Meat Croquette Loaf (Beef, Lamb, Veal, Corned Beef, Pork, or Smoked Ham)

Recipe No. 294 from the U.S. Army’s WWII cookbook — Meat. Quantities are exactly as printed, for 100 servings; a scaled-down 8-serving version is in the notes.

Ingredients

• Meat, cooked, ground — 25 pounds
• Salt — 2 ounces (4 mess kit spoons)

Pepper — ¼ ounce (1 mess kit spoon)

• Onions, finely chopped — 5 pounds (5 No. 56 dippers)
• Meat fat — 2½ pounds (1¼ No. 56 dippers)
• Flour, sifted — 2 pounds (2 No. 56 dippers)

Meat stock, hot — 2 quarts (2 No. 56 dippers)

• Eggs, slightly beaten — 30 eggs (1½ No. 56 dippers)
• Bread or cracker crumbs, dry — 5 pounds (5 No. 56 dippers)
• Mace (optional) — ¼ ounce

Directions

1. Combine ground beef, salt, and pepper.
2. Cook onions in fat until brown. Add flour; mix well.
3. Add hot stock gradually. Heat to boiling point, stirring constantly.
4. Cool; add slightly beaten egg, crumbs, and ground mace; mix thoroughly.
5. Pour into well-greased baking pans. Bake in slow oven (325° F.) 1 hour.
6. Cut into squares.

Notes

SCALED TO 8 SERVINGS (the original is ÷12.5): Meat, cooked, ground — 2 lb Salt — about 1 tsp Pepper — a pinch Onions, finely chopped — 6⅓ oz Meat fat — 3¼ oz Flour, sifted — 2½ oz Meat stock, hot — 10¼ tbsp Eggs, slightly beaten — 2⅓ eggs Bread or cracker crumbs, dry — 6⅓ oz Mace (optional) — a pinch

— TM 10-412, Army Recipes (War Department, 15 August 1944), recipe No. 294, Meat. Army measures: 1 No. 56 dipper = 1 qt; 1 No. 55 dipper = 1¾ qt; 1 mess kit cup = 1½ pints.