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Beef or Veal Loaf
Three pounds of meat chopped fine with one-fourth of a pound of salt pork, six Boston crackers powdered fine, one sheet of Cooper's isinglass dissolved in a coffeecup of warm water, one tablespoon of butter, one teaspoon of salt, and one of pepper, one of powdered cloves, or a nutmeg grated. Mix well together with two eggs; bake one hour. This will slice well when cold.
A Victorian pressed meat loaf, built to be sliced cold rather than served hot with gravy. The gelatin is the point: it sets the juices so the loaf holds together under a knife.
- Cooper's isinglassA commercial brand of sheet gelatin sold in the nineteenth century; the words isinglass and gelatin were used loosely at the time. Historical sheets were not a standard size, so any modern equivalent is approximate: about one envelope of powdered gelatin (roughly 2 1/4 teaspoons) dissolved in a small cupful of warm water. Skip it and the loaf will still cook, but it is likelier to crumble when sliced cold.
- Boston crackersA large, plain, slightly sweet soda cracker. Six powdered fine give roughly a cupful of fine crumbs, though the yield depends on the cracker; unsalted saltines or plain water biscuits are the closest current stand-in.
- A coffeecupThese measures were not standardised, but a coffeecup is usually reckoned at about a cupful and is generally treated as the larger measure, with the teacup smaller. The exact volume matters little here since the water is only a solvent for the gelatin.
- Oven heatNo temperature is given because the book assumes a wood range. Bake at 350F, moderate, in a loaf pan.
- Cook to temperature, not to the clockOne hour will not reliably bring a 3 lb loaf through. Ground beef and veal should reach 160F at the center on an instant-read thermometer; expect 75 to 90 minutes for a loaf this size.
- Salt porkAdds fat and cure flavor to lean chopped meat. Use about 4 oz, rinsed and chopped fine or ground with the meat. If your beef is 80/20 rather than butcher-lean, cut the salt a little, as salt pork brings its own.
- The spicingA teaspoon of powdered cloves in 3 lb of meat is assertive by modern taste. A whole grated nutmeg, the alternative given, is likewise generous; half of one is nearer current practice.
- Setting and servingThe recipe says only that it will slice well when cold, so chill the baked loaf thoroughly before slicing; cooling it under a light weight in its pan is a modern refinement, not an instruction here. Three pounds of meat gives 8 to 10 servings, meant for a cold supper table or sandwiches.
Cold sliced meat loaves like this one belong to the Victorian supper table rather than to dinner: chopped meat bound with cracker crumbs and gelatin, baked, chilled and cut thin for tea, picnics or the sideboard. Commercial sheet gelatin sold under trade names such as Cooper's was available in American kitchens from the middle decades of the nineteenth century, offering an alternative to boiling calves' feet for stock jelly, which is why a home cookbook could casually call for one sheet and move on. Recipes of the 1870s and 1880s frequently offer beef and veal interchangeably, as here; veal is comparatively rich in natural gelatin, which would give a firmer slice. The Home Cook Book, compiled in Chicago and widely copied, is often described as one of the earliest American charitable community cookbooks, and this recipe's terseness is typical of the form.