I tried making a meatloaf last night, and I think it ended up turning out pretty good. My wife said she thought it tasted a little too “porky.”
I started off with a quarter pound each of ground beef (85/15), pork, and veal. I put a carrot and a 6″ length of leek through the food processor, along with 4 slices of applewood smoked bacon, and a few sprigs of fresh rosemary, and made a fine paste. I mixed that into the meats, plus one egg, some salt and pepper, and some bottled bbq sauce, and then I turned it all out onto a parchment lined sheet pan and formed a loaf shape. I covered the whole thing over with a little more bbq sauce. I cooked it in a 375° oven for about an hour, and then let it rest for 10 minutes.
As I said, I thought the flavor was really very good, though the texture was a bit off. It fell apart easily when I tried slicing it. I think next time, I’ll add something that will bind it together a little better… maybe milk soaked bread.
More egg than that and oats are what I use to bind it. Also a drainer to allow the juices to run off. They make fancy pans for the purpose but I put my cooling rack inside a cookie sheet. I’ve never used anything but ground beef so maybe I’ll try the bacon thing.
That’s interesting, Mike. Oats? That would have never occurred to me. And since you use just hamburger instead of a mix of the meats, you might be interested in the techniques that Cooks Illustrated suggest for hamburger meatloaf, that involves adding a 1/2t bloomed powdered gelatin to the meatloaf mix to compensate for the missing pork and veal. According to their site, they went through 260lbs of ground beef to come up with their recipe!