/ck/ - Food & Cooking

>>18386870
The secret to good meatloaf is recognizing that meatloaf fucking sucks and making something else.

>>18386870
mætloaf is the bees tits and my best advice is DON'T follow Alton Brown's resippy. Chef John's resippy is okay but it's important you let the meat, once mixed, rest for a few hours before you form it into the pan.

Frankly I use pickerel which ¥uros and Americans don't have access to, which is sad af. It's basically breadcrumbs but in powder form plus some whey.

OR you could just mix in some SPAM with the ground beef.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ku-I-7wttsg

>>18386870
>>18386885
Don't listen to this spastic
>>18386915
>it's important you let the meat, once mixed, rest for a few hours before you form it
This. Include mire pois and an egg into the mix. Best way to mix is by hand. When you form it, gently compact it to remove cracks and air pockets, but not so hard that you form new cracks. Coat the exterior in a layer of ketchup/steak sauce just before you bake it. Wrapping in bacon is optional.

>>18386870
I made a pretty good meatloaf a while ago. But I didn't really measure anything. If you want me to guess the amounts it was 1 lb of ground beef, 3 onions chopped and sauteed until soft, 1 tbsp soy sauce, 1/3 cup breadcrumb, just enough milk to moisten breadcrumb, and 1/2 tsp pepper. If you're okay with eyeballing then you can just use that as the ingredient list.

I made an onion gravy with lots of caramelized onion in bechamel, that was pretty good with it. And I served it with cranberry sauce, kind of like how Swedish meatballs have lingonberry jam.

>>18386930
never mix by hand, the heat of the hand cooks the grease and creates tough spots and gravelly texture. yes you can press it into the pan by hand at the very last minute but keep your meat cold and mix with steel, not your chubby hotfingers

>>18386870
I like to make tomato confit with clarified butter, garlic, and marjoram. Cut the garlic and tomatoes into 1/4 inch or so bits to add to a 1/3 mix of pork and beef with bread crumbs, egg yolk, and some sauteed mirepoix. You can just use reconstituted dried tomatoes if you really want, but they always have really tough bits even after soaking overnight and simply aren't as good, plus you get the roasted garlic and infused butter oil to mess with when you make confit tomatoes. It's really nice to do that way if you have some game meat, too, but I'll usually reduce some red wine or beer with some cinnamon or nutmeg with the sauteed vegetables, depending on the kind of meat.

>>18386870
blend up 1/4 onion, 1/4 bell pepper, 1 carrot, one stalk of celery, a couple cloves of garlic
dump 1.5lb of meatloaf mix (50/50 ground beef and pork) into a bowl
add the pureed vegetables
add 1 cup of plain bread crumbs
add a mixed up egg
add salt, pepper, cayenne
mash it all together till homogeneous
line a bread pan with parchment paper (easier to pull out meatloaf when done)
dump in the meat and form a slight trough going lengthwise down the middle (the meatloaf will rise in the center when baking so the trough keeps it flat rather than bulbous)
bake at 400f for 40 minutes or so
take it out of the oven, let it cool a bit before removing the loaf from the bread pan
let it cool further, in the fridge if you want
once cool, cut a thick slice and put on a broiler pan
coat the top face with a glaze, like 50/50 ketchup/brown sugar, sugary bbq sauce, whatever you want.
put it under the broiler a few minutes till the glaze caramelizes and has some charred bits
serve

>>18386870
75% beef / 25% Italian sausage, egg, bread crumbs, sauteed peppers onions and garlic, smoked paprika, cumin, black pepper and Worcestershire sauce the wrapped in bacon and baked, near the end glaze with BBQ sauce and eat as a sandwich on a flaky biscuit