The Chef's Table

Meatloaf - The King of Comfort Cuisine

Warm up a cool October evening with Mark’s mouth-watering meatloaf.

There are a few foods that are ingrained in American culture. Hamburgers and hotdogs represent the casual segment; Thanksgiving and its foods represent the more elaborate end of the family food spectrum. Meatloaf sits squarely in the middle. It is the quintessential comfort food.

Meatloaf seems to have been around since ground meat and its recipes were brought to the New World from Europe (no doubt on the Mayflower). The dish is typically considered Midwestern, but it shows up in southern cooking and is considered an Italian cousin to the meatball, often being served with a tomato-based sauce. During the Great Depression cereal grains were added to meatloaf to stretch dinner to feed hungry families. Meatloaf seems to have reached its zenith during W.W.II when President Truman declared that meatloaf with tomato sauce was his favorite meal.

Even after the war, meatloaf continued to take center stage on the dinner table. New, glamorized versions graced the cooking magazines, such as sliced hardboiled eggs sandwiched between layers of meatloaf, or a topping of mashed potatoes to make an English meatloaf shepherd’s pie. The resulting decades produced variation after variation; turkey, chicken and vegetarian meatloaves, wild and exotic game meatloaf, low-fat, ethnic, grilled, etc. While in the past, meatloaf was traditional fare only at diners serving home-styled foods, upscale versions have recently shown up on the menus of some of the country’s best restaurants.

Making Meatloaf
Typically, meatloaf is made by combining seasoned ground meat (beef, veal, lamb, turkey and pork), a binder (crackers, bread crumbs, oats and/or eggs) and a little liquid (ketchup, BBQ sauce, salsa, tomato sauce or milk). Remember that the leaner the meat, the more liquid will be needed. A good rule is 1/2 cup dried or 1 cup fresh breadcrumbs for every 1 1/2 pounds of meat. The mixture is formed into a shape and baked either free-formed or in a loaf pan. Additional sauce or gravy is sometimes added to the top of the meatloaf before, during or after cooking. Leftovers make a great meatloaf sandwich the next day. There are only a handful of foods that, decade after decade, we lovingly adapt to fit our ever-changing tastes. Our willingness to continually rework and update this simple comfort food is a testament to its popularity as one of our most treasured classics. By following just a few simple guidelines, you can create meatloaf as traditional as ground beef with saltines and ketchup or as exotic as turkey loaf with hoisin sauce and rice crackers!

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Great Meat Loaf in Six Steps:

1. Sauté vegetables before adding to the meat.
2. Thoroughly combine the ingredients using your hands.
3. Cook the meatloaf on a broiler pan sprayed with cooking spray.
4. Ladle sauce, gravy, ketchup, tomato sauce, etc. over top of meatloaf.
5. Meatloaf is done when an inserted meat thermometer registers 165 degrees.
6. Remove meatloaf from the oven and let stand for 10 minutes before slicing.

Chef Mark's Italian Meatloaf
serves 6
1 1/2 lbs. lean ground beef
1 lb. Italian sausage - crumbled
1 bottle Chef Mark’s Roasted Red Pepper Aioli sauce
2 cups fresh bread crumbs
1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese
1 small white onion - finely diced
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh Italian parsley
1 Tbsp. dried Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp. each salt and pepper
2 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, coat broiler pan top with cooking spray. (For easy cleaning line the bottom of broiler pan with aluminum foil.) Make 2 cups fresh bread crumbs by using a food processor to process torn up pieces of Italian bread. Add all the ingredients together, except 1/3 of the red pepper sauce, and mix thoroughly with your hands. Shape mixture into a loaf and cover with remaining red pepper sauce. Bake for 75 - 90 minutes or until an inserted thermometer registers 165 degrees. Remove from oven and let stand for 10 minutes before slicing.