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Ladies and gents, start your ovens. It’s meat loaf night.
Meat loaf is something in most people’s recipe repertoire— but everyone has their own take. At its base this budget-friendly comfort food consists of a ground or chopped protein, a starchy stretcher (breadcrumbs, oatmeal, crushed crackers) and beaten egg to bind it all together. Flavorful additions might include onion, chopped veggies or herbs, ketchup or chili sauce. It might be baked in a loaf pan to make a neat brick shape. Or you can do what I do and mound the mixture into an oval in a baking dish.
Meatloaf makes great leftovers.
My usual meatloaf is one from The Joy of Cooking. Now, I have a bazillion cookbooks from back in the day but this would probably be my desert island cookbook.
Meat Loaf, The Joy of Cooking
Preheat the oven to 350F. Lightly grease a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan. Combine in a large bowl:
12 oz ground beef chuck
12 oz ground beef round
1 ½ cups finely chopped onions
1 cup quick-cooking rolled oats or dry bread crumbs
2/3 cup catsup
2/3 cup chopped parsley
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
Knead the mixture with your hands until well blended. Fill the loaf pan with the meat mixture, mounding the top. Place the pan on a baking sheet and bake until the meat loaf is firm to the touch and has shrunk from the sides of the pan or a thermometer inserted in the center reads 160F, 1 to 1 ¼ hours. Pour off excess fat and let stand 15 minutes before serving.
Serves 8
This is a recipe you can play with. I often use half ground beef and half mild Italian sausage. I usually add some grated or chopped carrot, too.
Now, the next three recipes I have not yet tried but they are all from favorite cookbooks that I have found to be dependable.
As American as Apple Pie by Phillip Stephen Schultz is out of print but if you are a comfort food maven, you will want to buy it if you can find it. The book had a unique structure — twenty classic comfort foods with twelve recipes each: Apple Pie, Baked Beans, Barbecue Sauce, Biscuits, Bread Pudding, Brownies, Chili, Chocolate Cake, Chocolate Chip Cookies, Chowder, Cole Slaw, Fried Chicken, Hash, Meat Loaf, Pancakes, Potato Salad, Pot Pie, Pot Roast, Stew, and Waffles. Cool concept, no? This recipe is in the Meat Loaf chapter. Of course it is.
CLARA ARMSTRONG’S HAM LOAF, As American as Apple Pie
1 cup fresh bread crumbs
½ cup light brown sugar (packed)
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 ½ pounds uncooked smoked ham, ground
1 cup milk
2 large eggs
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. Combine the bread crumbs and brown sugar in a medium bowl. Toss with a fork until well mixed. Add the mustard and mix with your fingers until crumbly. Remove ½ cup of this mixture and reserve.
3. Add the remaining ingredients to the remaining bread crumb mixture. Mix thoroughly. Form into a loaf in a shallow baking dish. Sprinkle the reserved crumb mixture over the top, gently pressing into the meat. Bake one hour and 10 minutes. Serve warm, at room temperature, or well chilled.
Serves 8
Marcia Adams' Heirloom Recipes: Yesterday's Favorites, Tomorrow's Treasures is another book that may be hard to find — but if you should find it, snap it up. It’s great.
Ann can’t eat fish so sadly, I don’t cook it. But I may just have to try this. All for me.
Salmon Loaf With Creamy Egg sauce, Marcia Adams’ Heirloom Recipes
One 15-ounce can red salmon, drained
3 large eggs, separated
¼ cup (½ stick) butter, melted
½ cup fresh bread crumbs
1 medium onion, chopped
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 ½ tablespoons minced dill
¼ teaspoon dried tarragon or 1 teaspoon minced fresh
3 shakes of hot pepper sauce
Salt and pepper to taste
Basic White Sauce
2 hard cooked eggs, coarsely chopped
Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease a 9 x 5 x 3-inch loaf pan and set it aside.
Remove all of the large bones and skin from the salmon and discard. Place the salmon in a large bowl and break it up with a spoon. Add the egg yolks and stir to combine. Add the butter,bread crumbs, onions, lemon juice, dill, tarragon, hot red pepper sauce, and salt and pepper and mix well.
In a large mixer bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff, then fold in the salmon mixture. Spoon the mixture into the pan, set it in a larger pan of hot water, and bake for 45 minutes, or until the dish is lightly browned and crusty looking. While the loaf is baking, make the White Sauce and fold in the chopped egg. Cut the salmon loaf into 6 pieces, and serve topped with the warm sauce.
Basic White Sauce
¼ cup (½ stick) butter
¼ all-purpose flour
2 cups milk
1/8 teaspoon grated nutmeg
Salt and white pepper to taste
In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over moderate heat; do not allow it to brown. Add the flour all at once, whisking and cooking until the mixture bubbles up in the center of the pan, about three minutes. Add the milk all at once, whisking vigorously and cooking until the mixture thickens, about 5 minutes. Add the nutmeg and salt and pepper to taste.
Note: some dry mustard or Worcestershire sauce can be used to add extra flavor to the White Sauce if you like.
I wanted to find a meatless meat loaf to round things out and found one in a cookbook that will probably never, ever be out of print, Molly Katzen’s The Moosewood Cookbook. I think I have the original edition — it came out in 1977. Am I old? (I must be old.)
Carrot-Mushroom Loaf, The Moosewood Cookbook
1cup chopped onion
4 ½ cups grated carrots
1 lb. chopped mushrooms
5 eggs
2 cloves garlic
1 cup fresh, whole wheat breadcrumbs
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
¼ cup butter
salt
pepper
basil
thyme
Crush garlic into melting butter. Add onions and mushrooms and sauté until soft.
Combine all ingredients (saving half the breadcrumbs and cheese for the top). Season to taste.
Spread into buttered oblong baking pan. Sprinkle with remaining breadcrumbs and cheese. Dot with butter.
Bake 350F 30 minutes covered, 5 uncovered (or until browned)
4 to 6 servings
Please share your meat loaf recipes! The more, the merrier.
Come in, be comfortable, and share your day, your weekend plans, your menus. This is an open thread.
P.S. Bonus meatloaf recipe!
This is from one of us — I am not sure of your Kos name!
Sweet and Sour Meatloaf
1 small onion, minced
1/4 cup rolled oats or crushed crackers
1 8-ounce can tomato sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup vinegar
1 tsp prepared mustard (meaning ready-to-eat)
1 egg
2 pounds ground chuck
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
About 1 hour before serving
Heat oven to 400F.
Mix tomato sauce with next three ingredients until sugar is dissolved.
With a fork, slightly beat egg; add onion, oatmeal.crackers, chuck, salt, pepper, and 1/2 cup tomato sauce mixture; combine lightly but thoroughly.
In mixing bowl, shape meat into an oval loaf; turn into shallow baking dish, keeping loaf shapely.
Pour on rest of tomato sauce mixture.
Bake 45 minutes, basting occasionally.
With two broad spatulas, lift onto platter. Pass juices, after spooning off as much fat as possible.
Serves 8
You can use metal loaf pans, but the sauce mixture will blacken the pans.