Cuthbert Thistlethwaite wrote in
:
. . . But to truly be helpful post your meatloaf
recipe and let us pick thru it. Can't fix what we can't see.
Thanks, here we go:
My personal lesson he It is not easy for a rank beginner to read a
recipe and totally understand exactly where it is going.
From "The Good Houskeeping Cookbook", 1963. My Mother's last cook
book, and the only one I still have:
Page 106 (verbatim)
quote
Meat Loaf
2 cups fresh bread crumbs
3/4 cup minced onion
1/4 cup minced green pepper
2 eggs
2 lbs. ground chuck
2 tbsps horse-radish
2 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp dry mustard
1/4 cup milk or evap milk
3/4 cup catchup
1. When it's convenient, prepare bread crumbs, minced onion, green
pepper.
2. About 1 hour before serving: Start heating oven to 400 F.
3. In large bowl, with fork, beat eggs slightly. *Lightly* mix in
chuck, then crumbs, onion, pepper. (Meat will be juicier and more
tender if you handle it as little as possible.) Add horse-radish,
salt, mustard, milk, 1/4 cup catchup; combine lightly but well.
4. In bowl, shape meat into oval loaf; transfer to shallow baking dish
or broil-and-serve platter; smooth into shapely loaf. Spread top with
1/2 cup catchup. Bake 50 min.
5. Serve from baking dish or broil-and-serve platter, pouring off
excess juices. Or, with 2 broad spatulas, lift loaf out of baking
dish onto heated platter. Spoon some of juices over meat. (Nice
chilled, then served sliced, too.) Makes 8 servings.
P.S. If you prefer a soft, moist exterior, bake meat loaf as directed
in 9" x 5" x 3" loaf pan. pour juices from pan after baking. Unmold
meat loaf onto cake rack; then place, right side up, on heated
platter. Use juices for making gravy if desired.
/quote
----
Here's what I did:
The chuck available in the Jewel in Chicago is pretty lean, less than
20 percent fat.
Used a jar of dried minced onion
Skipped the pepper
Put the "catchup" into the loaf but did not slather "catchup" onto the
top, since I'm not that big a fan of "catchup."
Used the loaf pan method described in the P.S. part.
Drizzled only about a third of the juices onto the loaf at then end.
The juices were cloudy and did not look all that good.
Here's what I got:
A loaf about the consistency of a brick, and it was sweet, which I
attribute to all those onions. You really can't readily tell it's
made of meat. I worked my way through it, rather than waste all that
chuck, but it's just hardly all right, only if I coat it with A-1
sauce.
Here's what I want:
A really meaty recipe, favoring beef, but I'm interested in
everything.
What I suggest is looking at several nay 4 or 5 meatloaf recipes from
various websites...compare them, examine the ratio of differing meats to
various other stuff and mix and match a recipe.
Personally I like powdered onion soup mix in my meatloaf. And replace
crumbs with ketchup. Others have other preferences
For your reading pleasu
Note...all these recipes are totally different, mostly.
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/fo...EATLOAF-241512
http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1627...249193,00.html
http://lifewise.canoe.ca/FoodDrink/E...66040-sun.html
http://southernfood.about.com/od/mea...a/aa102399.htm
http://www.tastymeatloafrecipes.com/easymeatloaf.htm
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Savory-...af/Detail.aspx
http://www.1001recipe.com/recipes/food/glazed_meatloaf/
http://ca.answers.yahoo.com/question...6040852AAgO9tz
--
The house of the burning beet-Alan