- [Andrew] This episode is sponsored by ButcherBox.
With ButcherBox, you can get high quality meat
delivered directly to your door.
Choose from 100% grass-fed beef,
free-range organic chicken, humanely raised pork,
and wild caught seafood sourced from farmers and fishermen
dedicated to doing the right thing.
For a limited time, new members will get six free steaks.
That's two rib eyes and four top sirloins,
plus $10 off their first box.
Go to the link in the video description for more info.
(jazzy music)
All right, so just like meatballs,
any great meatloaf starts with a panade,
a mixture of milk and seasoned breadcrumbs
that helps give the meatloaf structure and keep it moist.
Plus, I like to add one teaspoon of garlic powder
to my five ounces of breadcrumbs and six ounces of milk.
Once we got ourselves a nice milky bready paste,
it's time to add vegetables.
And so we don't end up with large crunchy chunks,
I like to grate mine on the large holes of the box grater.
One medium carrot and one medium rib of celery.
Plus, I've got half a small onion here,
which you could grate as well,
but it's gonna have a stronger onion flavor.
Then I also like to add a quarter cup of tomato paste,
one and a half teaspoons of Worcestershire sauce
for that nice 1950s flavor,
a quarter cup of finely chopped parsley,
and two large eggs, thoroughly beaten with a fork,
or, of course, a tiny whisk.
And then, it's super not traditional,
but I like to add an eighth of a cup
of finely chopped fresh basil.
Does this make it more like a giant meatball
than a meatloaf? Kind of.
Is that a problem for me? No.
We're also seasoning with a teaspoon of kosher salt,
and one and a half teaspoons of freshly ground black pepper.
Then we're mixing until evenly combined,
mixing this together before adding the meat.
Two and a quarter pounds of ground chuck.
It helps evenly distribute all the spices
and flavorings throughout.
Then we're gonna throw on some gloves
if you're a wimp like me and need everything together.
Once the beautifully flavored panade
is evenly distributed throughout the meat,
we're ready to form and bake,
which we're gonna do in a generously greased loaf pan,
but not in the way that you might be thinking.
We're gonna take some pages out of J. Kenji Lopez
and Alton Brown's books, pack it tightly into our loaf pan,
and then invert onto a quarter sheet
that I mistakenly lined with parchment paper.
You don't want to do that.
You will see why momentarily.
We're knockin' the meat loaf out of the loaf pan
and baking it free standing in a 350-degree Fahrenheit oven.
While that bakes for its first 15 minutes stint,
we're gonna make a sort of glaze.
Four ounces of tomato paste, one tablespoon of honey,
one tablespoon tomato paste,
a teaspoon of we-share sauce,
a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar,
and a a third of a cup of brown sugar.
We're also gonna add a few generous twists
of freshly ground black pepper.
This is going to form the gooey caramelized layer
on the outside of our meatloaf
as we brush it down every 15 minutes
during its 45 minutes to one hour in the oven.
Baking the meatloaf standing on its own two feet like this
allows it to brown in the oven,,
giving us deeper, roastier flavors,
thanks to the Maillard reaction.
It also allows us to layer on our glaze
the same way that we would on ribs,
giving us lacquered stacks of vinegary sweetness.
We're just gonna brush it down twice every 15 minutes
for the first 30 minutes and then let it finish baking
for another 20 to 25 minutes,
until it reaches an internal temperature
of 155 degrees Fahrenheit.
Yes, that is not what the USDA recommends,
but it's gonna give you a much jucier meatloaf.
Once it is finished with its final bit of oven lovin',
I'm gonna temp it, take it off the pan,
and put it onto my intended serving platter,
and admire the grease in the bottom of my pan.
This is grease that your meatloaf would normally
be swimming in, making it greasy.
Then it's time to remove the parchment paper,
which is when I discovered my fatal mistake.
It turns out the parchment paper cannot handle
all the moisture of this loaf,
and it dissolves much like my confidence
when shooting an episode about meatloaf.
Once loaf is rested for 10 minutes,
it's it's time to slice and serve.
And for a super basic, pretty quick meatloaf,
this one is really, really tasty.
The glaze is sweetened sticky and tangy,
the meat is moist and flavorful, and well,
that's really all there is to a meatloaf.
But with this first loaf, I've learned a lot,
and there's definitely some things
that I want to experiment with.
Perhaps most importantly, the not using a parchment paper,
but also other stuff like grinding our own meat
and making our own meatloaf mix, the classic formula
for which calls for beef, pork, and veal.
But I want to switch things up a little bit,
so instead of veal, I'm gonna use a boneless leg of lamb,
which I think should bring some interesting gamey,
grassy flavors to our meatloaf.
First step is to remove any silver skin
or connective tissue, anything that your knife
has kind of a hard time cutting through.
If your knife has a hard time cutting through it,
so will your teeth.
Once we've removed the chewy stuff and the excess fat,
we're cutting the meat down into one inch cubes,
which we're gonna spread out evenly on parchment-lined
baking sheets and plop in the freezer.
Whoop! Plop in the freezer, where our meat grinder parts
have been hanging out for the last half hour,
or until very, very frozen.
The colder everything is, the easier it's going to grind,
the less fat is going to smear,
and less cleanup you'll have to do.
We're grinding everything on a medium plate,
because we don't want too many big chunks of meat
in our meat loaf, and I'm grinding all the meat separately,
so I have control over how much of each
goes into our mix.
To hit our target of 36 ounces,
I'm doing eight ounces of lamb, 12 ounces of beef,
and 12 ounces of pork, which I think should give us
a good balance of flavors.
The vegetable prep is very much the same,
but this time we're gonna cook them down a little bit
and add stock that's been gelatinized.
If you have homemade stock that sets up like jello
in the fridge, you can skip this step.
Otherwise, grab yourself a half cup of store-bought stock
and evenly sprinkle a packet of unflavored gelatin over top,
mixing occasionally to make sure that it's all dissolved.
Set that aside, and to both deeply flavor our vegetables
and make them softer, we're gonna saute them a little bit.
In a tablespoon or two of vegetable oil,
heated over medium-high heat, we're gonna saute
our finely-chopped onion, grated carrots, and celery
for three to five minutes, until just starting to get soft.
Then we're gonna plop out our gelatinized stock. Gross.
Let that melt and let everything simmer together
until the stock has cooked down by about 50%.
Than we're gonna crush in a couple of cloves
of fresh garlic, let that cook for a bit,
and then, before we can add this mixture to the meat,
we need to let it cool completely.
So spreading it out on a sheet pan is gonna make it cool
a whole lot faster.
While that cools, we can make our panade.
But we're not gonna use store-bought breadcrumbs, are we?
No, sir. We're gonna make our own.
Into a food processor goes three pieces
of completely stale artisanal bread,
and this totally optional,
but a quarter ounce of dried porcini mushrooms,
which are gonna pack an umami punch.
Then we're gonna process these into some fine breadcrumbs,
and process and process and process...
You know what, I'm starting to think this is a job
for a high-powered blender.
Never mind what I said before.
We're placing this stuff in a high-powered blender
and processing until fine, trying not to breathe in
that stinky mushroom dust.
Don't worry, this is gonna taste
a lot better than it smells.
Then I'm making a double batch of meatloaf,
so I need a big ol' bowl, but I'm still gonna narrate
the amounts for a single batch,
so don't pay attention that breaking four eggs
into this bowl, you're gonna break two eggs into a bowl
which we're gonna tiny was together
with four ounces of buttermilk.
Then we're adding one tablespoon of soy sauce,
one teaspoon of wshshsheer sauce,
and one teaspoon of fish sauce.
Again, something that smells gnarly now,
but it's gonna taste great later.
Then we got our quarter cup of tomato paste,
eighth cup of fresh basil, quarter cup of parsley,
and our five ounces of homemade
porcini mushroom breadcrumbs.
Then we're gonna add all of our sauteed and cooled
vegetables with gelatinized stock and mix that bad boy
together for the panade to end all panades.
Then we are adding our bespoke meatloaf mix,
our teaspoon salt and teaspoon and a half
of freshly ground black pepper,
and then I'm really gonna knead the hell out of this.
My instinct is to keep this mixture loose, like a burger,
so it stays tender, but we really need to work this mixture
so it has good structure and doesn't crack.
After all, they say don't overwork a burger,
otherwise it'll end up like meatloaf.
But we're actually making meatloaf here,
so that's what we actually want.
Soon as you're done with whatever it is that I'm doing,
it's pretty much the same procedure as before
except this time, I'm gonna pack about a quarter of the meat
firmly into the bottom of the loaf pan to ensure
that there are no gaps, piling the rest of the meat on top
and pressing firmly before inverting onto, this time,
a heavily greased piece of aluminum foil.
I simply cannot stress how important that this is.
Our glaze is staying the same, because it is perfect
and flawless and requires no recompense,
as is our baking technique.
15 minutes standing in a 350-degree Fahrenheit oven,
glaze thoroughly and completely.
15 additional minutes in the oven,
another layer of the delicious glaze, I'm sorry,
and then another 20 to 25 minutes in the oven,
allowing to rest for 10 minutes before removing,
slicing, and serving.
Now, this meatloaf has a significantly longer
time requirement, and while grinding your own meat
certainly gives you more control over what's going into
the meatloaf, I think the real secret lies
in all the flavors and umami boosters.
But one beef I still have, so to speak,
is the form factor.
I propose that you make mini meatloaves,
using the same method, but with smaller loaf pans.
These little guys cook a full 10 minutes faster,
and they're much more maneuverable
and less unwieldy than their big loafy brethren.
And after a quick broil to set the glaze,
they've got the same beautifully caramelized exterior
with a much moister interior, and let's face it,
smaller things are cuter.
Case in point, tiny whisk.
But no matter the size of the meatloaf,
all these recipes are gonna turn out absolutely delicious.
Think of the second recipe as a list of optional upgrades.
You can add any one of them to your existing
favorite meatloaf recipe to make them true members
of the clean plate club.
Thank you again to ButcherBox for sponsoring this episode.
ButcherBox is a game changer for home cooked meals.
Head to the link in the video description
to choose your box type and delivery frequency.
They'll ship you your order for free,
frozen for freshness in an eco-friendly box.
You'll spend less time searching for high quality meat
and more time eating.
For a limited time, they're bringing back
their popular steak sampler deal.
New members will get two rib eyes and four top sirloins
free in their first box and $10 off,
only for a limited time.
Click the link in the video description for more info.