Meatloaf has gone out of fashion somewhat in in recent years, but that doesn’t mean it’s not awesome.

It’s a great, traditional, hardy meal that goes well with mashed potatoes and green vegetables.  The words “traditional” and “hardy” means “have a beer with it.”

Meatloaf has moved off the menu of pub standards, but it really should be back. It’s up there with chicken parma, steak, and bangers and mash.  The other great thing about meatloaf is it’s just as easy to make a big one as it is to make a small one, and it keeps relatively well so you’ll get lots of left overs.

Meatloaf: eat it.

This recipe has been copied and adapted from the Portsea Kitchen article.

Meatloaf

Ingredients

  • 200 g  ground pork
  • 200 g ground beef
  • 200 g  ground veal or lamb
  • 1 onion
  • 1 green pepper
  • 4 slices white bread torn
  • eggs  . . . 1 – 2
  • tomato paste
  • salt to taste
  • flour, drippings and beef stock

Optional

  • add 2 carrots and 2 stalks of celery.
  • experiment with using panko (Japanese bread crumbs).
  • wrap in bacon.
  • instead of simple tomato paste mix 1/4 Cup ketchup, 2 teaspoons dry mustard and 2 Tablespoons of brown sugar and spoon over meatloaf prior to baking.
  • If meatloaf starts to become too brown cover in foil.

 Meatloaf MethodIn a blender, puree onion, green pepper/capsicum,  and eggs.  Add carrots and celery if you choose this variation.  It should be quite watery when it’s done.Add puree to ground/minced meats.  Add crackers or bread crumbs and  mix by hand along with salt.  Get in there and mix everything by hand.  Get it really well combined.  When you think you’re done, do it some more.Place in loaf pan and bake for 90 minutes at 190 degrees C (or 400 degrees F if you still think that way…).

Remove from the oven and let it rest for about 15 minutes before serving.

Sauce Method

Combine 1 tablespoon of flour, 1 tablespoon of butter and add beef stock, drippings from pan and 2 tablespoons of tomato paste until you have a gravy consistency.

Serve all of this with mashed potatoes and green vegetables of your choice.

Beer Pairings

As mentioned, this is a traditional and hardy dish, so stay traditional and hardy.  A good bitter, brown ale, or porter would go well throughout.  Meatloaf is often seen as an American dish, but I’d take a more traditional British feeling to go with this.

Cooking Beer: Get in the mood with an English style IPA.  It’s an easy drinking and mild IPA.

Eating Beer: Stay British! Have an ESB all the way, it will be damn near perfect.