My wonderful son - who I love! A lot! - is coming over for dinner again soon. By special request (his), I will be serving mashed potatoes and gravy.
I want to make a nice, juicy, delicious meatloaf, but I have always just winged it with whatever I had on hand.
I know the SDMB can do much better than that. So please, bring it on. Thank you!
I don’t really have a recipe, but I’ve found that gently panfrying some diced onion, celery, and bell pepper before adding them in greatly improves the flavor of the finished meatloaf. I only cook the veggies until they are limp, I don’t brown them. I also drain the meatloaf about 10 minutes before it’s done, and top it with A1, rather than tomato sauce.
If you like a backyard barbecue, look up meatloaf in bbq pit boys (youtube.)
^
Addendum: whereas I like most of their recipes, I don’t like the way they cook/roast vegetables by more than an hour.
In 2 lbs hamburger or turkey use: 1 whole onion & one whole green pepper, processed, or diced very fine. 2/3 C Parmesan cheese, 1 C Stove top stuffing, crushed or processed fine, 1 egg, 2-3T French Dressing, salt, pepper, garlic powder, Worcestershire sauce, to taste. Glaze with honey mustard.
Classic oatmeal meatloaf from Quaker Oats (altho I’d probably do 1/2 beef 1/2 pork not just beef)
This is the best meatloaf and glaze I have ever had. I made this with mashed potatoes and brown gravy, turnip greens, and a cucumber salad.
It was one hell of a fine meal.
Steve Dolby has many different recipes on his blog. I believe they are all video recipes. He also has a YouTube channel.
Good luck!
I use this recipe, except I substitute steel cut oats for the Quaker (because that’s what I have on hand nowadays) and low-sodium V-8 juice for the tomato juice. It always turns out great.
Wait, that’s not the recipe I use, this is it:
http://www.quakeroats.com/cooking-and-recipes/content/recipes/recipe-detail.aspx?recipeId=486
Prize Winning Meatloaf, rather than Classic Meatloaf.
Great, now I want meatloaf.
“sweating them”
Cool…though a bit, a small bit of caramelization could be flavor enhancing.
good idea to let it rest…
before for after cooking?
I recently switched from making meatloaf in a bread pan to using a cookie sheet. The loaf isn’t as perfectly rectangular, but it cooks up nicely and soggy bottom isn’t a problem.
I love this recipehttp://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/good-eats-meat-loaf-recipe/index.html
The glaze mixes ketchup, honey, hot sauce, and cumin. It is really great.
This. My wife used to make a meatloaf in the traditional loaf pan, and it seemed that if the loaf contained to much moisture from fat, veggies, or whatever, the meatloaf became a meat…mush.
Use the loaf as a mold or a form, and cook the meatloaf on a cookie sheet or slotted roasting pan. All of the grease will be free to drain away.
Also, my brother in law makes a stuffed meatloaf. He spreads out the mixture to about a 1/2" thick on a piece of wax paper, lays down some ham and pepper jack cheese, then rolls it like a jelly roll or roulade. Seal the ends and cook normally.
That’s pretty much the one I use, but I use a mixture of about 2/3 ground beef and 1/3 ground lamb. Excellent.
Meatloaf is one of those things I make without a real recipe. Once I have the meat ready to go, I like to roll it out on a cutting board and stuff it, jellyroll style.
No recipe, but I use just a bit of chorizo sausage in the mix of ground beef and pork. Not enough that it’s identifiable as a separate ingredient, but it really adds to the flavor.
Cook’s came up with one a few years ago that I love. For one thing, they established what my mother already well knew, that the best filler is crushed saltines - I was an oatmeal user, myself, but they tried half a dozen things and came back to crackers. Having tried it again, I agree.
The other thing they did was get it up out of the pan - cook it on a draining rack, rather than ‘boiling it in oil.’
I tinker with the basic recipe from time to time, but those two details stay.
I follow Bill Blass’s recipe:
I like the onions & celery cooked in, the meatball-like quality of the mixed meats, and that it uses very little starch binder.
Again to the Cook’s recipe, using a blend of meats to get about 85% lean makes a big difference - trying to make it with anything leaner is tasteless and crumbly, any more and you end up with more rendered fat than loaf.
Precooking the ingredients makes a huge difference as well. I know meatloaf is supposed to be a one-bowl, one-pan dish, but taking the time to saute the onions, celery, tomato juice and spices before folding it in with the meat, crackers and egg really ups the result.
I use Progresso Italian Bread Crumbs.
I mix hamburger and Italian sausage at about a 3:1 ratio
I use more egg than most recipes call for
About 10 minutes before the meatloaf is done I drain it and top with a mixture of ketchup, brown sugar, and a squirt of yellow mustard.
Most importantly, Don’t over mix it!
eta: I make mine in a cake pan lined with foil, for easy cleanup. I mound it up to a desired thickness and keep the loaf pulled back from the edges a couple of inches to give the grease a place to go.