Julia Child's Meatloaf Recipe | CDKitchen.com (2024)

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What is the basic meatloaf formula? ›

The Basic Meatloaf Formula

All recipes for meatloaf start with the same basic formula: 2 pounds of ground meat and a “panade” made of bread or crackers soaked in milk. Along with a few eggs, this panade helps to hold the ground meat together and adds some essential moisture to the mix.

I later learned how I could avoid this problem and make a fully smooth meatloaf by pre-cooking any vegetables, especially the onion, before adding them to the ground meat. This way the meatloaf gets the flavor without the rawness -- a method from the smart people at Cook's Illustrated.

Milk and other dairy products, like heavy cream and buttermilk, contain both water and fat, adding two types of moisture to our meatloaf. There's a long-held theory that milk can tenderize ground meat, and this is the reason often cited for cooking ground meat in milk to make a Bolognese-style ragù.

So, yes, we want our meatloaf moist, but we don't want it grease-laden and soggy. If we take a pile of ground beef and pack it into a loaf pan, the fat that renders out has nowhere to go, and so the loaf swims in its own juices…but not in a good way.

Use high-fat meat.

For a meatloaf made with a leaner beef or turkey, consider mixing in some ground pork and/or veal in order to achieve a moist, tender meatloaf. Chopping up bacon and adding it to the mix is always a great way to add fat. Oh, and covering it in bacon never hurts, either.

When this happens, it's because you didn't use enough. Next time, try adding in an extra egg and/or some more breadcrumbs. Alternatively, rice, barley, corn flakes, crackers, and dried soup mix can also stand in as binding ingredients as well. Including larger quantities of these items should help solve the problem.

Should I cook my meatloaf covered or uncovered? The meatloaf can be cooked uncovered. However, if you are concerned about it burning, you can cover the meatloaf with foil for the first 45 minutes and uncover it for the final 15 minutes to allow the meatloaf to brown on top.

For this reason, onions are the first thing we start cooking whenever they appear in a recipe. (Unless we're cooking meat. Then we sear the meat first, remove it from the pan, and then start cooking the onions and everything else.) To cook them, we put a pan over high heat and add a dribble of olive oil.

No bells and whistles - just a few ingredients including beef, egg, bread crumbs and a simple tomato-based topping. Use a gentle touch with ground beef. Over-mixing will result in burgers, meatballs or meatloaves with a firm texture.

You can simply substitute vegetable, chicken or beef stock for the milk in any recipe, soak the bread in that, and then add it to the mix. You can also just use some water, but that won't add any flavor, and meatloaf is all about flavor.

What does adding an extra egg to meatloaf do? ›

Eggs play a crucial role in meatloaf recipes. They add to its moisture and texture while binding all the other ingredients together.

The best temperature to cook the meatloaf at is 350°F and it requires about 1 hour, give or take a few minutes, depending on size and shape.

To prevent a soggy bottom, Bangor Daily News suggests draining the grease from the loaf pan 15 minutes before your cooking time is up; this helps guarantee all sides bake to perfection.

Press mixture in ungreased 8-inch round (1 1/2-quart) glass baking dish. Bake at 350°F. for 65 to 75 minutes or until thoroughly cooked in center and meat thermometer registers 160°F.

A lot of supermarkets sell a "meatloaf mix," a combination of ground beef, pork, and veal.

Combine ground beef, onion, milk, bread crumbs and egg in a large bowl; season with salt and pepper. Transfer into prepared loaf pan. Mix ketchup, brown sugar, and mustard together in a small bowl until well combined; pour over meatloaf and spread it evenly over the top.

If you don't have any bread, you can substitute it for breadcrumbs, crackers, cereal grains, oatmeal, instant rice, instant barley, or even potato flakes! However, bread is still the best choice of all the potential options.