My housemates and I are having a huge Superb Owl party this evening, and we’re expecting at least 25 guests. We were talking about what an event this is, what with the highest-rated TV show of the year, and I guessed Superb Owl Sunday is second only to Thanksgiving in terms of food consumed by Americans at parties and gatherings. The thing is, I actually prefer football food to the traditional Thanksgiving dinner! Burgers, hot dogs, barbecue, nachos, chips and dips, wings, fries, lasagna, sausage and peppers, chili, lot of fried stuff, lots of cheese… it’s good we don’t eat like this all year, but for one fine evening (and hopefully a few more since I hope we have leftovers), it’s nice to pig out on stuff like this.
So, Dopers, what are some of your favorite football foods? Are you making any of them tonight? Having people over for the big game, or going somewhere else to watch it? My housemate will be grilling burgers and chicken breasts for our guests, but I decided to get a little more creative. I’m making my first-ever MEATCAKE. It came to me in a flash on inspiration, but after some quick web searching, I see others have made very similar things. Oh well, I guarantee that this will be the first meatcake any of our friends will have seen – I happen to be the guy who introduced everyone to beer can chicken last year (and started a thread about it).
Anyway, meatcake! I make a pretty good meatloaf, so I started with that. Got a five-pound “Chub” tube of ground beef and added four eggs, about a cup and a half of kosher bread crumbs (no parmesan cheese or anything), and a good bit of every spice, seasoning, and condiment we had in the house: minced garlic, chopped sweet Vidalia onion, ketchup, barbecue sauce, worcestershire sauce, Tabasco Chipotle, liquid smoke, spicy brown mustard, Old Bay seasoning, basil, oregano, adobo, cumin, paprika, chili powder, garlic powder, black pepper, and a dash of kosher salt. Mixed it up nice and divided it into three round disposable aluminum cake pans, then topped them with a blend of ketchup, barbecue sauce, and brown sugar to form a nice crusty glaze on top. Baked them for an hour at 350 degrees and put them in the fridge overnight.
My next step today is to shave off the tops and sides of the three meatloaf discs to get them to be even, flat, and round. Then I’ll put them back in the oven just long enough to heat them back up. Meanwhile, I’ll make a quick sweet tomatoey glaze by simmering a can of tomato paste with some worcestershire and brown sugar, and start stacking the meat discs on a large plate: a foundation meat layer, glaze in between, second meat layer, more glaze, and third meat layer on top. Then I’ll stick in some short bamboo skewers to keep them from sliding or falling apart.
Finally, I’ll cook up some instant mashed potatoes, making sure to use margarine instead of butter so my housemate (who keeps kosher) can enjoy the marvelousness of meatcake too. Mashed potato purists, feel free to sneer, but you really need the smooth, uniform consistency you get from the instant potato flakes. When I have it to the consistency of cake icing, I’ll do exactly what you expect me to do: “ice” my triple-decker meatcake just as you’d spread and smooth icing over a real desserty cake. I’ll even set some potatoes aside and put them in a Ziploc baggie, snip off a tiny corner, and squeeze out little artsy flourishes around the top and sides, like you’d see on a cake. (I thought about adding food coloring for some real style points, but I actually want people to eat this, after all my efforts!) Voila, cut out slices and serve it like a real cake: layers of rich brown meatloaf with red tomatoey goodness between them, all iced with tasty smooth mashed potatoes. It’s an entire hearty meal… in cake form!
Fear not, I will take pictures as I go.