As a food-eater, I love eating meat, but as a food-cooker, meat is actually kinda boring. So I decided to try a not-boring meat dish. (Well, other than that other one.) And I figured meatloaf was the meatiest non-boring dish I could think of. So I made that.
Good Eats has an episode about meatloaf, so I watched the episode and used the recipe from there. There are a few wonky things about that recipe. For one, instead of using breadcrumbs as a binder, Alton Brown says to use croutons and to break the croutons down in a food processor. Well, that actually didn’t work out very well, so I recommend sticking to the tried and true breadcrumbs.
One thing that worked well though was grinding your own meat. There are plenty of reasons to grind your own meat. A few of them are that it’s less likely to get foodborne illness and that you can control exactly what’s in your meat. And it’s not that hard. You just need a food processor. (Just be sure to process your meat thoroughly and get out all the big chunks. I personally err on the side of over-processed.)
Another unorthodox thing about this recipe is, instead of baking your meatloaf in the pan, instead just use the loaf pan as a mold and bake your meatloaf free-standing. This way, you get more even heating, and juices don’t just soak at the bottom of the pan. At the very least, you can glaze the sides of meatloaf instead of just the top.
Unfortunately, my first attempt at meatloaf fell apart while I was slicing it. To understand the mechanics of meatloaf, the two binding agents of a meatloaf are breadcrumbs and egg. Like I said before, the croutons are wonky, so definitely use breadcrumbs. The recipe also says to only use one egg, but on my next try, I bumped it up to 2 eggs, and it worked much better. (Good enough to make a meatloaf sandwich, pictured at the top.)
The flavors were spot-on though. The cayenne gives the meatloaf that extra kick. The garlic and salt really enhance the flavor. The glaze adds a little extra something, but doesn’t overpower the flavor of the meat. I’d say this is definitely one of my more successful cooking adventures.
Bonus: When my meatloaf fell apart, I threw it into a bowl and ate a delicious ground beef pile.
