Onward Meatloaf Soldiers!
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
In honor of my short cameo on Eat Feed, my favorite podcast, I am happy to finally present a post I've been meaning to cover for ages! This meal is a staple in our household, and one of the many weeknight meals we turn to for daily sustenance.
This week's Eat Feed features comfort foods. When asked for my favorite comfort food, I immediately responded with an enthusiastic "Meatloaf!" There's a warmth about it, a massiveness in beef, bread crumbs and other seasonings. My mother made awesome meatloaf, and now my wife makes a killer 'loaf that's even better (sorry Mom).
Jenny's meatloaf started as a recipe from a cookbook given to her by her mother, and in the 10-20 batches we've made over the years the recipe has become our own. We add considerably more seasoning, and occasionally we mix things up, adding various veggies and spices.
That's the great thing about meatloaf. It's not a hard and fast recipe. If you add too much of one thing or another, no biggie. It allows for endless variation, and is pretty forgiving of mistakes. Jenny makes the batches with any combination of ground turkey and beef with a combined weight of about a pound and a half. We've played with all kinds of veggies, including carrots and peppers, and lots of additional seasonings (soy sauce is particularly interesting, so is worcestershire sauce). Heck, we've even substituted BBQ sauce instead of ketchup for a more smoky flavor.
Still, as a creature of habit, I've fallen into some consistent features. I've started grating the onion instead of dicing, as it produces smaller chunks in the finished product. Our recipe doesn't have any eggs in it, but we find it holds together pretty well. If you add a ton of vegetables, it may have to be added to keep it all together.
Lest you think that we spend hours a week tediously mashing raw meat in a bowl, in virtual slavery to dinner, I'm here to tell you we've found a better way. We produce our meatloaves in bulk and freeze them for later use. We just simply throw them in the fridge the day before to thaw, and we can enjoy meatloaf whenever we want to without the messy and time consuming prep work.
It's important that you make the loafs into equal sizes. It's a lot easier, once you get some experience, to accurately gauge cooking time and doneness if you make all your meatloafs the same from batch to batch. I HIGHLY recommend using a probe thermometer to test for doneness. It takes all the guesswork out of cooking in the oven, and avoids potential trips to the hospital. Since ground beef has tons of surface area, you have to make sure it's cooked to 160° all the way through. Speaking of ovens, we also cook our meatloaf in the toaster oven so that we don't have to give our first born to the gas man.
We freeze our batches into 4-serving loafs so that we can make dinners (and leftovers) for 2. Recently, we've taken this to the next level, partitioning out individual miniloafs (using a 1/2 cup measure) suitable for 1 person. That way we can precisely count points for each loaf, and helps the meat thaw considerably faster when the loafs are smaller. Besides, it makes an impressive formation of miniloafs when you're getting ready to freeze them. Behold my miniloaf army!
This level of convenience does come at a small price. The individual meatloafs tend to be a little drier, and its easier to overcook them. We feel that it's worth it for the added convenience.
I love this meal so much, that when given the chance to pick any meal for my birthday (an important tradition in our family), I asked Jenny to make me my favorite cold weather meal - meatloaf with mashed potatoes and broccoli. Yum.
This week's Eat Feed features comfort foods. When asked for my favorite comfort food, I immediately responded with an enthusiastic "Meatloaf!" There's a warmth about it, a massiveness in beef, bread crumbs and other seasonings. My mother made awesome meatloaf, and now my wife makes a killer 'loaf that's even better (sorry Mom).
Jenny's meatloaf started as a recipe from a cookbook given to her by her mother, and in the 10-20 batches we've made over the years the recipe has become our own. We add considerably more seasoning, and occasionally we mix things up, adding various veggies and spices.
That's the great thing about meatloaf. It's not a hard and fast recipe. If you add too much of one thing or another, no biggie. It allows for endless variation, and is pretty forgiving of mistakes. Jenny makes the batches with any combination of ground turkey and beef with a combined weight of about a pound and a half. We've played with all kinds of veggies, including carrots and peppers, and lots of additional seasonings (soy sauce is particularly interesting, so is worcestershire sauce). Heck, we've even substituted BBQ sauce instead of ketchup for a more smoky flavor.
Still, as a creature of habit, I've fallen into some consistent features. I've started grating the onion instead of dicing, as it produces smaller chunks in the finished product. Our recipe doesn't have any eggs in it, but we find it holds together pretty well. If you add a ton of vegetables, it may have to be added to keep it all together.
Lest you think that we spend hours a week tediously mashing raw meat in a bowl, in virtual slavery to dinner, I'm here to tell you we've found a better way. We produce our meatloaves in bulk and freeze them for later use. We just simply throw them in the fridge the day before to thaw, and we can enjoy meatloaf whenever we want to without the messy and time consuming prep work.
It's important that you make the loafs into equal sizes. It's a lot easier, once you get some experience, to accurately gauge cooking time and doneness if you make all your meatloafs the same from batch to batch. I HIGHLY recommend using a probe thermometer to test for doneness. It takes all the guesswork out of cooking in the oven, and avoids potential trips to the hospital. Since ground beef has tons of surface area, you have to make sure it's cooked to 160° all the way through. Speaking of ovens, we also cook our meatloaf in the toaster oven so that we don't have to give our first born to the gas man.
We freeze our batches into 4-serving loafs so that we can make dinners (and leftovers) for 2. Recently, we've taken this to the next level, partitioning out individual miniloafs (using a 1/2 cup measure) suitable for 1 person. That way we can precisely count points for each loaf, and helps the meat thaw considerably faster when the loafs are smaller. Besides, it makes an impressive formation of miniloafs when you're getting ready to freeze them. Behold my miniloaf army!
I love this meal so much, that when given the chance to pick any meal for my birthday (an important tradition in our family), I asked Jenny to make me my favorite cold weather meal - meatloaf with mashed potatoes and broccoli. Yum.
3/4 lb. Ground Turkey Breast
3/4 lb. Lean Ground Beef (95%/5%)
1/2 cup Italian Bread Crumbs
1 med. Onion, grated
3 cloves Garlic, mashed
1 can (6 0z.) Italian Herb Seasoned Tomato Paste, or equivalent
2 tablespoons Dried Parsley
1-2 teaspoons Italian Seasoning
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
Ketchup
Mix ingredients (with your hands, coward!) until thouroughly combined. Form loafs into convenient sizes. Consistent sizing will help ensure consistent cooking times.
Bake at 350° for 60 minutes or until internal temperature is 160°. Baste with ketchup after 20-30 minutes.
Makes 8-10 mini loafs, 3pts. each.
:: 8 comments
8 Comments:
Dude I totally forgot about your birthday. I'm pathetic. I noticed your mini loaves remind me of steel mills moving to the mini mill process way back in the 1900s as a way of cutting costs.
3/01/2006 11:44 AM
Man, how did you know that was my inspiration? Wait till I finish my post on making cheese. I was inspired by the USA's work on uranium enrichment during WWII...
3/01/2006 2:55 PM
I put my meatloaf mix in muffin tins to make individual servings; this allows me to call them "meatmuffins," which amuses me (and confuses my dinner guests).
3/07/2006 3:21 PM
William, when it comes to freezing these, do you use freezer ziploc bags or tinfoil, or does it matter?
3/08/2006 4:58 PM
I first freeze them overnight on a wax-covered cookie sheet, then I bag them in a heavy zip-lock freezer bag for long term storage.
3/08/2006 5:02 PM
is it enough to say that this recipe looks like what i was searching for? thanks, naomi
4/04/2006 7:23 PM
That's absolutely more than enough! Let me know how it goes...
4/04/2006 10:54 PM
Going to try this recipe, though, without substituting the turkey with beef, as ground turkey is almost absolute in supermarkets in this part of the woods. Will allow for slightly higher points. Going to substitute home-made bread crumbs with the dry store bought ones- that I make with toasting whole wheat bread, breaking into smaller pieces and using a good blender with a sharp blade that breaks it down into crumbs, then add italian seasoning, salt and pepper or whatever you wish according to what your preparing (it's tons better than the store bought ones). Will let you know how it comes out.
6/11/2006 4:37 PM
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