Post-K Meatloaf (Donald Link)

This is a recipe that Herbsaint put on the menu when they opened back up after the hurricane. It is basic comfort food but the cookbook tells me it was so popular it is still on the menu. It starts off with a flavoring base. The start of the flavoring base is good old bacon. That is put in hot oil and cooked for about 5 minutes until rendered. Then comes the vegetables. I do not care for celery so it does not have any in it. Carrots and onions I love. They is also a smidgen of dehydrated trinity with garlic. These are sauteed for 10 minutes or so until soft

Then the spices, sugar, ketchup, and Worcestershire go in. Again cooked for 5 or 10 minutes at simmer to incorporate and thicken.

Here is the result. You now let this cool. I had to store it overnight as the package of meat that I took out of the freezer and defrosted was not ground meat but some sort of tips.

Below is a package of grass fed beef that my cousin and I went in on. By the way our goat should be ready soon. This is ground chuck.

The wet side with eggs, garlic, and Worcestershire sauce

The dry side with bread crumbs and spices.

The result of mixing all three together along with the flavoring base.

Stashed in a loaf pan. I then foiled it and cooked for an hour in my tabletop convection/light technology appliance. At that point it was 150 degrees.

I unfoiled it and browned the top. It came out easily and here it is.

Because my dice was probably larger than it should be and I probably used more onion than called for the loaf just after cooking fell apart when I tried to slice it. I happily ate in chunks. Did I mention it was delicious. After a night in the frig it sliced just fine. Most of this loaf went to work for some people to sample. I have enough for a sandwich I have not gotten too. This recipe makes two loaves so the other one is stashed in the freezer for a later date.

While the recipe has a fair amount of ingredients it can easily be made in two stages. Making a cooked flavor base delivered a smoky flavor through out the meat loaf as predicted by Chef Link. It also had a nice spice kick with beefy flavor and just a hint of sweetness from the carrots. In other words balanced. A keeper although I will adjust some of my prep methods the next time I make.