My husband has a serious meatloaf jones. I found a recipe for Avocado-Tomato Meatloaf, but I was just wondering if anyone out there had a unique or tried-and-true recipe. He does like spicy foods, so feel free to include your favorite eye-waterers! Thanks!
Do you have a slow cooker? This is my new favorite way of making meatloaf. Hopefully someone can get some use out of this!
2 lbs. ground beef
1 cup cracker crumbs (~ one sleeve)
1/2 cup green pepper
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 egg
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup milk
1 (1 oz.) packet of brown gravy mix
Mix dry ingredients into ground beef. In medium bowl mix milk and gravy packet. Take half of gravy mixture and add beaten egg, then mix into meatloaf. Put loaf into Crock-Pot and pour rest of gravy mixture on top. Cook on low 8-10 hours or high 5-6.
Not too unique, but of course you can doctor it up for your family’s tastes. I think last time I used seasoned salt instead of regular and threw in some paprika and other seasonings.
Mine is about as basic as it gets (oh, and measurements are…uhmmm…guesstimates, as I have never actually been one to measure):
1lb ground meat (we use turkey)
1 beaten egg
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup milk
dash of worcestershire sauce
spices – I basically use a different mix depending on my mood, but these are the ones I usually use:
salt & pepper (about 1/4-1/2 tsp each – I always use these)
curry powder (about 1 tsp)
parsley, sage, oregano and savory (about 1/4-1/2 tsp each – soemtimes I throw in rosemary for the extra yum)
I don’t like chunky stuff in my meatloaf, so no onions, green peppers or other junk goes in it. I do like to cover it with ketchup if using the italian herbs or Heinz 57 if using curry powder before shoving it in the oven, though. This is optional – not everyone likes the tomato sauce on top 
Beat the egg, pour in the milk, dash in the worcestershire sauce and then the ground meat. Once the eggs, milk and meat are mixed well, then I add the spices and the crumbs and mush those in until they are totally incorporated. Form it into a loaf, cover it in the tomato-based sauce of choice, put it on a broiler pan (so as to allow the grease to go away from the meat) and bake in the oven at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes or until done. I tend to make a flat, round loaf which usually only takes about 30 minutes to cook, but ya know, I am weird that way.
I use 2lbs of ground round, 1 packet of lipton onion soup mix, quarter of a sleeve of crackers (you can use more but I don’t like it too crackery), half a cup of milk and 1 egg. Smoosh all together and shape into loaf-like object. Pour the bbq sauce of your choice over the top (or not) and cook at 350 until done - usually about an hour.
We do pretty much the exact same thing as you, except we sautee up some onions and bell peppers to mix in. Very tasty! (and not awful for you, what with the turkey-- which you really can’t taste much a difference. If you can, just mix half turkey with half ground beef).
I use half meat quantity with pork, then add feta cheese, chopped up spinach and oregano.
This sounds good, but I would say I would use ground lamb. I may have to try this recipe.
First tip - most supermarkets sell a meatloaf mix. This is a mixture of beef, pork and veal. There is a reason it is mixed and sold as meatloaf mix - it works.
Secondly, I have tried numerous recipes, and the one I go to now is one Pat Nixon used to hand out to White House visitors on little cards as souvenirs. Any Google search will find it. Ketchup works instead of the tomato paste perfectly well.
You may feel that there are way too many eggs and milk in the thing for the mess ever to set, but don’t worry, it will just fine.
It’s whitebread food, so it makes sense that our most whitebread First Lady should have perfected it.
I wish I knew!
My dad made the best meatloaf. I know he used two pounds of ground beef and one pound of ground pork. I know he used Lipton Onion Soup Mix, but I don’t know how much. I think he used two eggs. I don’t remember if he used bread crumbs, but I think he didn’t. (He wouldn’t have bought them, and I never saw him putting bread in.) I don’t remember if he put onions in it. If he did, they were certainly dried onions out of a jar. (Dad was very '50s in his choices of ingredients.) He topped it with tomato sauce out of a can.
I think I’ve remembered all of the ingredients, but I wish I’d paid more attention to the amounts.
I forgot to mention, could you post that recipe, please?
I play around with my meatloaf quite a bit, and never really have a recipe.
But my favorite written down recipe is definitely, far and away, the recipe from Good Eats, from my TV boyfriend, Alton Brown. It’s not weird or exotic, just familiar feeling seasonings turned up a notch or two. Fantastic.
It’s really just a matter of getting Meatloaf out of the freezer.
Master! Dinner is prepared!
Hot patootie!
This Gourmet Meatloaf recipe is my all-time favorite. It is a very tasty meatloaf to begin with and then you get the broccoli, ham and cheese rolled up in the middle. What could be better.
Moved from IMHO to CS.
I’ve used a recipe very similar to this for many years:
Uses oatmeal instead of breadcrumbs and gets a lot of it’s flavor from horseradish.
Been a family favorite for a long time.
When I was in college and grad school I had a book of ground beef recipes, with many meatloaf recipes. At this point I mix in whatever is available, and it comes out better than my wife’s or her mother’s recipes. I prefer bread crumbs to cracker crumbs, but one good recipe has one and a half slices of bread soaked in milk for a few minutes as the binder. I usually used a pound of ground beef because I was cooking for myself. I’ve never seen the meatloaf mix, and mixing meats was always too much trouble.
Lipton Onion Soup Mix is a good set of spices in a pinch. I agree with Mr. Moto about ketchup, but I’ve found barbecue sauce gives a nice zing. I usually put two slices of bacon on top of the loaf while it bakes to keep it moist and to give a bacon flavor, but I bet bacon salt would work just fine also.
I hadn’t bothered to respond to this thread earlier, since I figured my recipe would’ve been covered already, but apparently, I’m the only person to respond so far who uses stuffing mix instead of breadcrumbs. I find it works really nicely. It seems to make for a denser loaf and adds a lot of flavor. I also like to top with marinara sauce rather than ketchup. Mmm.
Now I’m craving it.
A few years ago, someone in my office brought in a meatloaf recipe from Bill Blass, and it is fantastic. Now we always call it DesignerLoaf .
I have made it for people who don’t care to eat veal by upping the beef and the pork by 1/4 lbs each, and it is still pretty good.