down home cooking: meatloaf

Meatloaf is one of the dishes that I honestly thought I would never tackle. Let's face it: it's more iconically American, even, than hamburger. Think about it for a minute: we associate hamburgers, for the most part, either with going out, or with grilling and barbecues and backyard parties. We associate hamburgers, with DAD. Show of hands here: how many think of "the wonderful hamburgers MOM made?" I would bet not many. But just about everyone has a story about "mom's meatloaf." Usually they're good, but not always. I know of many people of my generation for whom meatloaf was a "once a week" dinner. It was inexpensive, and you got enough out of it to make sandwiches with the leftovers (and who didn't like the sandwiches more than the actual meatloaf? Hmmmm???). Even in an Italian home, where we ate meatballs a lot, we got meatloaf. I have to say that Nana's was of a "type," that you see occasionally, but not often anymore. Hers was crispy: she would bake it until the outside was almost black. She also used a lot of onion in hers, and frequently green pepper. It was good, but honestly, I think now that it was Nana's attempt to assimilate her family, to make us Americans. Her meatballs were much better.

I'm not sure if it's the mashed potatoes that everyone associates with meat loaf that makes peole "like" meatloaf, or if it's the meatloaf itself. GOOD meatloaf is well worth eating, even without the potatoes. My favorite way of having it, to be honest, is with rice. And spinach. But that's you know who being difficult again. The key though, is getting a GOOD meatloaf. And, sometimes, you get the good stuff in places you wouldn't expect. Diners make superb meatloaf. I can't even begin to guess why, but they do. Order it in a fancy place, and expect to be disappointed.

Well, here's how I got on a meatloaf kick. I used to buy prepared meatloaves, and cook them for big parties, because people liked them. After a few of these, though, my friend Steve took me aside one day and said "they eat them because of your potatoes. The meatloaf is awful."

OOPS. So I started on a trek to make GOOD meatloaf. It took a while, I must say. I tried so many different things. But... like with most things, I found that a simpler preparation was the best. You didn't ask for it, but you're getting it anyway.

Key ingredients to meatloaf are, DUH, chopped meat, a starch stretcher, eggs, and seasoning. Big categories, huh? What I found, is that a meatloaf made entirely of ground beef, is just about as dry and tasteless as you can get. I like to use ground beef, pork and veal, in equal proportions. If you have an issue with veal, then I would suggest you use two parts beef and one part pork. And I always make more meatloaf than I think I will need, because I always need more. So, for this recipe, plan on a pound each of the ground meats (if you can, by the way, taste each meat, raw, to see what it's bringing to the mix. It's a good exercise).

Now, the stretcher. Again, there is widespread variation here. The one I encountered the most, was oatmeal. Nana used to use whatever she had around: rice, pastina (I kid you not), cubed bread, bread crumbs, whatever. I had used breadcrumbs, and found the resulting loaf ok, but not great. Then.... I read somewhere about soaking the crumbs in milk.

BINGO. Much better. And I remembered a trend from the 60s, when folks added evaporated milk to meatloaves to make them creamier and softer. Hmmmm. "Everything old is new again." So, for every pound of meat, use a half cup of bread crumbs - fresh if you have them, dried if you don't (but don't use the flavored ones), and cover the crumbs with about half an inch of milk and just let it sit. The crumbs will soak up at least most of it, maybe all of it. Add that to the meat, in a big bowl, and add an egg for each pound of meat. Finally chop half an onion. Just half, and work that in. Now, get your hands into that bowl, and mix it around until you begin to get something uniform. Taste it. You're going to want salt and pepper. How much is up to you. I avoid other seasonings in the meat for reasons you will soon see....

When you have the meat seasoned the way you like, GENTLY pat it into two loaves, about 10x6, on a baking sheet that you have lined with parchment. You need to be gentle, because patting it tightly will make a very tight , chewy loaf. Trust me on this.

Now.... Annalena's secret ingredient. Ketchup. For each meat loaf, you need half a cup of good quality ketchup (Heinz is good, but I use an organic one that my bff June Taylor makes in Berkeley. I LOVE her ketchup. I could eat it right out of the bottle). Paint the loaves generously with the stuff. If you don't like ketchup, you could use some tomato based sauce of another kind (there were times when Nana would water tomato paste and use that). After you've painted the meatloaves, get them into a preheated, 350 oven, and bake them for 45minutes to an hour. The baking time will depend on how you like the meatloaf. You'll get medium/rare at 45 minutes, complete cooked in an hour. I like it more completely cooked, so I do it for an hour.

It IS better the second day, so make plenty. You'll be glad you did.

Mashed potatoes anyone?