I’m always trying to create the ultimate, but I’ve never quite achieved it. I definitely need more restraint in terms of number of ingredients. EDIT: For Kicks, I dug up this very old family recipe.
Ehhh, I’m not on a device where I can copy/paste in, so I’m working from memory here, and I’m fucking old.
1 egg per pound of meat.
Meat should be fairly low fat, no more than 15%, and that’s stretching things.
Beef should be no less than 75% of the meat, with ground pork being a good choice for the rest, and ground chicken being a good choice to mix with pork about 50/50 for the rest.
Seasonings: salt and pepper to taste. Minced or shredded onion, app 1/4 cup up to 3 lbs of meat, or to taste. One clove of garlic finely minced for up to 3 lbs. Both onion and garlic can be freely reduced, but you shouldn’t go over that amount. You can replace with granulated versions, but you’ll need to reduce the “filler”.
The filler would be about 1/8 cup of panko and about the same of coarsely ground oats. You don’t want oat flour, you want some visible particles. Why the oat? Texture. It gives a mouth feel that’s better than going with only breadcrumbs, and when you’re using ground pork, it evens things out in that regard.
You can “go further” if you’re trying to stretch a smaller amount of meat and dice up some peppers (sweet red bell are bomb).
If you like mushrooms, dice about a half cup. Fairly fine, but not fully minced. Texture + flavor. Yeah, you can do the powdered soup for the taste, but finely diced real are better. If you don’t like them, leave them out, but you’d be better off just mocking mincing them super fine for the taste. It really does boost the beef a lot.
A dash to three dashes of Worcestershire sauce. You can add more if you’re skipping shrooms, but add a touch extra breadcrumbs.
Mix by hand until the meat and ingredients are evenly distributed, but avoid mashing the meat. You don’t want to apply much pressure until it’s mixed well, and then only to shape it.
Shape it? Wtf is this guy on about? No loaf pans, no baking pans. You shape the loaf on a roasting pan with a drip tray. This builds a crust on the exterior, and that Maillard reaction brings flavor.
350ish, time to vary by size, but until thermometer comes out around 140. There will be carryover cooking. Expect about 45 minutes total though.
Once it’s in the oven, mix up your topping if you want one. Plain ketchup is okay. Bbq sauces work. In a pinch, ketchup with a dash of Worcestershire is decent. Or you can get fancy. Ketchup is a good starter base. Soy sauce, some molasses or brown sugar, paprika, pepper, garlic powder and a few dashes of Worcestershire is pretty good without trying to build from tomato sauce (which is more hassle than its worth). Key is to get some umami in there, and let any salt come from that. You don’t want salty topping.
You would apply a good coating of that to the entire loaf exterior about a half hour into cooking. You want it to have time to caramelize some. You’ll need about a cup to a cup and a half total for a 3lb loaf, depending. You’ll have some extra, but it’s nice to have for leftovers.
When you pull it, let it rest at least 5 minutes. It makes a difference in taste, texture, and juiciness.
Like I said, I’m pulling from memory, the written version has better measurements per pound of meat. But that’s the basic idea. You leverage seasonings, umami, and let time & temp work on the exterior. The inside will be slightly “meatier” in texture than a classic meatloaf, but in a good way; but it won’t be a big hamburger.
You gotta know your oven though. If it runs much high or low, take that into account. You’d be better off going high than low, since that exterior needs the 350-400 temp range for good crust. Going a bit higher to keep it from going under as the thermostat works is better than letting it dip.
Wow, this is very sparing on the seasonings and fillers! Why do you say not to exceed that amount of garlic? (I am a huge garlic fan)
Well, any seasonings or aromatics are technically to taste since they don’t change how things hold together until you really over do it.
The reason is that a meatloaf should be a meatloaf, and garlic is a very strong flavor. Once you get past a point, it starts to take over in a way herbs and spices don’t/can’t. I’m a garlic lover myself, and if I was making meatballs, or a pasta sauce, it would be a different story. When the goal is to lift the flavors of the meat and enhance them, the amounts need to serve that goal.
Obviously, though, if you want a stronger garlic presence, have at it :)
That’s the same reason for minimal fillers and seasoning. They’re selected to give support to the meat, and give a nice texture rather than stand out on their own. Once you have enough of the fillers and binders to hold things together, why add more? If you gotta make meat stretch, you would, but it’s otherwise going to result in the kind of meatloaf that people dislike where it’s almost paté in texture with little flavor.
Ground beef
red pepper
onion
eggs
Worcestershire sauce
ketchup
Dijon mustard
breadcrumbs
kosher salt & freshly ground black pepper
Sweat down the pepper & onion, season, cool and add to the rest…take a small portion and cook it, adjust seasoning
Loaf it, bake it (I roll these in parchment to bake
no measurements, because the recipe I habe it for 60# ground beef (makes A LOT), its lste and im tired.
Mike Holmgren, when he was staying at a hotel I was working in for the NFL rules committee ate a double portion of this recipe (my recipe) for lunch AND dinner for 5 days straight.
fucking legend.
I’ve had good results with Alton Brown’s recipe https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/good-eats-meat-loaf-recipe-1937673
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I’ve never been a fan of the classic meatloaf with ketchup glaze.
I’ve been tinkering with a combination of this recipe: https://barefootcontessa.com/recipes/1770-house-meatloaf
with some techniques from Kenji Lopez’s: https://www.seriouseats.com/the-food-lab-all-american-meatloaf-excerpt-recipe
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Ground veal is hard to find and unethical to boot, but using just beef and pork plus powdered gelatin gives you the same texture and moisture retention.
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I add carrots, garlic, mushrooms, and/or other leftover veggies I need to use up and get the kids to eat but, don’t put them through the food processor cause I like the bigger pieces that hand dicing yields.
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I cut down on the salt from the barefoot contessa recipe too, especially if I’m using a salted chicken broth or better than bullion in the garlic sauce.
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A few anchovies and a pinch of msg bumps up the umami.
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Has anyone here ever used crushed up Ritz crackers instead of bread crumbs? It’s what we did growing up and I absolutely love the texture it adds. It’s different than the breadcrumb version. I’m really curious to know if anyone else has done this and liked it as much as I do
My ingredients for meatloaf are:
Gound beef/Ground Bison (usually shy of 2lbs– Egg– Crushed Ritz crackers, medium fine. Not too fine though– Half diced onion, dice garlic I’m feeling like chopping it– Worcestershire Sauce– Tomato sauce- likely homemade by me with onions/peppers/spices with tinned tomatoes–
Season salt-- garlic powder-- Oregano-- crushed red pepper-- coriander-- penzys Northwoods if I have it-- black pepper and paprika-- Spice use varies.
For kicks, I dug this up out of a very old family cookbook
