Here is my Mom’s simple easy to make recipe for meatloaf which I have been using for many years. In this recipe the egg acts as a cementing agent that binds all the ingredients together.  Otherwise, you would just have a big hamburger.  The catsup top coat bakes into a nice homey congealed sauce and the bacon adds flavor plus it is very tasty and it is very hard not to just pick it all off the top and eat it before the dish gets to the table.  Do not use extremely lean ground beef for this recipe since lean beef will dry out and not be as tasty in this meatloaf recipe. Here are the ingredients for the best meatloaf recipe I know: Ingredients: 2 pounds ground beef 1 medium onion, diced 1 egg 2 slices of sandwich bread, torn up into crumbs - for 2018 may substitute 2 tablespoons almond flour for a Keto version of meatloaf 2-3  slices of bacon, cut in half to make them shorter Ketchup Ground cumin powder to taste, about 1-2 tablespoons Options:  See below for sandwich ideas plus Aunt Jane’s Italian version and my Thai version. Mix together the ground beef, onion, egg and bread crumbs in a large bowl together with a couple of squirts from the catsup bottle.  I usually use my hands to mix this with because the mixture is thick and is hard to stir with a spoon or spatula.  Form the mixture into a loaf and place in a shallow ungreased baking dish.  For a traditional topping, add a couple of more squirts of catsup onto the top of the loaf and spread it around with the back of a spoon.  Then lay the half strips of bacon to cover the catsup and the loaf. Put the loaf in a 350 degree oven for a little over an hour until done!  Take it out of the baking dish right away so that it does not soak up the grease released by the baking.  Let the loaf rest on a serving plate for five minutes or so – that will allow it to set for easier slicing. For my Aunt Jane’s Italian meatloaf variant you will need these additional ingredients 4-5 slices deli cold cut ham 8 ounces mozzarella cheese.  An 8 ounce brick is about right.  Garlic Powder Oregano For the Italian variant from Aunt Jane:  Add several pinches of oregano and garlic powder to the mix.  Then lay out the mix on a hard surface and press and spread it out in a rectangle of about 16x11 inches.  Then place several ⅓ inch thick slices of mozzarella cheese and slices of deli cold cut ham in the middle of the rectangle and roll it all up like a sandwich wrap.  Be careful to use some extra ground beef to patch the outside parts where the cheese may show through or else when it bakes the cheese will all ooze out.  Bake normally.  Add a couple of slices of mozzarella cheese.  This becomes a great combo of melted meats and cheese. You want to use thick (⅓ inch) slices of cheese inside the “wrap” because that way the cheese remains a gooey blob inside the finished baked loaf instead of melting and diffusing so you cannot see it when you slice it open. Use the same thickness on top of the loaf for the same reason. For the Italian version topping add some squirts of ketchup on top, spread around with the back of the spoon like the original version.  Then cover with half-strips of bacon and top that with some ⅓ inch thick bricks of the mozerella cheese that are a couple of inches long. Leftover meatloaf from this recipe makes a great cold sandwich.  I use white bread with some crumbled cold meatloaf topped with catsup and mayonnaise.  The catsup and mayo combine between the bread slices to make a sort of Russian dressing that goes particularly well with the leftover meatloaf. Meatloaf recipe update:  Recently I made a batch of Thai steamed dumplings and I had a little garlic, ground pork, soy sauce and cilantro left over.  These make great additions to my basic meatloaf recipe.  Try substituting ¼ pound of ground pork for ¼ pound of the ground beef.  Also try adding 1 ½ tablespoons of finely chopped fresh cilantro, 1 ½ teaspoons of finely chopped freshly peeled garlic cloves and 1 ½ tablespoons of soy sauce.
Simple Meat Loaf Recipe
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