Meatloaf with sweet glaze, dishes minimizing recipe
Welcome to our culinary corner, where we celebrate the art of simple, delicious cooking! Join us as we share our signature Meatloaf with Sweet Glaze recipe and other delightful dishes designed to minimize ingredients and maximize flavor. Perfect for busy home cooks and food enthusiasts, our videos offer step-by-step guides, helpful tips, and creative twists on classic recipes. Subscribe for mouth-watering meals made easy!
---
Feel free to tweak it to better match your style and content!
---
Feel free to tweak it to better match your style and content!
Transcript
00:00Man, I love a classic American meatloaf, and over many years I think I've arrived at a
00:04particularly efficient procedure for making one. The name of the game here is minimizing
00:09dishes. I will start with an oven-safe pan. I use nonstick for this because it'll make
00:14cleanup a lot easier later, but you could use anything. And I'm gonna start by grating
00:18in like four big carrots, directly into the pan. You could cut them up on a cutting board,
00:23but that would dirty the cutting board. Plus, the pieces need to be really small. I like
00:27a lot of veg in my meatloaf, but big chunks tend to fall right out of the slices. The
00:32grater gets you tiny pieces that'll stay incorporated, and grating carrots is very quick and easy.
00:38Might as well grate my onion, too, while I'm at it. No reason to dirty a board or a food
00:41processor. Grating onions is very easy, too.
00:44Alrighty, heat on high, and I'll pour in a little olive oil, stir that around and get
00:48it steaming. Most vegetables have to be softened somewhat before you cook them in a meatloaf,
00:53otherwise they'll just be crunchy. Have the confidence to use high heat. There's so much
00:58water in this pan that there's no chance of anything burning, as long as you keep it moving.
01:02After maybe eight minutes, enough water will have cooked out that stuff will start to brown.
01:07That's more than enough cooking for this. Off the heat it comes, and in goes maybe a
01:11cup of breadcrumbs at the most. I'm using panko, just because that's what I usually
01:15have around, but any form of breadcrumb would be just fine. And then I will stir in just
01:20as much milk as it can absorb. This will have the added benefit of cooling down the
01:25pan, which is something I want to achieve right now.
01:28Some people say the function of breadcrumbs in meatloaf is to absorb and retain moisture
01:32from the meat. I suppose they do that, but they can hold a lot of moisture. The milk
01:36tastes good, and it makes the finished texture even more moist and soft. You could use stock
01:41if you can't eat lactose. I think the main function of breadcrumbs in meatloaf is to
01:45tenderize it. The bread gets in between the bits of meat and disrupts the protein matrix
01:50that it forms when cooked. It just keeps everything from getting too hard.
01:53OK, I'm gonna let that pan sit and keep cooling down for a sec while I turn on my oven. 350
01:59F, 180 C, convection if you've got it. And I'll make my glaze. A great American-style
02:04meatloaf generally has a glaze based on ketchup. That looks like maybe three quarters of a
02:09cup I'm squeezing out. I often don't have ketchup in the house these days, so I have
02:13replaced this with roughly equal quantities of tomato paste, vinegar and any form of sugar.
02:19That's basically all ketchup is. Anyway, I'll mix this with an equal quantity of Worcestershire
02:23sauce, and that's it. Mix it up. All that sweet, sweet corn syrup in the ketchup will
02:28create a beautiful shiny, sticky shell on our loaf.
02:31OK, now that this pan has cooled a bit, I can mix up my meatloaf right inside of it
02:36instead of dirtying a mixing bowl. Two pounds or a kilo of basically any ground meat you
02:41want. That's one pound of beef chuck, and I like to mix it with a pound of ground lamb.
02:46Delicious flavor that way, but some people use all beef. Some people use beef and pork.
02:50Go nuts.
02:51I'm putting in a good teaspoon of garlic powder. Such a convenient way of intensifying the
02:55meaty flavor of ground meat mixes. Now salt. It's tough to gauge seasoning with a meatloaf
03:01mix because you can't just taste it and adjust. I think a totally solid rule of thumb is one
03:06teaspoon per pound of ground meat. I'm doing a heaping teaspoon because I've got a lot
03:10of veg in there, too.
03:12Grind on a ton of pepper, and you could put in some dried herbs, but I like to see a little
03:16green in there if possible, so I'm putting in some fresh rosemary from my plant. And
03:20rather than dirty a cutting board, I'm just snipping it into the pan with scissors. Once
03:24you've snipped most of the needles in half, you can just run your fingers across the stem
03:28to pull off the remaining halves.
03:30Now, you could just crack in one whole egg as a binder for this much meat, but I prefer
03:34the texture I get from using only yolks. Two yolks for two pounds of meat. I suspect the
03:40emulsifiers in the yolk help the loaf to hold more fat inside it, but who knows.
03:44And then my secret ingredient — like four spoonfuls of that glaze. Inside the meat.
03:49I always used to hate how bland the interior of the loaf tasted compared to the outer bits
03:54with the glaze on them. Well, this gets a really noticeable dose of that sweet and sour
03:58goodness running through the whole loaf, and now I'll get in there with my hands and mix
04:03it up. Some people are really careful to just mix with their fingertips and to make sure
04:07that they don't get this too homogenous. I do that for meatballs, but to me, a classic
04:11meat loaf is really thoroughly mixed. I'm totally doing that squish-through-your-fingers
04:17thing. I want slices that are solid and set, almost like gelatin. You get that by quote-unquote
04:22over-mixing. If you want a more crumbly texture, mix it way less.
04:27If you're in any way unsure of seasoning or flavoring in this, just cook a tiny bit of
04:31it right now, maybe in the microwave. Taste adjust. Some people would transfer this to
04:35a loaf pan to bake, but since we already have this dirty pan, I say let's just bake
04:39it right in here. Ground meat is pliable stuff. You can shape it into a freestanding loaf.
04:44Just shape it a little taller than you want it, because it'll spread outward a bit in
04:47the oven.
04:49Last thing is to spread on a primer coat of the glaze. Just half the glaze. I'm spreading
04:53it with the back of the spoon, and I don't worry too much about the sides because it's
04:57gonna drip over. We'll cook that in the oven for about an hour, until its internal temperature
05:01is at least 155-160 F, like 70 C. To me, a classic meatloaf is done all the way through,
05:08and given that ground meat is particularly susceptible to bacterial contamination, that'll
05:13keep us safe, just as we can keep ourselves safe with the sponsor of this video, Surfshark.
05:18Whenever you're using public WiFi, you can just connect with Surfshark, and all of your
05:22data and personal information you send will be encrypted via a secure virtual private
05:28network, VPN. This has many benefits beyond assuring privacy. Surfshark's global network
05:33of servers allows you to get around internet censorship that happens in many countries,
05:37and you can get around geo-restrictions on content. Like, I pay for Disney Plus for my
05:42kids, but if we're outside the U.S. we might get blocked. Well, we just route through one
05:46of Surfshark's American servers, and we're in.
05:49You can also tell Surfshark that there are certain sites or apps that you trust. That's
05:53called whitelisting. It's useful for things like banking apps. Surfshark is unlimited.
05:58They've got 24-7 support, and you can get 85% off if you hit my link in the description
06:03and use the promo code ADAMRAGUSEA. 85% off Surfshark, plus an additional three months
06:09for free. Link and code in the description. Thank you, Surfshark.
06:12Now, we can turn our attention to our sides, and I have mash and peas with basically all
06:17of my roasts. I don't apologize for that. It's what I want. But I think I have developed
06:21a particularly streamlined way of making it. Again, the order of the day is saving
06:25on dishes. I'm just using a paring knife to cut some potatoes into chunks directly into
06:30the water. I've got my burner on high, but it'll take a while to heat this water up,
06:34so I'm not worried about scalding myself. Unless your potatoes are really dirty, I see
06:38no reason to wash them before boiling them. The boiling water will effectively rinse them.
06:43Hey, check out my fancy new downdraft, pulling steam away from the camera lens. I told you
06:48it'd work.
06:49Let's check on the meatloaf. About halfway through the cooking I will put on the rest
06:52of my glaze. Doing it in two coats like this gets you a nice lacquered finish on the thing.
06:57If you put it on all at once, super heavy, it wouldn't have time to dry out and go sticky.
07:02Back in that goes.
07:03The potatoes start to visibly fall apart when they're about done, though I think it's good
07:07to test with a fork too. I got a lot of resistance there. I like pretty smooth mash, and to get
07:12that, you gotta boil the potatoes really soft. That's better.
07:15I'll slap the lid on there and drain the potatoes through a gap between the pan and the lid
07:19Even if you only got the lid dirty for this purpose, it's still worth it, because a lid
07:23takes up way less space in the dishwasher than a colander does.
07:26OK, heat is off, but there's still plenty of heat in the pan and the burner. I'll melt
07:31in a couple huge knobs of butter, and I really like some fresh chopped garlic in my mash.
07:36Here's a very easy way to make that happen. I'll move the potatoes aside so that I've
07:40got a clear patch of melted butter on the bottom of the pan, and I'll turn the heat
07:44back on for a minute. Now that the butter is fizzing, I can cook some garlic in it,
07:48and this is a great time to use the garlic press, because I just need a couple cloves.
07:52I changed my mind about these things when I realized that you don't have to peel the
07:56garlic first. The skin stays behind in the press. This is also a convenient way of using
08:00those really small cloves that would be a pain to peel.
08:03OK, I've got my garlic down in my butter patch, and I can let it fry for a minute, just to
08:07knock down that harsh raw garlic taste. While I'm waiting, I can grind in some pepper and
08:12put in a big pinch of salt to start with, and when the garlic is done, a glug of milk
08:16to start with.
08:18Now I'm gonna get in there and mash. Like I said, I like it pretty smooth. Now I can
08:21taste for seasoning. Needs a little more salt and a little more milk to loosen the texture,
08:25and that is done. Now I want peas, and rather than dirty another vessel for boiling the
08:30peas, I'm just gonna push all my mash to one side of this pot and dump some frozen peas
08:35into the other side. Seriously, this works. Just cover it up, put the heat on low, and
08:39they will thaw in the time it takes to remove and rest our meatloaf.
08:43I'll take its temperature. Usually the coolest part is near the top for me, and it's now
08:48about 155. I'd consider that minimum for meatloaf. For the last couple minutes of cooking, I'm
08:52gonna turn my broiler on and get some nice brown color on that glaze. Just watch it very
08:57carefully because sugar burns in a flash. Look at that.
09:01My peas are half-thawed. It helps to stir them, and we might as well stir in some butter
09:05while we're at it. Yes, some of my peas are gonna get stuck in the mash with this method,
09:09but let me tell ya, that is my endgame anyway. After the meatloaf has rested for a good 10
09:14minutes, it should be firm enough that you can just lift it out to a carving surface.
09:18And this right here is why I like to use a non-stick pan. The glaze that drips onto the
09:22exposed pan surface tends to burn, and it's way easier to scrub off of Teflon.
09:28You'll get cleaner slices on meatloaf and just about anything else if you work the knife
09:32back and forth with long strokes as you push down. If you just push down, it'll crush the
09:38slices.
09:39Kinda wish I'd cooked that a hair longer. That texture could be a bit firmer and tighter
09:42for me. Plus I would have gotten a smoother surface on the slices. But hey, it's meatloaf.
09:47Whatever.
09:48Mash and peas on the plate and a big slice of meatloaf. We seriously only dirtied two
09:52pans to make this dinner. To me, that is the archetypal American family meal, beloved by
09:57people old and young for generations.
09:59Yeah, mashed potatoes are yummy.
10:01Oh, potatoes.
10:03Yeah.