Meatloaf Madness

I made meatloaf yesterday. 

Meatloaf used to be a nearly-weekly occurrence back in the day of toddlers and infants. It was easy to make and lasted for a few meals. And then I went through some bad-luck meatloaves: too dry, too mushy, too weird, or just all wrong. Kids complained. Sad chunks of meatloaves took up space in the fridge. 

I stopped making it. It just never seemed to come out right, and there were plenty of other things to make with ground meat.

During a relatively recent conversation with kids, somehow meatloaf failure came up again. I realized I had 2 options: stay away from meatloaf or practice making meatloaf until I finally figure it out.

I decided to go with the 2nd option: I will be making meatloaf over and over again until I find a version that works and that everyone (or at least most of the family) likes.

Yesterday's meatloaf was a semi-disaster. The favor and texture were actually quite good. I used this recipe as a guideline, but I didn't follow it exactly because I didn't have veal or chili sauce. So there was a fair amount of improv and substitution shenanigans. I must have gotten meat that was far too fatty, because the freaking thing produced so much grease - I have never seen anything like that in my life! 

In all my past meatloaves, I used ground turkey exclusively. This time, I also added ground beef and - well - lesson learned - I need to get leaner beef. 

I will try again.

There are no shortcuts to greatness. Sometimes you have to try again and again until you get the feel for the ingredients, the process, and the correlation between starting materials and the final product. 

We ate about about a third of the meatloaf last night... We will be having it again tomorrow.

The kids, at first, were very suspicious about it: "Mystery Meatloaf" my youngest complained. They are not super-picky but they just don't trust my meatloaves (can't blame them...). They ate it, though, and after I mentioned my plan to make meatloaf again and again until I get it nice and perfect, there was a chorus of "But Mother, it is already perfect! It is delicious!".

Ha. Right. (It was quite tasty... but so far from perfect).

I will let you all know how my next meatloaf turns out!

Dear Readers: do you have a trusted meatloaf method?