The Immutable Meat-Loaf

Why immutable? Meat-Loaf has not changed and will never change.  Meat-Loaf is just a big hunk of meat that is roasted and sliced and served. No doubt Meatloaves can be different from each other but only slightly. People use a vast of ingredients that can set them apart. 

Meat-Loaf, in my opinion, must be served with mash potatoes and corn!! Of course bread and butter too. Did I forget gravy? You gotta have gravy!! Another essential ingredient is my personal assistant Sophie. Sophie is my beautiful daughter, and without her help and insistent desire for meat-loaf, none of this would have been possible.

Meat-Loaf, in my opinion, is probably one of the easiest and hardest dishes to prepare. Easy because it's just plain simple to make. Mix up a bunch of ingredients roast in the oven. How hard can it be? Well, it depends on the several elements, I guess, and some of the techniques to pull it off properly..

 Whatever ingredients you choose, make sure they are the best and freshest. I personally like to use combinations of meats.

 I use roughly 50% Angus beef 25% each of ground Lamb and Veal. I use different meats for their flavor.  I also use only 80% lean beef because extra fat adds extra flavor. 

It's important to chop up all of your ingredients nice and small. I use carrots as an example. Notice their perfect size? 

So what's in my Meat-Loaf? Besides the meat, I keep it relatively simple. Carrots, a couple of celery stalks, onions, garlic, green onion, fresh Thyme, Fresh Italian parsley, salt pepper and pepper, Italian bread crumbs, Sun-dried Tomatoes, Port Tawney, Parmesan Cheese and lots of eggs, ketchup and Balsamic Vinegar I also added a non-salt seasoning I get from Costco that is just awesome. 

The first thing I do is pre-chop all the ingredients. I use a little food processor for the Sun-dried Tomatoes and garlic. At different intervals, I toss everything into a skillet and fry it all up. I also add seasonings at this point too. I like layering all my spices, so everything has flavor. So let's review a bit. 

I Chopped up the onion, carrots, celery, garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, I added thyme, Salt and pepper, green onion, and sautéed until it was caramelized. 

 I deglaze with the Tawney and cooled it off entirely before adding it to the meat mixture.  

To the meat mixture, I add in lots of eggs.  In this particular recipe I base it on the meat weight. I added about 8 scrambled eggs initially but eventually added several more to gain the texture I was looking for.  

So after the eggs were added, I added the now caramelized cooled vegetables and mixed thoroughly by hand. I, of course, had my trusty little daughter to help me with my mixing. I chopped up my parsley and added it to the mixture.  

I also added at this time some Italian bread crumbs (I normally add a panade) and some cheese. The bread crumbs are needed for two reasons. 

The first reason is to give your Loaf texture and the second reason to absorb some of the liquids and retain moisture during and after cooking. 

After thoroughly mixing your loaf, take a sampling and fry it up. This is one of those essential metods that cannot be overlooked or stressed enough. This is your opportunity to adjust your seasonings. So after you get it all adjusted, you might find that the loaf is to lose or too dense. Very easy fix!! Add some more bread crumbs, Port, eggs, or even tomato paste. Let your imagination go wild. 

Place Loaf in your roasting pan. Make sure to chose a pan that can be placed on the cooktop so you can make a gravy. Now form your loaf!!! 

The traditional topping for Meat-Loaf is ketchup, and it's a great tradition. I love ketchup, and it still works great as a topping. The only thing I do slightly differently is to add a balsamic vinegar reduction to the ketchup and slather the top of the loaf. Oh, before I add the Ketchup, I add some additional seasonings to the top then slather on the concoction. 

How do you reduce balsamic vinegar? Just boil it off a bit and add to your ketchup.  

 Roast the Loaf in a 350-degree preheated oven.  Use an internal temperature probe and cook until the internal temp is 140 degrees.  Don't worry, after you take it out, the temp will continue to climb a bit. The 140-degree temp is the other coveted technique that is a must!!! Let it rest about 20 minutes and serve it. Don't forget to make a gravy.