Classic meat loaf recipe
This meat loaf almost looks like a loaf of bread – but once you bite into it, your mouth will just melt away with the juiciness of it. This would be lovely served with chickpeas or cannellini beans and cavolo nero.
Ingredients
- 150 g onions, halved and diced
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 50 g unsalted butter
- 800 g minced beef
- 200 g minced pork
- 40 g beef suet, finely grated
- 115 g bread, soaked in milk and when soft, really squeezed out
- 2 medium eggs, lightly beaten
- 2 generous pinches of thyme, chopped
- 3 tsp salt
- 1 pinch pepper
- 100 g breadcrumbs, or enough to coat the loaf
Details
- Cuisine: American
- Recipe Type: Meat
- Difficulty: Easy
- Preparation Time: 10 mins
- Cooking Time: 70 mins
- Serves: 6
Step-by-step
- Sweat the onions and garlic in butter over a low heat until they become soft and translucent. Season to taste and leave to cool.
- Meanwhile in a large bowl, mix the beef, pork, suet, bread, eggs, thyme, the salt and some pepper. Mix thoroughly for a couple of minutes to tenderise.
- When the onion-garlic mixture is cool, add to the meat and mix well so everything is evenly distributed.
- On a clean surface, flatten and bash the meat mixture. Repeat several times to tenderise, then form a very smooth, tight loaf. Leave to rest in the fridge on a lined baking tray for at least 30 minutes. You can also leave this overnight in the fridge.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C fan/400°F/gas mark 6.
- Once rested, take the meat loaf from the fridge. Pour the breadcrumbs into a tray and roll the meat loaf in the crumbs. Wrap the loaf tightly in fresh greaseproof paper, making sure you put the fold on the bottom of the tray to prevent the paper from opening during cooking.
- Cook for 50 minutes and then remove greaseproof paper. Turn up heat to 200°C fan/425°F/gas mark 7 and cook for an extra 10 minutes so the meat loaf turns a lovely golden brown.
- Rest for 10 minutes, slice and serve.
This recipe is from Towpath: Recipes & Stories by Lori de Mori and Laura Jackson (Chelsea Green Publishing, £27).
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