- Hi Mom.
- Hi Honey. How was school today?
- OK, I guess. What's for dinner?
- Meatloaf
Meatloaf is a constant, like air. It's always there, but we never think about it. Ask any
individual what their thoughts are on meatloaf and you'll get a blank stare in response. But
- and here's the interesting thing - ask a GROUP of people about meatloaf, and you will
start a half hour discussion. People start arguing about the essential elements of a meatloaf
(usually breaking into separate camps along the bread crumb/cornflake issue), sharing their
memories of their mothers or grandmothers making it for them, and debating about the
perfect condiment (a lot of people who are perfectly comfortable with the idea of putting
ketchup on their meatloaf are scandalized by the concept of using salsa with it). Believe it
or not, meatloaf is the perfect cocktail party icebreaker - try it.
"It's true. Meatloaf is mostly homemade. Mostly made by real moms,
by hand. Constructed out of what's around. some hamburger that might be going bad if it
isn't used soon - sprouting potatoes, rubbery carrots, onions, salt, pepper, steak sauce,
bacon drippings, etcetera. I say 'etcetera' because the list of what's possible is too long to
print. Then there's the filler - meatloaf expander. Bread crumbs, corn flakes, Rice
Crispies, oatmeal, or whatever - even dirt would work, I guess. and some egg to hold the
whole thing together. Then it has to be mushed around by hand, kneaded into a loaf, and
put into that family museum piece the meatloaf pan. Into the oven to bake. Served hot
with gravy, mashed potatoes, and Wonder bread. Yes. Yes!"
- Robert Fulghum, "Uh-oh"
Meatloaf is the quintessentially American food. Nobody else in the world eats it. Nobody
else in the world would WANT to eat it. Just us - the Yanks and our brothers, the
Canadians. It is as much an expression of our culture as democracy or jazz music.
A classic television moment: Laverne and Shirley are sitting in a posh
French restaurant, trying uncomfortably to read the menu, which is written in French.
Shirley grabs a waiter as he strides by and asks him, "Excuse me, how do you say
'meatloaf' in French?" The waiter looks down his nose at her, completely disgusted and
sneers, "You DON'T!"
When we look at meatloaf, we see ourselves. Those of us who grew up in Suburbia hear
the word "meatloaf" and think of June Cleaver or Carol Brady, but look in any African-
American cookbook and you will find it there, under "Soul Food". Nobody is sure where
it came from or how it originated (though the Great Depression is a good guess), but
everybody wants to claim it as their own, even those people who don't like it very much
(there are a few).
"Its a New England thing," says George Rigopoulos, the owner and cook at Lindy's Diner
in Keene. "It's a Working Man's food!" Rigopoulos is definately a working man.
Paul Stevens, the owner of Family Ties Restaurant in Keene sees meatloaf as a family
food. "It's an old-time dish," he says. "We sell to people who could probably afford
something else, but they want THIS!"
Chef Perrin Long, an instructor at New Hampshire College's Culinary Institute, sees
meatloaf as a trendy, cutting-edge food. "Over the past few years," he says, "everybody
has gotten so busy that they don't have time to cook for themselves. We're seeing a
resurgence of meatloaf in two areas - one is in something called 'Home Meal Replacement'.
For the past several years, large supermarket chains have been hiring their own executive
chefs to cook foods for people to take home and reheat for their families. If you look at
the types of food they are offering, you see things like meatloaf, mashed potatoes,
macaroni and cheese and pot roast." But people are looking for that type of food, even
when they go out, he says. "In fancy restaurants in Boston and New York, you can pay
up to 17 dollars or more for a wonderful meatloaf dinner. It is a comfort food that people
have fond associations with and it is a type of food that people are willing to pay for."
"Carefully cut off the top of the pumpkin so that it can be tightly
replaced. scoop out the seeds and stringy membrane. Combine the ground meat and the
remaining ingredients. Stuff the pumpkin with the meat loaf mixture. Set the top back on
the pumpkin and bake it for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, or until the outside of the pumpkin feels soft.
Remove the pumpkin top and continue cooking for another 10 to 20 minutes, or until the
meat loaf is brown"
- Angela Shelf Medearis, "The African-American Kitchen": Pumpkin Meat Loaf
"Meatloaf is classic Diner Food," says Oona Madden, the manager of the Miss Bellows
Falls Diner in Bellows Falls. "The perfect meatloaf dinner is served in a diner - meatloaf,
mashed potatoes with gravy, peas and hot, strong, black coffee, with a slice of pie for
desert - preferably strawberry/rhubarb."
"People depend on meatloaf," says Norman Spicher, manager of the Marketplace Deli at
the Colony Mill in Keene. "We have people coming downstairs from other stores once a
week or so looking for it. They get visibly distressed if we don't have it." He sees it as a
way for people to keep in touch with their past, their traditions. "My wife makes a
meatloaf that was her mother's meatloaf and now she's teaching it to our daughter."
There are thousands and thousands of recipes, including ones that use pounds of chili
peppers, or truffles or emu meat, but it is probably best to concentrate on ones that you are
actually likely to cook. Here are a few meatloaf recipes for you to try at home:
Martha Stewart's Meat Loaf
(OK - I agree with you; you would think that Martha Stewart
would rather set herself on fire, rather than make a meatloaf, but rumor has it that this is
the best recipe around. Go figure.)
3 slices white bread
1 large carrot, peeled and cut into 3/4-inch thick rounds
1 rib celery, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1/2 medium yelow onion, peeled and roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, smashed and peeled
1/2 cup flat-leaf parsley leaves, loosely packed
1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons ketchup
4 1/2 teaspoons dry mustard
8 ounces ground pork
8 ounces ground veal
8 ounces ground round
2 large eggs, beaten
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 teaspoon Tabasco, or to taste
1/2 teaspoon chopped rosemary, plus more needles for sprinkling
2 tablespoons dark-brown sugar
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small red onion, cut into 1/4-inch-thick rings
Step One - Heat oven to 400 degrees. Remove crusts from bread, and place slices in the
bowl of a food processor. Process until fine crumbs form, about 10 seconds. Transfer
bread crumbs to a large mixing bowl. Do not substitute dried bread crumbs in this step, as
they will make your meat loaf rubbery.
Step Two - Place carrot, celery, yellow onion, garlic and parsley in the bowl of the food
processor. Process until vegetables have been minced, about 30 seconds, stopping to
scrape down the sides of the bowl once or twice. (Chopping vegetables this way saves time
and ensures that vegetables will be small enough to cook through and not be crunchy).
Transfer vegetables to bowl with the bread crumbs.
Step Three - Add 1/2 cup ketchup, 2 teaspoons dry mustard, pork, veal, beef, eggs, salt,
pepper, Tabasco, and rosemary. sing your hands, knead the ingredients until thoroughly
combined, about 1 minute. Be careful not to overknead; doing so will result in a heavy and
dense loaf: The texture should be wet, but tight enough to hold a free-form shape.
Step Four - Set a wire baking rack into an 11-by-17-inch baking pan. Cut a 5-by-11-inch
piece of parchment paper, and place over center of rack to prevent meat loaf from falling
through. Using your hands, form an elongated loaf covering the parchment.
Step Five - Place the remaining 3 tablespoons ketchup, remaining 2 1/1 teaspoons mustard,
and brown sugar in a bowl. Mix until smooth. Using a pastry brush, generously brush the
glaze over loaf. Place oil in a medium saucepan set over high heat. When oil is smoking,
add red onion. cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is soft and golden in places. Add 3
tablespoons water, and cook, stirring, until most of the water has evaporated. Transfer
onion to a bowl to cool slightly, then sprinkle onion over the meat loaf.
Step Six - Bake 30 minutes, then sprinkle rosemary needles on top. Continue baking loaf
until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center of the loaf registers 160 degrees,
about 25 minutes more. Let meat loaf cool on rack, 15 minutes. Serves 6.
- From Martha Stewart's Living Magazine
Meat Loaf (II)
(One of the interesting things about meatloaf is that it only has one name,
so that even very different recipes are hard to tell apart, just from the name. This one
sounds good, though and an excellent counterpoint to the rigorous attention to detail called
for by the Martha Stewart recipe)
2 cups day-old bread (Biscuits are perfect, otherwise, use good-quality white bread)
3/4 cut milk
3 pounds lean ground beef
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 green bell pepper, cored, seeded and chopped
2 small onions, chopped
2 1/2 teaspoons, poultry seasoning
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
3/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons tomato puree
5 large eggs
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place a pan of water on the lowest rack. Set the
other rack in the center of the oven.
2. Crumble the bread into a large bowl. Pour in the milk and let stand, mixing once or
twice, until the bread has soaked up the milk.
3. Add all the remaining ingredients to the soaked bread except the 3 tablespoons of
tomato puree. Mix well with your hands, making sure there are no lumps of unmixed
bread or meat.
4. Place the meat on a deep baking sheet and pat it with your hands into a loaf shape about
6 inches thick. Smooth the outside. Spread the 3 tablespoons of tomato puree over the
outside of the loaf. Bake on a rack in the center of the oven until the juices from the center
run clear, not pink, about 1 hour. Drain or spoon the fat from the pan occasionally during
roasting to prevent the meat loaf from becoming greasy.
5. Let the meat loaf stand about 5 minutes before serving. Slice the meat loaf into 1-inch-
thick pieces and serve with Meat Loaf Gravy (see below).
"Ruth has made so many of these over the years she can tell when the
meat loaf is finished baking just by looking at it. 'There should be cracks in the top and the
juices are kind of yellow, not pink. And if you are lucky enough to have some leftover
biscuits, us them instead of bread.' Cold meat loaf makes great sandwiches or try this
quick method for using leftovers: cut the meat loaf into 1-inch cubes and fry them in a little
oil over medium heat until they're heated through and browned.
Meat Loaf Gravy
- Makes about 6 cups, enough for 12 servings of meat loaf
1 28-ounce can tomato puree
3 cups water
1 small onion, thinly sliced
1 small green bell pepper, cored, seeded, and thinly slicked
1 small stalk celery, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Combine all the ingredients in a heavy pot and heat, stirring occasionally, until very hot,
but not boiling. (Boiling will thin the gravy.) Check the seasoning and serve hot over meat
loaf.
"This simple gravy is the perfect thing for our flavorful meat loaf. If
there's any left over, it can be served wit mashed potatoes."
- Sylvia Woods and Christopher Styler, "Sylvia's Soul Food"
Tex-Mex Chili-Cheese Meat Loaf
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup finely chopped onion
1 large heavy sweet red pepper, stemmed, cored, and finely chopped
2 to 3 fresh jalapeno chiles, stemmed and minced
2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
2 tablespoons mild chili powder blend
2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons oregano, crumbled
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 28-ounce can Italian-style plum tomatoes, crushed and drained
1 1/2 pounds ground beef, not too lean
1/2 pound ground pork, not too lean
1 cup fine, dry (commercially prepared) bread crumbs
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup canned or defrosted frozen corn kernels, well drained
3 green onions, trimmed and sliced (about 1/2 cup)
8 ounces medium-sharp cheddar cheese, grated
Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
In a medium skillet over moderate heat, warm the olive oil. Add the onions, sweet red
pepper, jalapenos, garlic, chili powder blend, salt, oregano, and cumin. Cover, lower the
heat and cook, 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and cool to room temperature.
In a large bowl, combine the beef and pork. Add the tomato mixture, bread crumbs and
eggs and mix thoroughly (hands work best). Add the corn and green onions and mix well.
Transfer the meat mixture to a shallow baking dish and form it into a flat loaf. Bake about
1 hour and 20 minutes, or until an instant-reading thermometer inserted into the center of
the loaf registers 160 degrees.
Pour off any fat from the dish. Sprinkle the cheese evenly over the meat loaf and return it
to the oven until the cheese is just melted, about 4 minutes. Serve immediately. Serves 8.
- W. Park Kerr and Norma Kerr, "The El Paso Chile Company's Texas Border Cookbook"
Other Variations
As stated above, there are thousands and thousands of recipes for meatloaf, but they are
generally all cooked the same way - mixed by hand, and baked in a 350-400 degree oven
for an hour to an hour and a half. The number of eggs can vary from one (or even none in
some very health-conscious recipes) to half a dozen. Here are a few common or
interesting additions that you might want to try in or on your next meatloaf:
1/4 - 1/2 cup good bourbon or cognac
1/4 cup fresh minced ginger and one can of water chestnuts, chopped
Kim Chee or Saurkraut (Really! Try it!)
Topped with strips of bacon and/or maple syrup
Lots and LOTS of garlic
Made with ground turkey instead of beef
3 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1/2 to 1 cup finely-ground parmesian or romano cheese
1 cup coarsely chopped pecans
Finally, all the authorities (if there is such a thing when you are talking about meatloaf)
agree that meatlof is at its best the day after it is made - cold, in sandwiches.
