That which you call meatloaf confuses and infuriates me. Is it really just a baked lump of meat? I bought the meat, but have no idea what to do with it. Recipes? I should mention that it should be healthy. I am hypoglycemic and so I try to avoid refined sugars. Help the immigrant cook your traditional food!
At the very least, you need to cut the ground meat with lots of bread crumbs and perhaps an egg or two. Otherwise, you’re just making a gigantic rectangular hamburger.
Most people like to chop up some vegetable and mix 'em in there. Onions and peppers are good choices. I like to top it with a thin layer of ketchup or BBQ sauce to make a nice hard crust when it bakes.
Don’t skimp on the filler, whatever you use: breadcrumbs, bread, oats…whatever, it should be enough to allow the loaf to soak up gravy later. My basic throw-together recipe has a 50-50 mix of beef and pork. I mix that, by hand, with oats and an egg until I get the right feel. I then add in chopped onions and what-have-you (garlic, sage, dry mustard, Worchestershire, salt and pepper)until I get a big mass of “meat.” This is then divided between two loaf pans (the wife and I prefer different glazes) and baked until grey all the way through. Pink meatloaf is an Abomination! Then serve with mashed potatoes, gravy and enjoy. Cold meatloaf makes excellent sandwiches. Try a slice on white bread with pickle relish. Yum!
I like the Alton Brown suggestion, which is not to bake it in a meatloaf pan. Use the pan to shape it into a loaf, then turn it out onto a baking tray.
His recipe also has a very nice cumin/ketchup based basting sauce. I make it with ground turkey and sage, which is excellent, but I think it would work well with ground beef. I mix up the meat with an egg, a chopped onion, and whatever herbs/spices I am looking to use, form it into the loaf, turn it out onto the pan, and coat with a brushing of the sauce. Every so often a I brush on more sauce.
If I don’t want to use sauce, I cover it with lots of bacon.
Oh yes, and breadcrumbs too.
No, it’s not just a baked lump of meat! That would be ghastly!
First of all, to properly appreciate American Meat Loaf, you have to understand where it comes from. It comes from Moms trying to cook on a budget for husbands that want Meat and Potatoes (the quintessential American Dinner) and kids who won’t eat their vegetables. So, put yourself in the place of a penny pinching 50’s housewife. You’ve got enough grocery money left for about pound of ground beef to feed a family of five for at least one meal - lunch tomorrow would be good, too. What do you do?
You mix it up with some cheap starchy thing (like oatmeal or breadcrumbs) to bulk it up and throw in some minced veggies (maybe left over from the previous three meals) so the kids eat them without knowing it. Throw an egg in there to make it all stick together. You’ve also now increased the yumminess and healthfullness considerably, I might add.
The final touch will become readily apparent when you remove your meatloaf from the oven. Meatloaf looks really gross on top. It cracks a little and gets these weird bumps and shiny spots on it. What to do? Cover it with a tasty and opaque layer - tomato sauce will do! Ketchup, even better! And hey, if you put the opaque layer on early on in the baking, it’ll caramelize a little bit and get even tastier!
So that’s the basic theory of Meatloaf 101. For a specific recipe, you really cannot beat good old Alton Brown. Don’t get too worked up on the chuck/sirloin distinction. While it’s best with a blend, it’s awesome either way. Heck, I’ve even used half ground turkey with this recipe and it’s still wonderful!
Here’s my favorite brown sugar meatloafrecipe. Except instead of putting the brown sugar and ketchup on the bottom, I put it on top. I mix in a little (okay a lot) of worstershire in the meat too. Yum.
Uh-oh. I bought ground turkey. Foiled?
Here’s my basic meatloaf.
2 lbs. of ground beef (I don’t usually have ground pork on hand, so I don’t use it)
1 egg
approx. 1/4 cup of breadcrumbs or cracker crumbs or oats (like plain instant oatmeal)
1 tsp. Worchester sauce
1 tsp. ground black pepper
1/2 can corn, drained (yes, I like corn in mine)
1/4 cup shredded carrots
1/4 cup shredded red pepper
1/4 cup shredded whatever vegetable that’s in the fridge that needs to be used (I’ve used shredded broccoli, chopped mushrooms, finely shredded cabbage, etc.)
1/2 COOKED onion, chopped (sauteed–I don’t like raw onion in it)
Mix it all together and form it in a low rectangle in a baking pan. (The thinner, the better, as it cooks quicker). Use your finger to poke holes along the top and pour on the following mixture:
1 cup of catsup (or BBQ sauce)
2 Tbs. brown sugar
2 tsp. cider vinegar (you can forgo the vinegar if you want)
Bake for about an hour at 375-400.
When I make this there are almost never any leftovers. Seriously, we eat until we’re sick.
This is probably the best advice I could give you. The meatloaf comes out crisp on the outside, and juicy on the inside.
Make an extra meatloaf for sammiches the next day.
Mmmmm…cold meatloaf sammiches…
Thank you, this glaze sounds delicious!
No, you can work with it, it’s just a little more likely to get dried out and crack. I’d do two things there: I’d use fresh bread torn up into itty bitty pieces instead of dry breadcrumbs or croutons, and I’d throw in an extra egg for moisture. While normally I prefer to not bake it in a pan, for turkey I’d go ahead and use a pan, just 'cause it won’t hold its shape as well as beef.
Hey, I don’t remember, do you live alone? You can also make mini-meatloaves by patting meatloaf mixture into nonstick muffin tins (don’t bake it as long as a big loaf, obviously!) Great portion control, and you can freeze them on a cookie sheet and then pop them into a ziptop freezer bag. Later, when you don’t feel like cooking, just zap 'em to heat and eat!
ETA: Oh yeah, that glaze is amazing! I always double it, because everyone wants to spoon more glaze over their slice!
:dubious: Americans love bacon (in my experience)! I see it everywhere, in the most unexpected places.
Pig and I are not friends, so I don’t cook with it, to the great disappointment of the hubby and child.
That is the one I use. It works great on turkey. Remember though, turkey is lower fat and will dry out more. I add ground sage and onion to the ground turkey, and a fair amount of white worcestershire sauce, as well as egg and breadcrumbs.
The liberally coat with the tomato-cumin sauce. Frequently. It is wonderful.
Oh, and if you’re using that Alton recipe, toss in a few shakes of garlic powder to make up for not using garlic croutons. No biggie. My daughter’s gluten intolerant, so I use pulverized Rice Chex cereal with garlic powder added now, and it’s still really good.
Milk is essential IMO to get a smoother texture.
Ground beef/pork/turkey in any combination.
Breadcrumbs
Egg (1 per pound)
Milk (1/4 cup per pound)
spices
It’s not an unexpected place for bacon. It works very well to prevent the meat from drying out, especially if you are using low fat meat in the first place.
I just looked this recipe up on that Food Network site and I see that the Barefoot Contessa recipe recommends using a pan of hot water under the meatloaf to keep it from cracking and keep it moist. Anyone tried that?
This is the perfect meatloaf recipe.
3 ouncesMonterey Jack cheese, grated on small holes of box grater (about 1 cup)
1 tablespoonunsalted butter
1 medium onion, chopped fine (about 1 cup)
1 medium ribcelery, chopped fine (about 1/2 cup)
1 medium clovegarlic, minced or pressed through a garlic press (about 1 teaspoon)
2 teaspoonsminced fresh thyme leaves
1 teaspoonpaprika
1/4 cuptomato juice
1/2 cuplow-sodium chicken broth
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoonunflavored gelatin(powdered)
1 tablespoonsoy sauce
1 teaspoonDijon mustard
2/3 cupcrushed saltine crackers
2 tablespoonsminced fresh parsley leaves
3/4 teaspoontable salt
1/2 teaspoonground black pepper
1 poundground sirloin
1 poundground beef chuck
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Spread cheese on a plate, and put into the freezer until ready to use.
Heat butter in 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat until foaming; add onion and celery and cook, stirring occasionally, until beginning to brown, 6 to 8 minutes. Add garlic, thyme, and paprika and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Reduce heat to low and add tomato juice. Cook, stirring to scrape up browned bits from pan, until thickened, about 1 minute. Transfer mixture to small bowl and set aside to cool.
Whisk broth and eggs in large bowl until combined. Sprinkle gelatin over liquid and let stand 5 minutes. Stir in soy sauce, mustard, saltines, parsley, salt, pepper, and onion mixture. Crumble frozen cheese into coarse powder and sprinkle over mixture. Add ground beef; mix gently with hands until thoroughly combined, about 1 minute. Transfer meat to foil rectangle* and shape into 10 by 6-inch oval about 2 inches high. Smooth top and edges of meat loaf with moistened spatula. Bake until an instant-read thermometer inserted into center of loaf reads 135 to 140 degrees, 55 to 65 minutes.** Remove meat loaf from oven and turn on broiler.
**While meatloaf is cooking, make glaze
1/2 cupketchup
1 teaspoonhot pepper sauce
1/2 teaspoonground coriander
1/4 cupcider vinegar
3 tablespoonspacked light brown sugar
Combine ingredients for glaze in small saucepan; bring to simmer over medium heat and cook, stirring, until thick and syrupy, about 5 minutes
Spread half of glaze evenly over cooked meat loaf with rubber spatula; place under broiler and cook until glaze bubbles and begins to brown at edges, about 5 minutes. Remove meat loaf from oven and spread evenly with remaining glaze; place back under broiler and cook until glaze is again bubbling and beginning to brown, about 5 minutes more. Let meat loaf cool about 20 minutes before slicing.
*Foil rectangle- before you begin the recipe, make this nifty thing to cook it on. It’s genius, because all the fat drips off and you get a nice crusty exterior. Take a large baking sheet and cover it with foil (for easy cleanup later). Then place a cooling rack, like you might use for cookies or something, in the center. Then, fold another piece of foil, about 12 inches long, in half and lay it on top of the cooling rack. Get a skewer or something small and pokey like that, and poke little holes all in the foil (to let the meat drain better). Spray the whole thing with a non-stick cooking spray.
This seems really complicated, but I promise, it is worth the trouble. A friend of mine got all this off a TV show I think, but I forget which one. 
For your first Meatloaf, I suggest
this.
Be warned, it is, indeed, cold and lonely in the deep dark night. Particularly if one happens to be glowing like the metal on the edge of a knife.
I’m probably imagining it wrong. In my mind, I see a meatloaf covered by bacon like the kind you make for breakfast, the long thin strips. 
Good lord, I think my hair just turned white! Maybe the second try?