[Sca-cooks] Meat loaf (was Peppers and Mangoes)

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Adamantius wrote:
>Also sprach Phlip:
>  >Well, meatloaf can be a bit more complex than that. It consists of ground
>  >meat, onion (usually) and egg (usually) for a binder, but may also include
>  >bell peppers, mushrooms, and bread or cracker crumbs, as well as spices, a
>  >hardboiled egg, and Heaven knows what else.
>  >
>  >Classicly, it contains a 50/50 mix of ground pork and ground beef, with
>  >bread crumbs, salt and pepper, and an egg binder, baked in a bread pan (why
>  >it's called meat "loaf"), and covered with a tomato sauce to bake.
>
>This is pretty common; the imagery of spreading tomato paste or sauce
>(which, in America, is not ketchup, BTW, although some people do use
>ketchup) is a popular one in fiction, TV and movies. Read Jean
>Shepherd, for example.

My mom's recipe definitely didn't use ketchup or catsup, or even 
tomato paste on the outside.

>Some authorities will tell you that the classical mix is one-third
>each of beef, veal and pork, and some will use pork sausage meat as
>the pork component. A majority, today, I suspect, either use all
>ground beef or something like ground chicken or turkey (no comment).

My mom's (in the 1950s and 60s) was purely ground beef.

Also, i'm curious about something you said:  if it is "something like 
ground chicken or turkey", then it isn't actually ground chicken or 
turkey, so what is it?

>I generally form it into a free-standing loaf, like bread, but don't
>use a bread pan because I like it a little crusty on the outside, and
>while I do use bread, it tends to be a slice or two, trimmed of crust
>and soaked in milk or water to a pap before mixing in with the meat.
>How much to use is a big point of contention because too much or too
>little can lead to overworking the meat with the hands (or whatever
>you use to mix it), it gets overwarmed, and has an unpleasant,
>rubbery, grainy texture when cooked. Too much bread or egg,
>especially in combination, can create an unpleasantly leaden, pasty,
>modelling-clay texture.

No bread, no oatmeal, no filler in my mom's meat loaf. And it was 
succulent. I don't know what she put in it (i suppose i should ask 
her while most of her memory is mostly there).

>Mine generally leaves out the onion and any tomato product because of
>health issues on the part of one of the people usually eating it
>(unless, oddly enough, it is in the form of chemical French Onion
>Soup mix, which is why I normally leave it out). Frequently chopped,
>sauteed mushrooms will put in an appearance, as well as chopped
>garlic, plus thyme or rosemary, and, frequently, parsley. If I have
>any leftover meat gravy (which in the USA is normally a thickened
>product), I'll often throw some in there as well.

No flour thickened gravy in my mom's house, au jus only. And that's 
what we use at Thanksgiving - just the juice in the pan of cooked 
turkey with some of the fat removed (the fat is mostly the butter in 
the stuffing).

Now, i occasionally go out for meat loaf, cuz i *don't* have a 
recipe. And i occasionally get really jonesin' for meat loaf and 
mashed potatoes.

Now, I'm quite fond of my own smashed potatoes - boil the pink rose 
potatoes with the skins on in water just to cover until almost 
falling apart (you may have to add some more water during the 
process) - mash with a fork, adding as much pureed garlic as you like 
and plenty of REAL butter - season with salt. Sometimes i add soy 
sauce (ok, i love the taste). But i have yet to develop a meat loaf 
recipe - heck, i haven't made one in many decades (since, what, the 
70s?)

So, is meat loaf really better mixing ground beef and pork? What are 
good add-ins to keep it succulent, without adding bread?

Anahita
who has, unusually, been cooking for herself the past month