Home › Meats › Beef Loaf Served as a Roast
Beef Loaf Served as a Roast
One pound of beef, one pound of pork, one pound of veal, one-half pound of bread crumbs, one egg, salt and pepper, mold in a loaf, put in a pan with water and bits of butter over the top. Bake two hours. Baste often with the water, which makes the gravy.
A three-meat loaf of the standard American type, baked in a shallow bath of water that doubles as basting liquid and gravy. The original gives no oven temperature and no doneness cue, which are the two things worth pinning down.
- Oven temperatureUnstated, as was normal in a book written for range cooks. A loaf of this size belongs at 350F; two hours at that heat is about right for a single 3-pound loaf, but go by an internal thermometer reading of 160F rather than the clock.
- The meatBuy the beef, pork and veal ground, or grind them together once at home. Ground veal is now a special-order item at many counters; an equal weight of additional pork keeps the loaf tender, though it loses some of the delicacy the veal contributes.
- Bread crumbsHalf a pound is a great deal, and the recipe does not say whether they are dry or fresh. Dry crumbs at that weight will drink the loaf's moisture and bake stodgy. Use fresh soft crumbs, and soak them in about a cup of milk or stock before mixing.
- BinderOne egg for three pounds of meat is on the thin side by current practice. Two eggs hold the slices together better, particularly if you intend to serve it carved at table as the title suggests.
- Seasoning"Salt and pepper" is the whole seasoning list. Reckon on roughly a teaspoon of fine salt per pound of meat plus a generous quantity of pepper; onion, thyme or sage are period-appropriate additions if you want them.
- The water in the panThis is the hinge. The shallow water keeps the bottom of the loaf from scorching and gives you basting liquid, but it must be topped up as it evaporates or the drippings will burn and the gravy with them. Check every half hour.
- The gravyWhat you pour off will be thin meat broth with butter in it. Skim the fat, then either reduce it hard or thicken with a spoonful of flour cooked in the reserved fat.
- YieldThree pounds of meat plus crumbs feeds eight to ten. Let it rest at least fifteen minutes before carving; it slices more cleanly still once cold, which also suits leftovers cut thin for sandwiches.
Loaves of chopped meat bound with bread and egg run back through European cookery for centuries, but the American meat loaf as a distinct household dish is generally associated with the spread of the domestic meat grinder, which brought minced meat within reach of many kitchens in the later nineteenth century. A beef-pork-veal combination of this kind recurs in cookbooks of the period, and the same three meats are still sold together as a packaged meatloaf mix. The title is the point of the recipe: presenting the loaf as a roast, carved and sauced with its own gravy, let a cook set a joint-shaped centerpiece on the table using cheaper cuts and trimmings. That thrift, dressed in the manners of a roast, is very much the sensibility of turn-of-the-century American household cookery.