Meat Loaf: A Tennessee Art Form

Meatloaf making is an art form in the South…a staple of the meat and three diners and a favorite at our house. The loaf is wonderful when just out of the oven with vegetables and sides like mashed potatoes or Mac and cheese. But it is even more magnificent the next day on a sandwich with mustard and dill pickles. Oh, yum…mmm.

Lewis' Meatloaf
April 5, 2009

Preheat oven to 350 and start warming a large skillet. Rough cut one onion and one seeded bell pepper then run them through the Cuisinart to get a medium chop. Put two tablespoons of olive oil in the hot skillet and cook the chopped onion and green pepper until tender without color.

During the pepper and onion cooking, open 1.5 pounds of ground beef and a half-pound of high fat breakfast sausage. I have found that Tuckers is the best: but they put parchment in the roll to "help" separate the patties. It's a pain in the butt and must be removed.

When the peppers are soft, combine the meat with three slices of white bread crumbs soaked in a half cup of milk, with two fresh eggs and a little ketchup along with a tablespoon of beef bullion granules (soup starter). Add a little salt, fresh ground black pepper and 1/4 cup of steak sauce. Hint: the Bullion has lots of salt and so does the sausage, so be careful if you add extra.

Combine everything and form into a loaf and dump into a large Pyrex dish at least one inch deep sprayed with Pam cooking oil. There will be water in the beef and fat in the sausage that is the reason to cook in a deep dish. Cook at 350 for an hour and check the temp with a thermometer. It should be about 150 degrees after an hour.

But what about the Creole sauce on top? My favorite is a half-cup of catsup, a half-cup light brown sugar and a quarter cup of "La Costena" medium salsa. (It's in the Mexican section of your local market)

The meatloaf I am cooking today is 2 lbs. hamburger, 1 lb. sausage and the "Creole Sauce" is V8, Prego Italian sauce and 1/2 cub light brown sugar.

Let the meatloaf "rest" and soak up the juices that baked out in the oven. After the first meal from the loaf, lift out of the grease into a plastic container. Now for the good part, have what is left for those sandwiches tomorrow.