Basic Meat Loaf
As I am fending for myself this week and have work and personal deliverables, and the weather is trending from cold to brutal, I find myself seeking comfort food that can be produced quickly, have a variety of serving options, and will help heat the kitchen via the oven.
My first thought is to toss a steak into a pan and move on, but the reheat options on a steak are minimal, and there are rarely any leftovers to reheat anyway. Examining my freezer, I find a chunk of chuck roast, and if I grind this down, it should give me an 80/20 protein-to-fat ratio; in the fridge, I have a jar of my BBQ sauce, and bell pepper, on the counter an onion, and in the cupboard a can of breadcrumbs. (Yes, I know, I’m just not up to baking bread, cubing the bread, and toasting the cubes, thence crushing, today.)
So, meatloaf it is, with a bbq glaze. I may add a bit of liquid smoke to the bbq sauce for that smoky undertaste.
Once I have the meatloaf, leftovers can be reheated in a skillet for a crisp crust and served with mashed, or just sliced thin and slapped between two pieces of bread for a quick meal whilst at my workstation.
One can also reserve a portion of the grease drained after baking and use that to produce gravy as well. (If one uses a leaner grind, the grease will be minimal.)
This is a minimal recipe; one can perform enhancements such as larding (wrapping in bacon) or encasing in puff pastry or phyllo dough (a meatloaf wellington). The add-ins to this can be quite varied; one can even embed various stuffings into the center of the loaf. Whilst these are all interesting, I need to generate a good hot meal with several follow-on meals.
From Wikipedia:
Meatloaf is a dish of ground meat that has been combined with other ingredients and formed into the shape of a loaf, then baked or smoked. The final shape is either hand-formed on a baking tray, or pan-formed by cooking it in a loaf pan. It is usually made with ground beef, although ground lamb, pork, veal, venison, poultry, and seafood are also used, sometimes in combination. Vegetarian adaptations of meatloaf may use imitation meat or pulses.
The cooked meatloaf can be sliced like a loaf of bread to make individual portions. It can easily become dry; therefore, various techniques exist to keep the dish moist, like mixing in bread crumbs and egg, covering it with sauce, wrapping it, or using moisture-enhancing ingredients in the mixture, such as filling it with fatty meats, rich cheeses, or vegetables.
Meatloaf
Ingredients
- 1 lb Ground Beef See https://www.roguechef.com/?p=3888
- 1/2 Ea Onion Peeled, fine dice
- 3/4 cup Bread Crumbs Plain
- 1 ea Egg Jumbo
- 1 tbsp Seasoning Mix See Notes
- 1/4 cup Tomato Ketchup
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
- 1 cup BBQ sauce https://www.roguechef.com/?p=2387
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F
- Lightly grease a 9×5 loaf pan
- Add the ground beef, plain breadcrumbs, diced or grated onion, beaten egg, meatloaf seasoning, ketchup, and Worcestershire sauce in a large mixing bowl.
- Mix well but do not overmix
- Transfer the beef mixture to the loaf pan.
- Place the meatloaf in the middle of the middle rack in the oven and bake at 350°F for 50 minutes.
- Then, pull the meatloaf out of the oven and coat it with BBQ sauce. Return the meatloaf to the oven and allow it to bake for an additional 10-20 minutes.
- Remove your meatloaf from the oven when the internal temperature reaches 155°F.
- Drain any excess grease, adn rest for 10 minutes
- Depan, slice and serve
Notes
- 1 teaspoon salt,
- 1 teaspoon paprika (smoked paprika works as well),
- ½ teaspoon black pepper,
- ½ teaspoon of onion powder.
- Cube your portion of dead cow into 3/4 – 1″ chunks
- Spread onto a sheet pan and freeze for 30 minutes
- Grind up in either a grinder or a food processor
Nutrition
Filed
under: American, Baked, Follow On, Global, Winter
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