes if you want it to set on the surface.
- YieldThree to four servings. Let the loaf rest five minutes before slicing or it will fall apart at the knife.
Meat loaves bound with a cheap starch belong to the era of the community cookbook, and the Philathea books were exactly that: recipes collected from the women of Philathea classes, adult Bible-study groups for young women that spread widely through North American Protestant churches in the early twentieth century. Each contribution carries a name, as this one carries Mrs. R. Josephson's, and the collection as a whole is a snapshot of what a particular congregation actually cooked. Rice, breadcrumbs, oatmeal and cracker crumbs all did the same job in these loaves: making a pound of ground beef feed four people and keeping the texture soft. The finish with tomato sauce sits in a period when canned tomatoes were widely available, though the recipe itself says nothing about how pantries were stocked; the sauce is simply an inexpensive way to give a plain baked loaf both moisture and acidity.