Meatloaf is perhaps the ultimate comfort food, and therefore the least glamorous. Many of us use recipes handed down for generations. But somehow meatloaf was not part of my family tradition, so I needed to invent one. And naturally, it had to kick you know what.
When devising the ultimate meatloaf, the first question is, are there any rules? How far outside the loaf pan can I go? I dreamed up all sorts of exotic creative approaches, but then I realized what we all want is meatloaf, not a sausage. Something familiar. Something that tastes like home. Comfort food. Something Grandma would recognize as meatloaf. Only I wanted it to be better and I wanted it cooked on the grill for a smoky flavor.
My ultimate meatloaf would have to be moist and tender. I love simple recipes, and, while a well-seared steak with only salt and pepper may be a breathtaking violin solo, meatloaf has the opportunity to be a string quartet, with more complexity. I also want leftovers that make a killer sandwich.
From a culinary standpoint, there were four crucial problems to solve: Flavor, texture, moisture, and crust.
Mix-ins
When Googling meatloaf, the most common recipes start with a blend of beef, pork, and veal, and many grocery stores actually sell packages of “meatloaf mix” made with equal parts of each.
Since meatloaf contains ground meats and they need to be cooked up to 155°F, they tend to dry out. Many recipes add wet ingredients, among them milk or cream, soy sauce, mustard, ketchup, KC style barbecue sauce, salsa, canned soup, and Worcestershire. But if you add wet stuff, you need to add a starch to absorb it or else the loaf will fall apart. That may be why people add bread, bread crumbs, crackers, oatmeal, and flour. Another reason people use these mix-ins is a carryover from the Depression when hamburger was almost always extended with some sort of grain.
My Italian American wife and her family have been using bread soaked in water and squeezed almost dry in meatballs for generations. Of all the starches I have seen in meatloaf recipes on the internet, my favorites are dried potato and goldfish crackers, mainly because, if I wasn’t Meathead, I’d be Potatohead, and goldfish crackers are my favorite snack.
Another popular mix-in is some kind of fat. Fats bring flavor to the party, they don’t need starch to absorb them, they don’t evaporate during cooking, and they don’t drip off easily. Good sources of fat are ground beef fat, strips of bacon, pork belly, or even butter.
In the recipes I researched, the most popular vegetable mix-ins were onions, bell peppers, garlic, and celery. I also found recipes with chopped carrots, chopped tomatoes, mushrooms, canned peas, raisins, dehydrated onion soup mix, and cheeses. I have even seen pickled beets in several recipes (mostly recipes from New Zealand and Australia). I hate beets. I know, it’s an unreasonable prejudice. But it stems from a troubling childhood incident with borscht and the “children in Russia who are starving”. Forgive me.
Some recipes add sweeteners like granulated sugar, honey, jams, etc. Almost all recipes include one or two raw eggs as a binder.
Glaze, sauce, or nekkid?
A glaze baked on top is common. Ketchup and brown sugar are the most popular toppings, sometimes mixed together, but barbecue sauce is hugely popular. Alton Brown uses a balsamic glaze. Sign me up for anything having to do with balsamic. Others prefer a sauce, like a marinara, or a cream sauce with mushrooms. These pasta sauces intrigue me because if you make enough sauce, you could serve slices of meatloaf on pasta. Of course, if this is what you like to do, why not just make meatballs and be done with it?
But the more I thought about it, the more I had reservations about toppings. I want my loaf browned all over so I don’t want sauce getting in the way. I want the complexity that comes from the Maillard reaction. Some folks try to get the best of both worlds by holding the glaze until the last 15 minutes of the cook, but then it softens the crust.
I especially like mine with caramelized onions.
Side dishes
I asked members of the Pitmaster Club for side dishes. Most went with mashed potatoes and peas, green beans, or carrots. In fact, in testing this recipe I was inspired by the Shepherd’s Pie at my local Irish pub and placed the meatloaf slices right on top of the mashed potatoes. In that case, I made Buttery Garlic Mashed with a big scoop of sweet peas mixed with onion sautéed in butter.
Leftovers
One thing is essential: Leftovers go on a sandwich. I like to grill or griddle slices of meatloaf and serve them on a bun like a burger with lettuce, tomato, and my secret sauce. You might like the sandwiches better than the loaf!
Prep and cooking techniques
One important concept: Don’t cook meatloaf in a loaf pan or a pan with high sides. Loaf pans keep the sides and bottoms from browning, and the brown crust is the best part. A far better strategy is to form the loaf and put it on a rack hovering above a pan so it can brown on sides. This technique also drains off the excess fats and liquids squeezed out when proteins shrink. If you use a loaf pan or a sheet pan, the fat just makes the bottom soggy, and the albumin squeezed out of shrinking proteins makes for an ugly tan glop that nobody wants to eat. Just gently place the raw loaf on the gridiron on your grill.
We’ll cook at 325°F (163°C), which is high enough to brown the exterior, but not so high as to cause the proteins to get their undies in a bunch and squeeze out all the moisture. At that temp, it should take about an hour for the loaf to cook through, but please do not use a clock to tell when this recipe is done. It is done when the meat hits 155°F in the deepest part of the center, the temp at which ground meat is safe.
For something more over the top check out my meatloaf with Italian sausage stuffed with cheese, pepper, and onion, wrapped in bacon, smoked, and topped with grilled marinara.
Ultimate Grilled Meatloaf Recipe
Makes:
Takes:
Ingredients
Wet Stuff
- 2 raw eggs
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon hot sauce (I prefer Chipotle Tabasco, or my homemade Controlled Burn Hot Sauce)
- ⅓ cup whole milk or 2% milk
- 1 tablespoon freshly grated orange zest (about 1 large orange)
Dry Stuff
- 1 cup unseasoned bread crumbs
- 1 tablespoon dried crumbled basil leaves
- 1 teaspoon dried crumbled oregano leaves
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon Morton Coarse Kosher Salt
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon ground cumin
- ⅛ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ⅛ teaspoon grated nutmeg
Veggies
- 1 small onion
- ½ small sweet red bell pepper or you choice of colors
- ½ cup sun dried tomatoes
Meat
- 1 pound coarsely ground beef chuck, 80 to 85% lean
- 1 pound ground pork
- ½ pound uncooked bacon
These recipes were created in US Customary measurements and the conversion to metric is being done by calculations. They should be accurate, but it is possible there could be an error. If you find one, please let us know in the comments at the bottom of the page
Method
- Prep. In a big bowl, mix the wet stuff thoroughly. In a small bowl, mix the dry stuff thoroughly. Add the dry stuff to the wet stuff and stir it together. Let it soak for a minute or two.
- Chop the onions, peppers, and sun dried tomatoes into small bits. Add the veggies to the big bowl. Chop the bacon into small bits and add that to the bowl along with the rest of the meat. Mix gently. Resist the temptation to overwork the mass and pack it tight. We don't need no stinkin' meat bricks. If it doesn't mix thoroughly, that's OK: bursts of flavor are fun. Form it into a cylinder about 3" (7.6cm) in diameter. Yes, I know this sounds weird, but this tube shape will insure that it cooks evenly on all sides and it makes it easier to roll around on the grill to brown on all sides.
- Wrap in plastic wrap and place the meatloaf in the refrigerator to firm up while you prepare the grill.
- Fire up. Set up your grill for 2-zone cooking. Preheat the indirect side to about 325°F (163°C). That's a good temp for browning things without squeezing out too much moisture. Start a pot of water boiling for the potatoes.
- Cook. Place the loaf on the grate on the indirect side. Throw some wood on the fire to add a bit of smoke, but not too much. Roast until the temp in the center of the loaf is 150°F (65°C) and then move it over to the direct infrared heat side and roll it around, lid open, until you have a nice crust on all sides and it hits 155°F (68°C). The paint it with a glaze of KC Style red barbecue sauce and let it bake on until it hits 160°F (71°C), the temp at which the eggs are thoroughly cooked and safe.
- Serve. Remove the meatloaf from the grill, slice and serve with mashed potatoes and/or your favorite side dishes.
- Now tell us, what do you do with your leftovers?
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