First things first: Some people hear the word “meatloaf” and they think to themselves, “that’s some 1950’s-Leave-It-To-Beaver-bullshit.” They think they need to jazz it up and get “creative”, so they try throwing a bunch of shit in it like oatmeal, zucchini, brown sugar or (God help me) pickles. Fuck that. There are some things in this world which are best in their simplest form: a starlit night without city lights; Bach Cello Suite #1, the Mona Lisa, and meatloaf. There is no reason to fuck around with perfection.
A caveat before we get started: Normally I make this with diced bell peppers but Mrs. Butcher has lost her taste for them so I left them out of this particular iteration–and the world is a lesser place for it. However, if you wish to follow The Way, The Truth and the Life, then you’ll make this recipe the way it’s written.
Here’s what you’ll need:
1 Lb. Ground Beef
1 Lb. Ground Pork or Turkey
1 Egg
1 Onion, diced
1 Bell Pepper, diced
2 Cloves Garlic, minced
8 oz. Block Cheddar, cubed
1/4 Cup Ketchup
1/4 Cup Bread Crumbs
Salt and Pepper to taste
1/2 Pkg. Bacon
The simplicity of this recipe is equally matched by the simplicity of the preparation. Drop all the ingredients, except the bacon, into a mixing bowl and mix that shit until it is thoroughly combined.
Plop all that stuff into a glass casserole dish and form it into a loaf. Then, cover the loaf with the strips of bacon.
Bake in a 350-degree oven for an hour to an hour and a half, depending on how your oven bakes. Obviously, you want it to be cooked all the way through, so if you’re not sure if it’s done, simply slip a carving knife an inch into the middle of the meatloaf and take a peek to see if there’s red in there. If you’re unsure whether it’s done, give the meatloaf a gentle squeeze with the knife and a rubber spatula and see if the juice coming out of the cut is clear or not.
Serve with mashed potatoes, gravy and corn with a little butter, salt and pepper. Now, that may be some 1950’s-Leave-It-To-Beaver-Bullshit, but it also happens to be perfection.
That bacon doesn’t look very crisp!
True Bacon Lovers understand that only when bacon is being served as a stand-alone side, or broken up in pieces over a salad, then it needs to be crisp. If, however, it is used as an ingredient in another dish, then a strict adherence to the Gospel of Crisp Bacon is neither necessary, nor right. This includes, but is not limited to: meatloaf, burgers, bacon-wrapped scallops, and stuffed cabbage.
I realize the barbarians among you are unable to grasp such a high concept because all those years of eating floppy bacon for breakfast has addled your brains. However, trust Butcher. Butcher is good. Butcher is wise.
I will eat raw bacon and go home and sleep like a baby. I don’t care.
Animal.
There needs to be a layer of ketchup between the loaf and the bacon. As an aside, meatloaf bacon is a good bacon.
Dying – see below…
Oh, my boy. I see the stoic life of deprivation you have had to lead these past few months has weakened your previously sharp intellect. Leave your monastic existence of fish and vegetables and come live with us in the glorious decadence of Perfect Meatloaf.
Meat loaf is such a personal thing. remember Cousin M’s meat loaf made with Cheez-Its™?
And your recipe, @butcherbakertoiletrymaker looks to be quite healthy. Mine is terrible bad but the carnivore likes it.
I use 1 package onion soup mix, 1+ pounds of lean hamburger, 2 eggs, 1/2 loaf torn crusty rustic bread; I top it with a sprinkling of sugar, a bath of ketchup, and the same bacon layer as you, except I precook my bacon a bit.
Great recipe!
Unless the ketchup is one of those hippie varieties, it should have enough sugar on its own for the meatloaf. Does yours actually taste sweet?
I can sort of see Matt’s Cheez-Its in place of bread crumbs…but then you’d have to completely cut out the regular salt. Besides, if I want cheese in my meatloaf (and I do) then I just go for the real thing.
Please remember that I do not actually eat this meatloaf, I just make it for the carnivore. And he is county born and bread (where shudder nothing is tooo sweet). Have I not vented to you about my mother-in-laws pineapple stuffing? One bag Sunbeam little Debbie white bread, I super big can crushed pineapple, and 2 cups sugar; top with butter. Trust me, only your dentist wants you to eat this.
The bread rather than bred was not a typo…muhahaha.
Holy Mother of God.
I forgot to ask: any word from Matt about how his surgery went?
Not yet – fretting and waiting…
Whoop here it is!
Cousin M says “I’m fine. I see I was mentioned in the meatloaf thread. I will give a full accounting of myself, maybe tomorrow. Better Half is coming to bust me out in about an hour. THEN the fun really begins.”
Yippee, so glad that he is doing well!
Excellent news. I look forward to Cousin Matt providing me with total exoneration on all food-related issues upon his triumphant return.
As for me I would say the bell pepper and cheese cubes is getting your la di da fancy airs on, while forming the loaf around a core of dill pickle spears is absolutely the way to go.
Cooking a dill pickle is like setting fire to the collected works of Duke Ellington. Your demented ravings are not welcome here.
Clearly, you have never had a deep-fried dill pickle at a county fair. They go wonderfully with beer.
Um…no, because only butter and Snickers bars should be deep fried at a county fair. Besides, even when I used to drink, I hated beer.
I will come to the table for meatloaf every time.
Meatloaf is good is another “shouldn’t be a hot take” food take!
I used to put cheese into meatloaf, but once the kids had to go dairy free, I left that out. And I used to use saltines for the breadcrumbs (or stale KFC biscuits… thank me later) but once we went gluten free I switched to using toasted oats ground into flour in the blender.
So, my meatloaf recipe is: 3 pounds ground beef, pork, or turkey (or any combination of same), 2 eggs, 2/3 cup ground toasted oats, ~1/2 cup of ketchup, a good shake of Worcestershire, a couple tablespoons of dried minced onions (or fresh, if I have it), and a few good grinds of salt and pepper. Mush it all up (with your HANDS), and shape it into a wide, flat loaf on a sheet pan. Lightly cover the outside with ketchup and top with rings of fresh onion. Bake til it’s cooked through (it’ll still be pinkish from the ketchup, but the juices should be clear.
I use ground turkey since wife won’t eat ground beef. I also ground up all the bread heals from whatever loaves are sitting around. I top with ketchup & honey combo & have a really cool meatloaf pan that allows the fat to drain (kind of like a double boiler). I make a vegetarian one for my pescetarian daughter w/ cauliflower crumbles or veggie grounds.
I only like meat that doesn’t resemble meat anymore, so burgers and meatloaf. I’ve never added cheese but this look delicious, will have to try.
Ignore all those heathens with their false meatloaf gods in the comments. This recipe is the Way, the Truth and the Life.
the yellow things in the lead pic offend me
corn is not food
but on the cob its at least good for throwing at people blocking the isles in the supermarket
Never had European corn, but there is nothing in this world like Midwestern sweet corn. When I was a kid, my brother and I would walk into the neighboring corn field and eat the corn raw off the cob, it was that good.
never had a midwestern sweet corn…so ill give you the benefit of the doubt there
corn here just tastes likes cubes of yellow…theres a faint sweetness to it
it does nothing for me
Nope, that’s bullshit, fake corn. If you ever find your way to the US in late August/early September, be sure to sneak into a Wisconsin corn field and grab a cob. Be careful though, because there are sweet corn fields (for human consumption) and field corn fields (for livestock consumption) and field corn tastes like ass.
The sweet corn in Kentucky isn’t very good. It was fantastic in western Pennsylvania.
I miss Kahuku corn, WA has great corn but nowhere near as good as this!
https://alohawithlove.com/why-locals-love-kahuku-corn/
The only way I like to eat corn is raw from the farmer’s market.
I like meatloaf. My version has jalapenos and hot sauce to spice things up.
Meatloaf is so interesting because everyone has an opinion about it. Especially the binder part.
Like my family? Oats and an egg are the binder. Breadcrumbs weren’t something we kept around the house because none of the usual foods my parents made had breadcrumbs.
My bestie? Crushed Ritz Crackers or get the fuck out.
Another friend? Croutons.
Meatloaf rules! I made some last weekend. I ground up some top loin, pork tenderloin, and fatty short rib I had in the freezer because I wanted to play with the meat grinder.