My mother used to make this, but for a crowd of kids, and it was the 1970s. I’ve adapted it. I made this recently for the two of us, and it produced enough for us and a little more for the ravenous hound.
2 lbs. ground beef, room temperature
Some salt for the beef, but not too much. You’ll shake a salt shaker three times.
1 large onion, diced small
2 small eggs
A generous sprinkling of garlic powder, maybe 2 tbs.
A small cereal bowl’s worth of Cheez-Its™. SURPRISE! This is the twist. My mother used to use the traditional, which was the only variety available in the Pleistocene Era when I grew up, but I now use the White Cheddar version.
1 splash whole milk
For the glaze:
1 cup spicy ketchup
1 or 2 tbs. soy sauce
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Have you noticed how often preheating the oven to 350 degrees comes up in cooking? When in doubt, 350 degrees.
Wash your hands thoroughly, and let not a trace of hand soap or sanitizer be on them. In a large bowl add the ground beef and shake the salt in three times. I won’t tell you what my mother used to say while doing this.
Add the onion. Crack the eggs on the side of the bowl and add. Sprinkle in the garlic powder. Crumble the Cheez-Its™ until they’re almost pulverized but not quite turned to dust and add. When I make this meatloaf for just the two of us I pre-measure the Cheez-Its™ in a small cereal bowl. My mother just used to pull out fistfuls of the stuff. I would guess I’m using about 2 cups. Splash in the milk.
With your bare hands mix this all around. Remember when you were very young and you used to do this with Play-Doh™. Do this only for about a minute, because you don’t want to make mush, but make sure everything is combined, especially the raw eggs.
With your bare hands transfer this to a loaf pan. Pat it down so that it’s somewhat even.
Wash your hands again, because now they’re a slippery mess.
In a small bowl, or even a measuring cup, add the spicy ketchup and the soy sauce and whisk. You can also stir quickly with a small spoon. Pour this on top of your meatloaf and spread around so you cover as much of the top of the meatloaf as possible.
Into your patient preheated oven it goes, middle rack, for anywhere from 50 minutes to an hour. If you have a meat thermometer jab it into the middle of the loaf and when it registers 160° or above it’s done. After an hour it should be done. You don’t want to burn the “crust.”
Meat loaf is traditionally served with mashed potatoes, but that is a post for another day. You could reference my Oktoberfest post for German potato salad but I don’t pair the two.
Oh, come on. Where’s the fun in that?
Put four slices of bacon on the meat, before the glaze. You’re welcome.
Yup to the bacon. I throw in some dry mustard and some worchester sauce. and have been known to add a half pack of Lipton’s onion soup mix. I’m told it is pretty good?
The Dry mustard powder ups the flavor. If no mustard powder, i put in a 1/3 or 1/2 cup of regular mustard.
There’s a story associated with this, of course there is.
I first served this many years ago to a group of eight. It was a very well-traveled crowd and I didn’t call it meat loaf, I just sort of put it out. I wouldn’t tell them what it was.
“I feel like I’ve had this before, it’s slightly cheesy, with all the beef…Maybe in Argentina?”
“It’s very salty and I think there’s a little soy sauce and maybe garlic? Is it Asian maybe?”
“I think it might be British. But there’s something…maybe more specifically Scottish?”
So I held a contest. I passed out little pieces of paper and everyone wrote down where they thought this creature came from. The winner got first dibs on the brownies I made for dessert.
The winner was, “Mattie’s childhood kitchen and his mother was an ‘inventive’ cook.”
you know…i dont think ive ever actually had meatloaf
least..not you know..actually loaf shaped
tho…recipe wise its similar to the giant meatballs we likes over here….tho…they arent glazed…or cooked in an oven
Boiled?
yup..sorta…panfried quickly to brown then left to simmer for about 30 minutes in the gravy with a lid (or longer..but half an hour is about the minimum)
tho..some people/shops deepfry them…but imo..thats a whole nother meatball
…not going to lie…did not see the twist coming
…some years back I had a similar reaction when someone showed me a Delia-Smith-approved “trick” that used that dehydrated powdered mash potato mix to bake a cake
…I mentioned my astonishment to an aunt “of a certain age” & she had a very different reaction
“Oh, yes – I remember that one. It’s basically powdered starch like we had during rationing.”
…not sure that goes for the Cheez-Its™ but it did remind me?
My mother is no longer alive to explain how she devised this “genius hack” but there was one thing we never had in the house, which was breadcrumbs. Making your own is a pain in the neck, believe me. The two things we always had in abundance were Wheaties and Cheez-its (lots of kids; the 1970s.) Close enough! My parents were married in the 1950s.
for breadcrumbs i use these things
they crumble really good are dirt cheap and theres no avoiding them over here….
also if you butter them and add these wierd little blue or pink sugar pellets we call mice for some reason
you have a dutch gender reveal party
(probably wont cause a wildfire)
Italian style breadcrumbs with Parmesean.
Your mother was brilliant, I’ll have to try this.