But here's how I threw this particular one together.about 1 1/4 pounds of ground meat
2 parts ground beef, 1 part ground pork
1 larger than medium but definitely not jumbo yellow onion
some sort of meat extender
spices
1 egg
dill
mustard
ketchup
bake at 350 for 45 minutes
There are a couple of ways to come into the appropriate proportions of beef and pork. Ground beef is, of course, very widely available. The right amount of pork can be a bit trickier. What I do is go to Rainbow where in the section of the meat counter right between the beef section and the pork section they have "Ground meat for meat loaf" pre-packaged in about 1 and 1/4 pound packages, 2 parts ground beef, 1 part ground pork.
I cut the onion up as if to chop but keep the actual chopping to a minimum. I want big savory pieces of onion. Most of the actual separating will be done in the smooshing step.
For extender I use a package of Stove Top Stuffing Mix for Pork. This provides breading with a mixture of spices already added. Sometimes I add other spices, salt, pepper, rosemary, sage, thyme, any of those have potential. Most times I don't. I am not going for gourmet here, I am going for meat loaf.
You need a binder, I add 1 egg. Any time I add an egg to anything I add dill, more dill than you think you need.
I like to add a large dollop of mustard to the bowl at this point, a couple of tablespoons at least, preferably not the yellow mustard. I like the yellow mustard for hot dogs but prefer a dijon such as Grey Poupon for cooking. This time I used a Grey Poupon with horseradish.
Then the fun part, smoosh it all together. No dainty 'mixing' at this point. This is a bare hands project, dig in and smoosh until well and completely mixed. No quitting there, that's not enough, smoosh it a bit more.
I put ketchup in to completely cover the bottom of the pan and add the meat loaf mixture, compressing it along the edges and into the corners to make sure you have a good loaf.
350 for 45 minutes.
Transfer to serving platter, pan drippings which should be distinctly ketchupy in nature, get poured on top.
2 comments:
That's kind of interesting -- and it sounds a lot like a recipe to me. You make it differently, a bit, than I do. My 'recipe' uses Italian bread crumbs, available in a cylindrical container at the grocery store. A few other differences, but it's still meat loaf. I made some last night, but it wasn't pretty enough to put on my blog. Still, it was tasty.
Entertaining stuff. One would almost think that you were some sort of comic?
Good on Gino. You rose to the challenge like I expected. My recipe calls for 50/50 hamburger and ground pork. And if the gods are willing, an equal part of ground veal. Otherwise it is much the same. I tend to use onion soup mix as a flavor adder and source of seasoning. And Italian bread crumbs work so nicely as pointed out by Santini. But good one.
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