Succulent meatloaf recipe
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Beef and Steak and Veal, Pork Ham Bacon Sausages | 9 comments
Succulent and tasty meatloaf
“Have you ever cooked meatloaf, Conchita?”
Meatloaf sounds so vile. It has never jumped out of the cookbook pleading “Cook me, eat me.”
“What I mean is that we haven’t got a meatloaf recipe on the website. I had it once in America and it was good. It’s supposed to be economical…”
“OK I’ll give it a go.”
I have a vague memory of being served cold meatloaf as a child. The hostess whipped off its cover with a flourish. It lay on a giant oblong serving plate, looking very large and brown and dead. I can remember the pattern of small yellow and white swirls on the Formica table and wondering how I could avoid eating any of it.
I wasn’t wildly keen to make a meatloaf. But when I started to flick about on the Internet I discovered that there are millions of variations of this classic dish. It was fairly likely that I probably could make something more palatable than the dead thing that I’d been offered as a child. I rather liked the sound of this recipe from The Pioneer Woman and I also thought that Martha Stewart’s classic meatloaf sounded tasty too. So I combined the elements that appealed from each recipe and came up with this.
Meatloaf ready to go into the oven
Hot and straight from the oven it was unbelievably good – I had three helpings and Danny kept in sneaking into the kitchen for another slice. In fact Danny guzzled it every day until it ran out. Finally he gazed sadly into the empty foil wrapper.
“That was gorgeous, when can we have it again?”
I wasn’t so keen on it cold although it heated up well, wrapped in foil. I would imagine that it would freeze beautifully too.
I think the key is to combine two types of meat – like the mixture for the super Heston Boerewors burgers. The meatloaf increased in size when baked – it was enormous and would easily feed 8 or 9 people. Just lifting it in and out of the oven would negate the need to visit the gym, for at least a day.
| Succulent meatloaf recipe |
- 500g (1 pound) of beef mince (ground beef)
- 500g (1 pound) of pork mince
- 6 thick slices of bread from a sandwich loaf
- 4 eggs
- 1 medium onion
- 2 chunky cloves of garlic
- 1 celery stalk
- 2 medium carrots
- 25g (1/2 cup) fresh chopped parsley
- 250ml (1 cup) of milk
- 10 slices of thin cut streaky bacon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
- 1 teaspoon salt
- The topping:
- 3 tablespoons tomato ketchup/catsup
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon dried mustard powder
- Small dash of Tabasco
- Preheat your oven to 200c or 180c fan (390f / 350f)
- If you don’t have a food processor you need to grate the breadcrumbs, garlic, onion, celery and carrot so they are small enough to cook and soften during the baking.
- I popped the bread into the food processor and pulsed until the breadcrumbs were fairly fine.
- Put the breadcrumbs into a large bowl and pour over the milk and stir well.
- Pulse the garlic, carrots, celery and onion until fine and add them to the bowl. Stir well.
- Add the beaten eggs to the bowl plus the salt and pepper and chopped parsley. Stir well.
- Add the beef and pork, crumbling them into the bowl.
- Using your hands mix all the ingredients very well and form a bloomer loaf shape on a large ovenproof dish.
- Wrap the streaky bacon over the meatloaf, tucking the ends under the loaf.
- Spoon over half the tomato mixture spreading it over the surface of the loaf.
- Bake in the center of the oven for 1 hour. Spread over the second half of the tomato sauce and bake for a further half an hour.
- If the surface is beginning to burn, cover with foil/greaseproof paper for the final half hour.
- Check that the meat is well cooked in the middle of the loaf, and allow it to stand for 10 mins in a warm place before serving.
We experimented with using half the tomato sauce as a side for dipping but did not like it very much for that purpose. So you can get by with half the sauce mix just to smear over the meatloaf before cooking. Maybe try it once because recipes always vary.
Leave a reply
I have only recently stumbled over this great site and have really enjoyed reading all the comments, particularly as I was making my first batch of Sloe Gin. I am now going to make this meatloaf as I too have tasted some ‘not so good’ ones.
Keep up the great work!
I’d love to try this recipe but I don’t use sliced bread so I’m not too sure how much breadcrumbs to use. Any idea of the weight of them?
Mmmm, meatloaf! You have me craving for some now. I’ll have my wife try your recipe and let you know what I think. I’m a HUGE fan of Ree aka The Pioneer Woman, if she made meatloaf, it must be a keeper.
Hi Fiona. Up to this point I agreed with your comments regarding meatloaf. It was never something I felt drawn to eat let alone cook. As a regular visitor to your blog I have tried a number of your recipes, none of which disappointed, so thought I would give this a go. Who would have thought meatloaf could be this good? I can recommend this as a quick tasty and economical meal for the whole family. I lookk forward to your future recommendations (already considering the gooseberry vodka:))
Hello guys. I’ve just lifted the makings of this out of the freezer. Guess what we’re having for dinner tonight 🙂
This gets two thumbs up from me. I stuffed my face with stolen slices at 06:00 and illicit treats at lunchtime. The sweet sauce adds a great dimension. Definitely try it.
F and I converted the measures to N. American and I hope somebody there will try it and recommend any corrections that may be needed.
Also it seems that UK “streaky bacon” is standard bacon in the US and Canadians have other terms again. This article was amusing and interesting.
Well i have the family coming over next weekend and they always expect something different, thanks Fiona, a problem solved as this is the one i shall be cooking xx
This sounds delicious!!!
thanks Ellie!