Beef Loaf
Mix thoroughly four pounds of chopped round steak with two unbeaten eggs, one pint of bread crumbs, two tablespoons of chopped parsley, a saltspoon of pepper and two teaspoons of salt. Place in a bread pan and press firmly until it is molded to the shape of the pan. Run a sharp, thin knife blade around the loaf, turn it out into a roasting-pan, place in a moderate oven and bake for about two hours, basting every quarter of an hour with hot stock. Cut in thin slices, and serve cold, with horseradish. A hard boiled egg may be molded in the center of the loaf to show prettily when sliced.
A plain baked beef loaf built on lean ground round, intended to be sliced cold rather than served hot from the oven. Two things carry it: the basting, which is not optional with meat this lean, and the long chill before slicing.
- Moderate ovenBake at 350F. At that temperature a loaf this size will need close to the stated two hours, but go by an internal reading of 160F at the center rather than the clock.
- Chopped round steakThis is lean ground beef, noticeably leaner than the chuck-based "ground beef" usually sold today, which is why the recipe leans so hard on frequent basting.
- SaltspoonA saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon. With two teaspoons of salt against four pounds of meat, the seasoning is on the light side by current taste; a full tablespoon of salt would not be out of place.
- A pint of bread crumbsCrumbs were measured by volume, so a pint means about two cups. Use soft crumbs torn from stale bread, not the dry sandy kind in a canister, which absorb far more liquid and will tighten the loaf.
- The basting mattersEvery fifteen minutes with hot stock is the hinge of the recipe. Lean round has almost no internal fat to keep it moist over two hours, and skipping the basting gives a dry, crumbly loaf that will not slice cleanly.
- Turning it outMolding in a bread pan and unmolding into an open roasting pan lets the surface brown all round and lets the basting liquid reach the sides. Line the bread pan with plastic wrap or parchment if you want the loaf to release without a fight.
- Serve cold means fully coldChill the loaf overnight before slicing thin. Warm, it will fall apart under the knife; cold and set, it cuts to the thickness this recipe is written for.
- The egg in the centerPeel the hard-boiled egg, dry it, and bury it lengthwise in the middle of the meat so the slices show a yellow eye. Keep it well away from the ends or the first several slices are just meat.
- YieldFour pounds of meat plus crumbs and eggs makes a large loaf, enough for ten to twelve as a cold plate. Halve everything for a household loaf and reduce the baking to about an hour and a quarter.
Cold sliced meat loaf of this kind belonged to the sideboard and the supper table rather than to dinner, and its place in an early twentieth-century cookbook is practical: it used a cheap, lean cut, kept for days in a cool larder, and could be sliced for luncheon, picnics or Sunday evening without further cooking. Ground meat molded and baked as a loaf spread widely in American cookbooks through the late nineteenth century, a spread often associated with the arrival of the household meat grinder, which put grinding in the kitchen rather than at the butcher's counter. The horseradish is one of the period's common partners for cold beef, and the hard-boiled egg set in the middle may be an echo of an older decorative tradition, the same impulse that put eggs through galantines and veal pies so that the cut face would show a pattern.