Official HBT Meatloaf Thread.

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McKBrew

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Why not.

I like making meatloaf. I never make it exactly the same way twice and don't use a recipe. Some common things I do are use stuffing mix and veggies.

I've wrapped it in bacon before. Sometimes I do a ground turkey/beef blend

This one, which is dinner tonight has bell peppers, onions, a bit of cheese, pinto beans, BBQ sauce and stuffing as the main ingredients besides the beef.

Share your meatloaf recipes, guidelines and pics......

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I've minced cilantro in my meatloaf with great results.

I always mix turkey and beef (and even lamb sometimes if I'm feeling it)

I also like to wrap with bacon, especially when I'm rocking the honey/ketchup/cumin glaze sauce.

do you mess with nuts at all? Pine nuts have worked.

What do you think about the differences between using stuffing, soaked bread, or bread crumbs?
 
Man that looks juicy. Never would have thought of pinto beans, but sounds good. That looks like 3 pounds of gooey, meaty oven love to me.
 
I'm pretty rigid with making meatloaf! I (well, the whole family, too) like a sweet n' sour BBQ sauce over it, with extra for the mashed potatoes.

The basic recipe (I don't measure, so these are guestimates):

1 pound ground venison
1 pound ground lamb (or pork, or beef, or more venison)
1 large egg
1 minced onion
About a cup of freshly made breadcrumbs
Worchestershire sauce
Ketchup
Dijon Mustard
brown sugar
milk

Pour milk over breadcrumbs, and let it be absorbed. Use enough milk to moisten all of the breadcrumbs and let sit for a few minutes. Add 1 minced onion, the meats, and a large egg (or two if small). Add a generous splash of Lea & Perrins worchestershire sauce. Form into a loaf and place in a 13x9 pan.

Make a sauce in a large glass measuring cup- about 3/4 cup ketchup, 1/2 cup brown sugar (more or less according to taste), and a generous squirt of dijon mustard. Add worchestershire sauce to taste, about 3 tablespoons or so. Stir well, and add a bit of water to thin enough to pour. Taste and adjust to sweeter or more vinegary as desired. Pour over meatloaf and bake 1 hour and 15 minutes, covered with foil, at 375. Take off the foil occasionally and baste meatloaf with the sauce.
 
Like the OP, I don't really follow the same recipe twice. I do follow a few guidelines though:

1. Use a combination of different meats, preferably wild game like YooperBrew's recipe above.
2. Brown sugar mixed with ketchup over the top.
3. Bacon.

Using those three rules, I've never really made bad meatloaf. Though I don't believe there is such a thing as bad meat loaf.
 
do you mess with nuts at all? Pine nuts have worked.

What do you think about the differences between using stuffing, soaked bread, or bread crumbs?


Stuffing works surprisingly well, especially when you use some egg. I've used nuts before, don't remember which ones for sure, but I think I've done pecans.

I did put cumin in a meatloaf once, but overdid it. Could hardly eat it.

You'd be surprised what you can dump in meatloaf and still have it turn out. Oatmeal works. Veggies are a good idea, because you can slip them past some of the kids that way. I prefer to use BBQ sauce on the top.
 
looks awesome!

Ya know, I'm an Alton Brown disciple, but IMO his meat loaf recipe sucks. The cumin in the glaze just ruined it for me.

Mine is pretty straight forward. Lots of ground elk (or beef), tons of yellow onion, a little green bell pepper, salt, pepper, garlic, egg, bread crumbs, etc.

Basically a giant meatball, with a ketchup/BBQ sauce glaze for the last ~10 minutes of cooking.
 
Meatloaf is a comfort food for me so I make it similar to the way my mom did. Which is just a fairly basic meatloaf (I don't measure either) with no sauce at all...then I put cold (must be cold) ketchup on it.:eek: And I pretty much don't eat ketchup on anything else.

One thing I did change is that I sweat the onions/peppers before mixing them into the loaf. Personal preference.
 
Any meatloaf recipe will also make great stuffed peppers!! I always put a little Heinz 57 sauce in mine.
 
Our new house favorite is smoked meatloaf. I take just about any base meatloaf recipe, place it in a "fish basket" lined with foil and poke with holes for the juice to drain out. Wrapping it with some bacon works well. I smoke for a few hours at 225-250 over some mesquite/oak coals. Think I will do one tomorrow.
 
Man, I love me some meatloaf, this thread makes me hungry. :D

Edit: Also, anyone had a beer that went better with meatloaf than others?
 
Well-crushed Wheaties are a tasty substitute for bread crumbs. Other than some ground beef and an egg, the ingredients vary every time. The last one had a couple patties of New York Deli-style Hot Italian sausage in the middle.
 
Made one last night. Used Jalapenos instead of green bell pepper (they don't make it hot). I realized why I prefer mine with no sauce on it when cooking...that 'skin' you get.

Also made my first batch of spent grain bread, for the second best thing about meatloaf...meatloaf sammiches!
 
Maybe this is just my personal preference, but one thing I would say is a must is that it be soft and fluffy. Some people have a tendency to mash down their meatloaf and make it tough and dense. You gotta be gentle and handle it as little as possible while shaping it.

I think if you can do that right you're 90% of the way to great meatloaf.
 
A favorite technique of mine is to make individual (1/3 lb ish) meatloaves. The outer crust is always my favorite part anyway, so I make more of it this way. A muffin pan is good for this. They also bake faster than one large meatloaf.

I also like chopped celery to be included.
 
In the over now: Bacon Cheddar Mini Meatloafs

Sweat:
Onion
Green Pepper
Garlic
Jalapeno
Bacon
Salt

Mix:
2 Eggs
BBQ Rub
Worcester
Little bit of mayo
Dijon Mustard
Ketchup
Salt
Shredded Cheddar Cheese
Bread Crumbs

Glaze:
Ketchup
A1
Dijon
Honey

Cool veggies and bacon and add to what was mixed and then add ground beef. Mix it all up and then shape into loafs. Place onto a cooling rack over a baking sheet and brush with glaze. Then lay strips of bacon over meatloaves. Bake at 375 until internal temp of 150 then brush with more glaze and cook to 160-165.
 
In the over now: Bacon Cheddar Mini Meatloafs

Sweat:
Onion
Green Pepper
Garlic
Jalapeno
Bacon
Salt

Mix:
2 Eggs
BBQ Rub
Worcester
Little bit of mayo
Dijon Mustard
Ketchup
Salt
Shredded Cheddar Cheese
Bread Crumbs

Glaze:
Ketchup
A1
Dijon
Honey

Cool veggies and bacon and add to what was mixed and then add ground beef. Mix it all up and then shape into loafs. Place onto a cooling rack over a baking sheet and brush with glaze. Then lay strips of bacon over meatloaves. Bake at 375 until internal temp of 150 then brush with more glaze and cook to 160-165.

pics?


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Working on it. I ate first and it takes a little while to get my pictures ready to post.
 
i usually change my recipe every time i make a meatloaf, but the last one i did turned out great:

Its a low fat recipe, but full of flavor and doesn't have the lowfat(cardboard) taste

1# ground turkey
1 chopped sweet onion
2 tsp lea and perrins
3 cloves chopped fresh garlic
4 slices stale bread (diced into 1 cm cubes)
1 egg
about 1/2 tbs of generic italian herb mix
Top with whatever sauce you like


Mix this up pretty gently, as the cubed bread needs to stay relatively unmashed because of the weak consistency of ground turkey.
Cook this one on the grill, setup for indirect grilling(coals raked to one side of the grill, meatloaf on the other). Once its on the grill, don't move it. leave the loaf to brown a bit before rotating 180 degrees. I have no idea about timing, as i'm usually doing twelve other things while i cook. Any fat left in the loaf drips out, leaving plenty of room for that awsome charcoal taste to soak in.
The crispy grilled meat crust on this makes it well worthy to pair with your favorite lawnmower homebrew.
P.S. if you're cooking inside, stick to a beef recipe. this one is strictly for the grill.
 
Simple, but good:

Ground beef, pork and veal
Egg
Bread crumbs
Celery
Green Peppers
Onions
Lipton onion soup mix
Ketchup
Mustard

I don't measure. Just throw it together
 
I've always made a big batch of the sauce by mixing ketchup, brown sugar,and dry mustard in a ratio of about 2:2:1. I glop that on the loaf near the end of baking, plus at the table. That's my favorite part.

I think I will try that horseradish meatloaf recipe tonight.
 
Anybody ever try this?

1lb ground beef
1 egg per pound
1 can chicken noodle soup per pound
corn flakes added to consistency
salt/pepper to taste

I have also tried this with Tony Chachere's in the mix, turned out well.

This was my Grandmother's recipe that she claims was on the back of a cornflake box when she was a kid. It has turned into our "family" meatloaf.
 
Spent grains are kind of like oatmeal... Has anyone ever made spent grain meatloaf?

No but that really is a good idea. If I brew again sometime, I'll have to try it.

Anybody ever try this?

1lb ground beef
1 egg per pound
1 can chicken noodle soup per pound
corn flakes added to consistency
salt/pepper to taste

I have also tried this with Tony Chachere's in the mix, turned out well.

This was my Grandmother's recipe that she claims was on the back of a cornflake box when she was a kid. It has turned into our "family" meatloaf.

Very simple idea. I like it. Sometimes I go crazy making meatloaf, and I should give a recipe like this a shot.
 
No but that really is a good idea. If I brew again sometime, I'll have to try it.



Very simple idea. I like it. Sometimes I go crazy making meatloaf, and I should give a recipe like this a shot.

Mashloaf. Intuitively, I don't think this will make a good loaf. I am very interested in hearing how this turns out, though. I'm wrong often.
 
I was thinking the same thing while reading through this thread. Add about 1C of coursly ground dried spent grains in place of the bread crumbs,etc. They should soak up the juices nicely. I'm gonna have to try it out soon.
 
My nothing fancy, but enormously satisfying, meatloaf is:

1 lb. ground beef
2 eggs
1 package dry onion soup mix
16 crushed saltine crackers
One blop of BBQ sauce (probably about 1/4 to 1/3 cup)
3/4 cup water

Mix thoroughly and bake in a loaf pan at 350 for 70 minutes.
 
"Found" on your wife's blog. Seems a bit like blogspam

Sorry...not trying to blogspam. It's a fuzzy line between promoting/supporting your wife and genuinely sharing a great recipe for meatloaf.

All bets aside, it is pretty fantastic and I'd share it no matter where it came from.
 
Here is generally what I do without amounts (you can scale it for you size recipe).

Chop up and render off some bacon and reserve the bits. Chop course carrot, onion and celery then blend up until a paste in a blender. Sauté paste in bacon fat. Add tomato paste and garlic until garlic is fragrant. Add thyme and oregano. Cool mixture and mix with a 2:1 mixture of beef and pork along with the bacon. Add bread crumbs, lean and perons sauce and eggs. S&P too

I like to form mine into about 1/2 lb mini football loafs (more surface area for the crusty goodness) and put them on rack on a baking sheet.

Graze with a mix of catchup,soy sauce, cumin, brown sugar and lean and parons sauce.

Bake at 400F and then broil to crust up the top at the end.

The size works out nice for individual servings and can be cut up and pan seared the next day for sandos.


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