Thank you for reading Between the Layers! Please enjoy and share this free post with your friends. A More Perfect (and never boring) Meatloaf - No. 276How to turn meatloaf into meatballs, and of course, the meatloaf sandwich
SOME YEARS BACK AT A BOOK SIGNING, a woman confessed she had never made meatloaf. I can’t recall what prompted her to open up like she did. She’d cooked a lot raising five children in Denver, she said, but meatloaf was never on the menu because her husband, the son of a minister, had been over served meatloaf growing up. ‘’He told me never to make meatloaf. He had seen enough of it at church suppers.’’ And just like that, an entire family goes a near lifetime without tasting meatloaf. How could they be deprived of knowing how to blend the wet ingredients first in the bowl—maybe milk, Worcestershire, some onion, and egg—and then add the bread or the oats to soak it all up, and at the last crumble in the meat, and gently fold it all together with your hands so as not to compact and make the loaf tough? This was programmed in me early on. I witnessed the weekly meatloaf dance that took place in my family kitchen. But I also know there is bad meatloaf out there. Maybe you can be traumatized by it. In truth, mine has been hit or miss.
Bland but comforting…meatloaf can be something to live forMeatloaf is universal when you think about it. The idea of mixing meat with seasoning and some binding ingredient like bread runs through all cultures, and the French lifted it up the highest with the classic terrines you bake, cool, and slice like cake. But American meatloaf was never, ever as fancy as terrine in spite of its loaf-like shape. It was a dowdy cousin, a child of the Depression, a way to extend meat and feed a big family. I can’t imagine any well-meaning soul who made meatloaf for the good minister ever dreaming their actions were depriving the family of meatloaf. They were just making him a meal, and maybe used onion soup mix to jazz it up or perhaps they designed it bland to begin with? Couldn’t he have just squeezed on more ketchup and not whined? That’s how I’ve made it through mediocre meatloaf. Not long ago, I was listening to Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ podcast called Wiser Than Me when she was interviewing food writer extraordinaire Ruth Reichl. Julia shared that after 9/11 she and her mother, Judith Bowles, got in the kitchen and made meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green beans, applesauce, and angel food cake. That meal gave them a way to forge on, or her in words, ‘’something to live for.”
Yet as well-meaning as meatloaf may be, with every good and wonderful meatloaf is a bad one.So I wanted to draw the straightest line to a good meatloaf. No, a great one. I baked meatloaves with oats, with dry bread crumbs and with soft, with milk and without, with garlic and fresh parsley, with peppers, Parmesan, and pasta sauce. And in the end, I did come to some very good conclusions on how to bake a more perfect and consistent meatloaf. That’s what I share today. Up to this point, my go-to method has been Judy’s Mom’s Meat Loaf in my book What Can I Bring. The pages are splattered from so much use. In that recipe, for every 2 pounds ground beef you use 2 cups soft cubed bread, 3/4 cup milk or water, an envelope (1 ounce) of onion soup mix, 2 large eggs, 1/2 cup ketchup, 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard and 2 tablespoons light brown sugar. You pour another 1/2 cup ketchup over the top before baking. Bake at 350ºF about an hour. It’s a very good recipe. But it feels and tastes like a mother’s meatloaf. I wanted to update it, staying in the lanes of meatloaf, but veering out just a bit to make things more interesting. I wanted a modern meatloaf but didn’t want to go crazy. And in the end, I not only learned how to make a more consistent meatloaf, but how to make meatballs from it, too.
Is there a way to understand meatloaf so we can turn it into the meatloaf we love? And also make it so it doesn’t offend and can turn meatloaf avoiders into disciples?Here were some of my conclusions: The meat. Use lean ground beef, even sirloin. Chuck is too fatty. I also baked with ground pork, ground mild Italian sausage, and ground chicken. What meat you add is really up to you. Mix in some ground turkey, veal, or lamb, if that’s what you love, and on day two dollop your meatloaf sandwich with Greek yogurt instead of mayo. The idea is to use what you like. However, I found it’s important to work with freshly ground meat. In a perfect world, it falls from your fingers in separate strands. The filler. Meat loaf needs filler so it isn’t all meat. Filler extends it and lightens it. Thus, you add bread crumbs—soft or dry—or oats. For a uniform texture, use Panko bread crumbs. For cost-cutting, use any sliced bread you have, and if possible not a heavy sourdough but something lighter. Toast it, let it cool, then pulse in the food processor. My mother used split hamburger buns she would run in the oven to dry out a bit. If using oats, opt for quick-cook, or pulse the old-fashioned rolled oats in the processor first to break them down a bit. The liquid. The gold standard has been milk. I’ve seen recipes with half-and-half. I always thought there was something magical about milk in meatloaf like milk in Bolognese sauce. But when you see the recipe I share below, you’ll see my favorite meatloaf was made without it. So feel free to use the liquid of your choice—milk, non-dairy milk, your favorite pasta sauce, tomato juice, etc. Flavorings. These are super important. That Lipton onion soup mix has a good bit of salt and spices, so it was a one-stop meatloaf infusion of flavor. Without it, you’ll need finely minced (size is important as large chunks can cause meatloaf to crumble when sliced) onion and definitely garlic. Add minced parsley for freshness. I always add Worcestershire for its saltiness and depth, and I do love a dab of Dijon mustard, plus ketchup either in the mixture or on top before baking. And simple salt and pepper. My husband adds minced green pepper, too, and paprika. While you can’t taste the mixture you’re concocting because it is raw, here’s a simple test I learned in cooking school in France to gauge seasoning in a terrine and it works for meatloaves, too: Dollop a tablespoon of your mixture into a non-stick pan and cook on low on both sides like a little hamburger. Let it cool, taste, and then adjust the seasoning. The egg. It’s the binder and helps pull the loaf together. Rather, the yolk is the binder, and the white, well, it comes along as part of the package deal. So if you want a perfectly pristine meatloaf, just use the yolks. If you can’t bear to toss the white, and most meatloaves makers are frugal sorts of people or they wouldn’t be making meatloaf, keep the whites. Use one egg per pound of meat. How to blend? I was taught to begin with the wet ingredients, like milk, add the bread crumbs to soak, then the egg. Add your seasonings, and then crumble the meat in last. But I also made meatloaf for this newsletter by placing everything in the bowl at once. Suit ourself. Always mix by hand. It’s the fun part of making meatloaf, and you’re less likely to over-mix, which causes a tough meatloaf. Loaf pan or freeform? Glass casserole or sheet pan? Does the pan even matter? Yes, it does! While the loaf holds the mixture beautifully and once cooled, you can unmold it onto a platter, you don’t get the delicious browning you do if the loaf is shaped freeform and baked on a sheet pan. And the sheet pan will yield more flavor than the glass Pyrex. For even more flavor, divide the mixture for a big meatloaf into two smaller loaves for even more surface area and more browning. And to make sheetpan meatballs…form the mixture into 12 meatballs per pound of meat used. Space them an inch or so apart on a sheetpan and bake at 375ºF until browned and cooked through, about 30 minutes. They freeze well and are so good with pasta and red sauce!
My favorite meatloaf ended up being one I adapted from a 1992 book by Lora Brody, called The Kitchen Survival Guide. Brody wrote the book after her eldest son left for college, taking his appetite with him, she said. He terribly missed her home cooking.That is the recipe I photographed. It is made with a good quality pasta sauce, not milk, which is such a time-saver because the seasoning is already in the sauce. You can definitely keep the Italian theme going and pour more sauce over the top before it bakes. Or you can give a nod to mom, and spread on 1/2 cup ketchup that’s been jazzed up with brown sugar and mustard. (I buy the Paesana pasta sauce at Costco.) As I forked into this meatloaf warm with mashed potatoes, noticing the fine crumbs, tasting the bit of garlic, being comforted and yet inspired, I sensed why meatloaf still matters. It’s an age-old method we can make our own today. It feeds new neighbors, fills bellies (you can bake and take it to Room in the Inn, as Judy Wright did for years with her mother’s recipe), and provides lots of leftovers. Nothing tops warm meatloaf except cold meatloaf on day two, sliced and layered on white or rye, soft or toasted, with a smear of mayo, a squirt of ketchup, sweet pickles, and lettuce. Feeding people has definitely kept meatloaf in the game. But it’s more. New York Times writer Frank Bruni says meatloaf is a ‘’quintessential American dish that can bind a nation.’’ He wrote the 2017 cookbook A Meatloaf in Every Oven, along with Jennifer Steinhauer.
So I’m proposing meatloaf as Between the Layers’ 2024 American recipe of the year, something to bake and take to your friends who don’t agree with you politically but who share your love of good food, fellowship, and democracy. How do you do meatloaf?Have a great week! - xo, Anne P.S. Paid subscribers, don’t forget about the Herby Chicken Meatballs! They are so yummy and a great do-ahead to stash in the freezer.
THE RECIPE: A More Perfect MeatloafJazz this meatloaf up with 1/3 cup grated good Parmesan, 1/3 cup minced fresh parsley, and possibly 2 ounces finely chopped prosciutto. It makes a big loaf or two smaller ones, just the right size to share one and keep the other. As I mentioned, top the meatloaf with either the fancy ketchup glaze or simply pour over extra pasta sauce and sprinkle on some Parm. Makes 8 to 12 servings
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