1887 Veal Loaf (The White House Cook Book)
One of the oldest American meat loaves in print: ground veal mixed with eggs, cream, crushed crackers, pepper and sage, shaped by hand and basted with butter as it bakes. No ketchup in sight.
English Wikipedia says the first recorded recipe for the modern North American meatloaf dates from the late 1870s, citing Bon Appétit, and that it was originally served as a breakfast food: cold meat chopped and mixed with seasoning, onion, egg and milk-soaked bread. We could not open the Bon Appétit article; search summaries credit the breakfast detail to the food historian Andrew Smith. Wikipedia adds that American meatloaf did not appear in cookbooks until the late 19th century.
By the 1880s the loaf was in the big household books. "The White House Cook Book" by Mrs. F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann, billed on its title page as Steward of the White House, prints a Veal Loaf of three pounds of chopped raw veal, eggs, cream, pounded crackers, pepper, salt and a large spoonful of sage, formed into a loaf and baked two and a half hours with butter and water for basting (Project Gutenberg, labeled 1887:). Fannie Farmer's Boston Cooking-School Cook Book (1896) has two veal loaves, one pressed with egg slices and one with salt pork, crackers and cream, and Marion Harland's Complete Cook Book (1903) steams a beef loaf with salt pork and cracker dust in a mold. None of them uses ketchup. The glazed loaf came later (our Classic Glazed American Meatloaf recipe).
Why it works the kitchen science
Cream, egg and butter
Veal is lean and mild, so the cream and butter give it the fat it lacks, and the eggs and soaked cracker crumbs bind it into slices.
Basting
Spooning butter and juices over the top every 20 minutes keeps the outside of a free-form loaf from drying out during a long bake, the 19th-century answer to a glaze.
Step by step
- Step 1
Heat the oven to 350°F. Line a rimmed baking pan with foil and grease it.
- Step 2
Whisk the eggs with the cream and the melted butter in a large bowl. Add the cracker crumbs, sage, salt and pepper and let them sit 5 minutes so the crumbs soften.
- Step 3
Add the veal and mix with your hands just until evenly combined. Shape it into a firm, smooth loaf about 10 by 5 inches in the middle of the pan.
- Step 4
Melt the 2 tbsp butter in the hot water. Bake the loaf 20 minutes, then spoon some of the butter and water over it.
- Step 5
Keep baking, basting with the butter mixture and then with the pan juices every 20 minutes, for 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours more, until the loaf is well browned and the center reads 160°F.
- Step 6
Let the loaf rest 10 minutes, then cut it in thin slices, as Gillette says, and spoon the pan juices over.
1887 Veal Loaf (The White House Cook Book)
Serves 8 · 1 large loaf (about 16 slices) · 2 hr 10 min total
Loaf
- 3 lb ground veal
- 4 tbsp butter, melted and cooled
- 3 large eggs
- 3 tbsp heavy cream (or whole milk plus 1 tsp more butter, as Gillette allows)
- 1/2 cup finely crushed saltines (about 13 crackers)
- 1 tbsp dried rubbed sage
- 1 tbsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
For basting
- 2 tbsp butter
- 1/2 cup hot water
Method
- Heat the oven to 350°F. Line a rimmed baking pan with foil and grease it.
- Whisk the eggs with the cream and the melted butter in a large bowl. Add the cracker crumbs, sage, salt and pepper and let them sit 5 minutes so the crumbs soften.
- Add the veal and mix with your hands just until evenly combined. Shape it into a firm, smooth loaf about 10 by 5 inches in the middle of the pan.
- Melt the 2 tbsp butter in the hot water. Bake the loaf 20 minutes, then spoon some of the butter and water over it.
- Keep baking, basting with the butter mixture and then with the pan juices every 20 minutes, for 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours more, until the loaf is well browned and the center reads 160°F.
- Let the loaf rest 10 minutes, then cut it in thin slices, as Gillette says, and spoon the pan juices over.
Adapted from "Veal Loaf" in Mrs. F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann, "The White House Cook Book" (Project Gutenberg's text, labeled 1887; its preface mentions a June 1888 dinner, so it is a later printing). The amounts of veal (3 lb), eggs (3), cream (3 tbsp), pepper (1 tsp), salt and sage (1 large tbsp each) are Gillette's; her salt is 1 tbsp and we use 1 tbsp kosher salt, which is milder. "Butter the size of an egg" is our 4 tbsp, and "four pounded crackers" (19th-century common crackers) is our 1/2 cup finely crushed saltines. The oven temperature, the basting mixture of 2 tbsp butter in 1/2 cup water, the timing and the 160°F check (FoodSafety.gov) are ours; Gillette bakes it 2 1/2 hours with no temperature. gutenberg.org. Ingredient list follows the source; the method is in our own words.
All sources (4)
Tips
- Veal is expensive now. Half veal and half ground pork stays close to the old flavor; Fannie Farmer adds salt pork to hers.
- Gillette serves it in thin slices, hot or cold; cold slices are what made the loaf a lunch and picnic food.
- Rubbed sage is fluffy and mild; if you only have finely ground sage, use 1 1/2 tsp.
The rules people argue about
What the sources agree on, what they don't, and what is just a good story.
- Meatloaf started as breakfast. Disputed: Wikipedia, citing Bon Appétit, says the first modern American meatloaf was a breakfast food; we could not read the article, and the cookbooks we read serve their loaves for lunch or supper without saying.
- American meatloaf comes from scrapple. Disputed: Wikipedia traces it to scrapple, a pork and cornmeal loaf of Pennsylvania Germans, but tags that claim "better source needed".
- Meatloaf was invented during the Great Depression. Folklore: the Depression made it popular (Wikipedia), but recipes were in print by the 1880s (The White House Cook Book).
- Real meatloaf has a ketchup glaze. Documented as a later habit: none of the 1887, 1896 and 1903 recipes we read uses ketchup.
- Bake it until the juices run clear. Folklore as a test: FoodSafety.gov's chart gives 160°F for ground meat, measured with a thermometer.
Every other meatloaf
Falscher Hase (German Mock Hare Meatloaf with Eggs)
Germany's "mock hare": a beef and pork loaf bound with soaked rolls, wrapped around three whole hard-boiled eggs, topped with bacon and served with a sour cream pan gravy.
Polpettone Ripieno (Italian Meatloaf with Ham and Provolone)
An Italian beef and pork loaf made with Grana Padano and no bread at all, rolled around sliced ham and provolone, wrapped in parchment and roasted on a bed of rosemary potatoes.
Forloren Hare (Danish Mock Hare)
Denmark's mock hare: a pork and veal loaf bound with oats, covered in bacon, baked in milk, and served with a creamy sauce made from that milk and a spoonful of redcurrant jelly.
Embutido (Filipino Steamed Meatloaf)
Two foil-wrapped logs of beef, pork, ham, carrots and golden raisins, each built around a row of hard-boiled eggs and pimientos, steamed instead of baked and sliced into colorful rounds.
Bobotie (South African Curried Mince with Egg Custard)
Gently curried ground beef sweetened with apricot chutney and raisins, bound with milk-soaked bread and baked under a golden egg custard with bay leaves on top.
Classic Glazed American Meatloaf
The American classic: beef and pork bound with a milk and saltine paste, browned under the broiler, then painted twice with a tangy brown sugar and ketchup glaze and baked to a glossy finish.
Oatmeal Meat Loaf (The Stretch-the-Meat Classic)
A seven-ingredient loaf that stretches a pound and a half of lean beef with rolled oats and tomato juice, pressed into a loaf pan and baked an hour: the thrifty American meatloaf at its simplest.
Bacon-Wrapped Meatloaf
A beef, pork and veal loaf brushed with brown sugar and ketchup glaze and covered with overlapping strips of bacon that baste the meat and bake up crisp.
Turkey Meatloaf with Ketchup and Brown Sugar Glaze
A ground turkey loaf kept juicy with butter, Parmesan, quick oats and cornstarch, glazed twice and baked on a rack until it reaches 165°F.
30-Minute Mini Meat Loaves
Four small, tightly packed meat loaves seared in a skillet for a crust, spooned with brown sugar and ketchup glaze and finished in a 500°F oven in under 10 minutes.
Country-Store Meatloaf (Inspired by Cracker Barrel, Not Official)
A cheesy, tender beef meatloaf made with buttery crackers, onion, green pepper and cheddar, finished with a sweet ketchup, brown sugar and mustard glaze. Inspired by the Southern roadside chain; not its recipe.
Meatballs of the World
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Big, tender meatballs braised for an hour in red sauce over spaghetti. The one most Americans grew up with.
Pallottine (Abruzzo Meatballs)
Tiny meatballs, smaller than a marble, tossed right through square spaghetti alla chitarra. No bread at all.
Swedish Meatballs (Köttbullar)
Small, soft meatballs browned in butter, in a cream sauce made from the same pan, with lingonberry jam on the plate.
Danish Frikadeller
Pork meatballs shaped with a spoon and fried slowly in butter, crusty outside and soft in the middle.
Königsberger Klopse
German meatballs that are never fried: poached, then served in a creamy white sauce with capers.
Spanish Albóndigas in Almond Saffron Sauce
The tapas bar classic: small meatballs in a golden sauce thickened with fried almonds and bread.
Mexican Albóndigas with Chipotle and Mint
Soft meatballs with rice and fresh mint inside, simmered in a smoky tomato and chipotle broth.
Izgara Köfte (Turkish Grilled Meatballs)
Small, flat meatballs kneaded hard, rested cold, and charred on a hot grill pan.
Lion's Head Meatballs
Big, soft pork meatballs, stirred into a sticky paste, fried to set, then braised in a savory sauce.
Chicken Tsukune
Japan's chicken meatball: kneaded sticky, grilled on skewers, glazed with sweet soy tare, dipped in egg yolk.