Dad made the best meatloaf. It gave me some extremely rank gas (no doubt due to the half cup or so of dehydrated onions), but it was tasty. I never got his ‘recipe’ (he just threw it together out of long practice), but I think I’ve come pretty close. Out of curiosity, I looked at the recipe on the back of a box of Lipton onion soup mix, and it looks like my version of dad’s recipe - only without the dehydrated onions, and with catsup in it. So this is what I made last night:
2 pounds ground beef
1 pound ground pork
1 cup bread crumbs
2 eggs
½ yellow onion
Fresh parsley
¾ cup water
1 ½ packets Lipton onion soup mix
The SO doesn’t like the effects of dehydrated onions, so I went with a fresh onion. I usually mince things with a knife, but I was feeling lazy; so I put half an onion and about a third of a bunch of parsley into the food processor and minced it up much, much more finely than I would have with a knife. Again being lazy, I transferred it into the stand mixer bowl. I added the meat, and set the mixer to ‘Stir’. Then the rest of the stuff went in until everything was thoroughly mixed.
I shaped it into a load and put it on a rack in a pan, covered it with foil, and popped it into a 350ºF oven for an hour and a half. I took the foil off and poured a can of tomato sauce over it, and then put it back into the oven for 20 minutes. It might have used a little more soup mix, or a little salt, but I hate it when things are too salty. It was just salty enough, and we both liked it.
Some people like meatloaf with brown gravy. I grew up with tomato sauce, so that’s the way I like it. I like how the acidity of the tomatoes works with the saltiness of the meat.
‘Mom’ gave the cat a few tiny bits of meatloaf. He liked it too.
1.5 to 2 lb. ground beef
2 eggs
2 slices of bread shredded up
Milk - not a lot - it’s to wet the bread up
Worchestire Sauce - maybe 2 T?
Fyra Kroddar (t’s a Swedish Spice - smells like sage - you could substitute) - maybe 2 t?
Salt and Pepper
Sauteed Onion, Garlic and Green Bell Pepper
Lipton’s Beefy Onion Soup Mix (1 package)
Bacon
’
Mix all that stuff up (except the bacon) then add the beef. Don’t over mix the beef - it will get tough. I put it in a baking pan (9 x 13 or something close to that). Mush it into a loaf shape. Cover with bacon (across the short side - so each slice of loaf has a slice of bacon on it.)
Bake at 350. Maybe an hour. I forget. Could be hour and a half.
Husband eats it with ketchup. I use mushroom gravy or brown gravy (Heinz - it’s bottled - this is meatloaf - not a roast - I’m not going to bother making gravy from scratch) to put on the mashed potatoes I make to go with it.
I thought about adding Worchestershire, but didn’t.
I’ve heard Alton Brown say that. Normally I mix by hand, but I used the stand mixer this time for uniformity. Technically, I over-mixed; but the loaf was not tough at all. I credit the inclusion of bread crumbs, which makes ground meats ‘softer’.
For me, it has to be au gratin potatoes. It’s what I grew up with. If I were making mashed potatoes, I’d do the brown gravy.
Tonka doesn’t get much ‘people food’. The SO warns me not to give him too much, but she’s the one who gives him tidbits.
Just as a PSA, avoid giving cats foods that include onion or garlic. They are actually toxic for cats, though probably not at the sort of quantity they’d get in a bit of meatloaf.
I used to to have such a time with my meatloaf. It would be great one time and terrible the next. When we opened the deli, I had to fix that. Mine is very very simple but is so good. It was popular too.
5 lbs good ground beef
1 Large onion chopped
2 eggs
1/2 cup of bread crumbs
1/2 catsup plus some for the top
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
I season the chopped onion with salt and pepper, then sauté it until it’s translucent. Then just toss everything in a bowl, mix and shape. I cover the top with a thin layer of catsup and bake until the inside is 170, which is about 45 minutes or so at 350/375.
I call it my KISS meatloaf. Keep it simple stupid.
