How to make Meatloaf

Meatloaf has long been a standard main dish in America, and according to John Mariani in “Encyclopedia of American Food And Drink,” was first seen in print as early as 1899. For many, meat loaf is an ultimate comfort food, bringing back pleasant childhood memories of family meals.

There are many ways to cut the calories and enhance the flavour of ordinary meatloaf, from tasty additions to spicy toppings. Ground round is a great choice if you’re using beef for your meatloaf, since excess fat in fattier ground meats is absorbed by breadcrumbs. Use soft bread crumbs in place of dry for a moister meatloaf, or substitute grated potato or carrots for a portion of the meat, which will also eliminate some of the calories. Baking the meatloaf on a rack will keep it out of the fatty drippings. Sharon Tyler Herbst, author of “The Food Lover’s Tiptionary,” describes a method for making your own meat loaf pan by piercing holes in an inexpensive loaf pan then setting it on a rack in a larger baking pan.

Another great thing about meatloaf is that you can bake it in the oven, microwave, electric roaster, or crock pot. Truly, the only limit is your imagination!
Tips and flavour-enhancing ideas:

• For more flavour and a juicier meatloaf, add about 1/4 cup of tomato juice, wine, or broth for each pound of meat.

• Bake in muffin tins or mini-loaf pans for individual servings.

• Use leftovers sliced in sandwiches or crumbled in sauces or chili.

• Replace some of the liquid in the recipe with red wine or dark beer.

• Add a cup of grated or shredded cheese to the meatloaf and top with more cheese about 10 minutes before it’s done.

• Replace liquids with red wine or dark beer.

• Make the finished meatloaf extra fancy by frosting with mashed potatoes and topping with cheese; return to the oven and cook until the cheese is melted.

Basic recipe for Meatloaf

So simple to make, this dish is delicious served hot with a chunky home-made tomato sauce, jacket baked potato and freshly cooked cabbage, or try it cold with a mixed salad. Either way, it’s ideal for lunch or as a supper-time dish.

2 onions
2 tbsp oil
1 Ib/450 g lean minced beef
1 lb/450 g lean minced lamb
1-2 garlic cloves
2 tsp paprika pepper
2-3 tbsp freshly chopped mixed herbs, such as rosemary, oregano and parsley
4 tbsp tomato purée
salt and freshly ground black pepper
6 oz/175 g fresh white or brown breadcrumbs
2 eggs, size 3

FOR THE TOMATO SAUCE:
1 Ib/450 g ripe tomatoes
1 onion
1 tbsp oil
2-2 tbsp tomato
purée (optional)
1/4 pint/150 ml chicken or vegetable stock
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp freshly chopped basil
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to Gas 4, 350°F, 180°C. Peel the onions and chop. Heat the oil in a frying pan then fly the onions for about 5 minutes until soft and transparent. Drain well on absorbent kitchen paper
and cool.

Place the minced meats into a large bowl then add the cooled, drained onion. Peel and crush the garlic, add to the mixture together with the paprika, chopped fresh herbs, tomato puree, salt and freshly ground black pepper and breadcrumbs. Mix well together.

Beat the eggs then add to mixture. Mix well. Pack into a 2 Ib/900 g loaf tin, packing the mixture well down in the tin, both in the corners and sides of tin. Cover with tin foil and place in a roasting tin half filled with boiling water.

Cook for 1 ½-2 hrs or until cooked. Uncover for last 1/2 hr of cooking, (The meatloaf is cooked when the meat starts to shrink away from the sides of the tin.) Allow to cool for 5-10 minutes before turning out. Garnish top of meatloaf with sprigs of fresh herbs.

To make sauce, make a cross at the stalk end of the tomatoes. Place in a large bowl of boiling water. Leave for 2 mins, drain, peel and chop. Peel onion and roughly chop. Heat the oil in a small pan then fry onion for 5 mins. Add the chopped tomatoes, tomato puree, stock, sugar, basil and seasoning. Cook gently for 10-15 minutes or until the sauce is thick. Serve hot with the meatloaf.

If liked use two 1 lb/450 g loaf tins. Cook for 1 hr or until cooked. Cool and freeze one for later.
The meatloaf is ideal to slice and use in lunch boxes – cool quickly and store for up to two days, well
covered, in the fridge.

If you require a high quality printout of this article, just click on the printer symbol next to ’Share and enjoy’, and we will do the rest.

Get the best website builder available anywhere –SBI! Lick here for more information

Return from meatloaf to Home Page

If you want to increase your site popularity and gain thousands of visitors – check out these sites THEY ARE FREE. Spanishchef more than doubled its ‘New Visitors’ last month simply by signing up to these sites:







Follow spanishchef.net on TWITTER

Mock Duck Has Come to Us

My favourite meal is meatloaf because whenever my mother made meatloaf my father would pull out of a drawer a cardboard cut-out of a duck’s head and a pair of wings. To the delight of the hungry children – we were 4 – he would announce, “Children, your mother has made us mock duck. Mock duck has come to us” and grin at my mother. I thought that mock was a special type of duck that only my family knew about and that may be my mother caught in the ravine behind the house. It was sort of like Santa Claus, you just wanted to believe.

PS I never actually had real duck until I grew up. I’m not sure that this isn’t better

Mock Duck

1 lb lean ground beef
½ lb ground pork sausage
½ lb mild ground chorizo sausage
2 eggs
½ clove of pressed garlic
1 small minced onion
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp salt or to taste
1 tsp ground black pepper
½ tsp Worcestershire Sauce
1 cup of rolled oats, shredded medium fine in the food processor
¼ cup coarsely ground hazel nuts or pecans
1 cup of milk or enough to hold the mixture together
4 strips of bacon (optional)

Mix everything together and form two loaves. Lay the strips of bacon on the loaves length ways. Bake at 350 for an hour and 15 minutes.

Remove from oven and serve one loaf hot (don’t forget the pretend head and wings made of cardboard). Save the other loaf for wonderful sandwiches.

Each loaf serves 4-6.
author:Susan Love