In 13 hours I’ve had a slice of cold pizza, a bowl of ramen, and a slice of apple pie. I probably shouldn’t be hungry. But I decided I’d cook dinner whether the SO is hungry when she gets home or not. So I made a three-pound meatloaf. It’s not going to be done until 8:00 at the earliest. It smells so good… It’s making me hungry. Potatoes au gratin from a box are cooking, too. Since I have to get up at (literally) oh-dark-thirty in the morning, I hate to eat so late.
Save it for cold meat loaf sandwiches. Now I gotta go buy me some ground beef and ground lamb tomorrow.
I used ⅔ ground beef and ⅓ ground pork.
Meat loaf sandwiches. Definitely. It was actually part of the motivation. 
I use 1/4 lean beef, 1/4 20%, and 1/2 lamb. Or beef, pork and lamb. The lamb gives it a richer flavor. Cold meat loaf on white bread with mayo and lettuce was a favorite comfort food when I was a kid. My mother just made it with cheap ground beef and maybe some chopped onion (which I always picked out, because I was miserable little shit of a kid). She always made it in a loaf pan, so it was more boiled than roasted. Still, I didn’t know that it wasn’t the best, just the best I knew about.
I am no longer hungry. I stopped before I was stuffed, though.
I have my fingers in my ears so I don’t have to hear the screams of disgust–
For cutting-back-on-red-meat-health-reasons, I’ve made the last several meatloaves with ground turkey. Jennie-O has an online recipe that gets the flavor pretty close and even though the texture is not really similar, it’s NOT BAD. Quite tasty.
Yes, you should!
Yeah. Maybe not the healthiest choices, but it’s certainly not a crap-ton of food.
Beef and pork for homestyle meatloaf, beef and lamb for gyros. :o
Mmmm… gyros.
I like 1/2 beef, 1/2 sweet Italian sausage. Lots of chopped parsley and grated parmesan, too.
What’s everyone’s experience on crumbs? In my experience, finely ground cracker crumbs produce a moist but sliceable texture. I like the flavor of fresh crumbs from a loaf of Italian bread, but the end product is somewhat spongy and the loaf is less cohesive, i.e., it falls apart upon slicing.
My mom always used rolled oats, so I do too. I add an egg for binder.
Panko for crumbs, and a lot of garlic and just a little thyme. Those are my mom’s meatloaf tricks that I now use. Weirdly enough, Mom despises meatloaf due to her 1950s / broke most of the time upbringing, but Dad loves meatloaf so she took it upon herself to make a good recipe.
Try adding some chopped onion, green and red peppers, sun-dried tomato, and smoked paprika, along with the traditional Worcestershire sauce and garlic. I slather the top of the loaf with a mixture of ketchup and dark brown Muscovado sugar to form a glaze.
Usually I use panko breadcrumbs mixed with eggs and evaporated milk, but I’m willing to give rolled oats a try.
Johnny, Chef, post your recipes plz. I have not enjoyed my last few attempts at meatloaf as much as I wished.
BE ADVISED: Meatloaf is ‘comfort food’, ‘just like dad used to make’. I do not, and will not, make ‘gourmet’ meatloaf!
That said, this is how I make it (and how dad made it): 2 pounds ground beef, 1 pound ground pork, 2 eggs, ¾ cup bread crumbs, 1 cup water, some catsup, 1½ packets Lipton Onion Soup Mix, some dehydrated onions (I used to use chopped onions, but they weren’t ‘dad’), some dehydrated parsley (or fresh chopped parsley). Stir it all together in the stand mixer using the paddle, or mix by hand. Shape into a loaf and put it on a rack in a baking pan. Cook in a 375ºF oven for an hour to an hour and a half. Pour a can of tomato sauce on it and return it to the oven for 15 minutes or so, until the tomato sauce is ‘set’ (not ‘wet’).
Actually, now that I think of it… I used a full cup of bread crumbs. That’s how much was left in the container, so I just threw it all in.