Today is National Meatloaf Day. Few dishes scream out “comfort food” to me like meatloaf. My Mom’s meatloaf was awesome, and she’d cut a huge slab of it onto my plate, with fantastic butter-loaded Pennsylvania Dutch egg noodles on the side. I couldn’t stop eating it.
I never thought of making meatloaf when I moved away, because it gave my Mom something special to make for me when I came home to visit. She was thrilled that there was a dish she could make that I would devour every time, without hesitation. (The others were her roasted lamb and Lithuanian pierogis called koldūnai (kol-doon-ay).
But now that my Mom has moved into an assisted living facility where she can’t cook, I’ve had to take meatloaf matters into my own hands. I never got my Mom’s exact recipe. But I had an idea of what went into it, so I gave it a shot.
The standard mix for my Mom’s meatloaf was one-third each ground beef, pork and veal. I went 50-50 with the beef and pork instead. My Mom used Lipton onion soup mix in her meatloaf. I chose to stay away from packaged chemicals. And instead of layering slices of bacon on top as many people do, I used my own home-cured and smoked pre-cooked bacon that I chopped up and put inside the loaf.
To keep this dish gluten-free, I use GF breadcrumbs, and I also don’t use the Lipton onion soup mix, because it can contain non-GF ingredients.
1 yellow onion, minced
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic
pork fat or olive oil
1 lb. ground beef
1 lb. ground pork
1/2 cup breadcrumbs (I use gluten-free)
1/4 cup ketchup
4 strips of cooked bacon, chopped
2 eggs
Sauté the onion in a little oil or pork fat until translucent. Let it cool, then mix in the salt, pepper and garlic. Set aside.
In a bowl, combine the meat, breadcrumbs, ketchup, bacon, eggs, and the sautéed onion mixture. Form it into a loaf and place it in a loaf pan. Bake at 350 for about an hour.
Live the Live ™ 