Friday, March 21, 2008

Comfort food: meatloaf

Growing up, my dad would do a lot of the cooking, and one thing I would always look forward to was his meatloaf. I would eat it with Worcestershire sauce and/or ketchup, and it was usually served with some kind of potato and salad. It was a fun break from the usual Chinese food we had growing up.

My wife felt like eating meatloaf this week, so I dug up an old email sent to me from my dad with the recipe. The perfect thing to eat it with was, of course, the mashed potatoes from my previous post!

It tasted just like at home--except the TV wasn't on in the background this time.


Meatloaf
2 lbs ground beef, replacing up to 1 lb with ground pork if desired (and don't use the lean stuff!)
1 egg
1 carrot, grated
1 stalk celery, small dice
1 onion, small dice
1 granny smith apple, small dice
1 cup Quaker's 3-minute oatmeal
ground pepper, to taste
several healthy pinches of salt
1 tbsp soy sauce and/or Worcestershire sauce
  1. Preheat oven to 350°F
  2. Mix all ingredients together
  3. Line a loaf pan with aluminum foil or parchment if you're lazy like me and don't want to clean up afterward
  4. Bake at 350°F for 1½ hours. The top should be a deep brown color.
  5. Let it rest for 10 minutes.
  6. Enjoy!

3 comments:

natalie said...

YUMMMM i love meat loaf! and the recipe looks straightforward/accessible enough for even me to attempt! i will try this sometime...

jko said...

This is my favorite meatloaf recipe--the apples do make a subtle difference in the overall flavor! I think next time it should be shredded or diced even smaller though--with some bites I felt like I was eating roasted apples.

I also think it could be a little more tender--not sure if the beef should be fattier or what.

B+

mkonline said...

I did this last night. First attempt at cooking or eating meatloaf ever. VERY happy with it. I used the cheapest, fattiest beef and shredded the apple as suggested. Only minor issue was that it didn't "slice" very well. Sort of came away in chunks.
What's the best way to reheat this without drying it out or otherwise killing it? We have a lot of leftovers!