Seems like every time I've popped into LTBBQ over the last few days there's been yet another great looking meatloaf. Most of the posts have even had
GRAVY and that always gets my attention
Fact is, I don't recall ever meeting a meatloaf I didn't like. It's way, way up there on my list of favorite comfort foods and I'll bet I make one at least once a month. So, to add to the current meatloaf glut, here's what has become my favorite one to make. It's super, super easy, too.
Ingredients:
1 lb. 90% lean ground beef
1 lb. hot ground sausage (I use a regional brand called Neese's)
1 Pkg. Lipton onion soup mix
That's it! No bread crumbs, no eggs, no diced veggies, no soup, no extra seasoning. No, it won't be hot and spicy -- the cooking and the beef take the heat out of the sausage. In fact, if you use mild sausage you'll mess it up. Trust me. Also, it doesn't need egg and bread to bind and stay together. It'll cook up nice and firm and won't be crumbly or fall apart. Trust me. Look at the title:
MEATloaf. This is a dish for the carnivorous.
Preparation:
Just throw everything in a bowl and mix it all up with your hands. It will be a little messy but I've found the best way to mix together all that meat and the minimal other stuff is with my own two mitts. Spoons and such are a waste of time. Besides, there's something primal about getting up close and personal with the groceries. Kind of macho and cave man.
Once mixed, form into a loaf about three inches thick. Make it square or round to suit your own sense of the esthetic. There are no style points here.
Cooking:
Put the mixed meat on a rack in a shallow pan and bake at 350 until the IT hits 150 or so. If you don't have an insertable thermometer just poke the thing with a skewer or a pencil or something and if the juice runs out clear, you're golden. In my convection oven this usually takes around an hour plus or minus a scrunch. In my pellet cookers it sometimes cooks a little quicker.
Serving:
It'll slice right up, neatly and cleanly with a serrated knife. There won't be much grease, either. The lean ground beef and good quality sausage don't generate much grease. You can paint the sucker with ketchup or tomato soup if you want to, but I like to keep it simpler. A big spatula is handy to lift it off the rack onto a plate or cutting board for carving.
Eating: I make a mess of my quick to fix mushroom gravy (see my gravy article here) to go with this. And, I most often side it with mashed potatoes or a baked spud. After all, we aren't talking pretense here, we're talking MEAT. Meat and potatoes is what's for supper. Man food. Not quiche or sprouts or tofu.
MEATHub