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 Meatloaf: More than comfort food
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Meatloaf: More than comfort food

Call it "meatloaf," call it "meat loaf," or dub it "Paté of the Plains," if you will, this quintessential comfort food is often associated with blue-plate specials in diners and truck stops. But it's starting to earn a place, if slightly tongue-in-cheek, on the menus of some fancier joints.

There's a reason for that: Despite its budget-food associations, a well-made meatloaf can be a thing of culinary beauty, as inviting as a roast but deliciously different, making up for its humble origins with a mix of subtle flavors not easily attainable in an unadorned roast.

Inspired by a couple of tasty meatloaves enjoyed recently, one at a new local bistro and another at a classic cafeteria, I built one at home the other day and earned a two-thumbs-up rating from my long-suffering wife, who develops a real hankering for old-fashioned comfort food when winter draws near.

Like most down-home recipes, this one is subject to considerable variation, from your choice of meats to the specific selection of seasonings. I decided on a comforting combination of two parts lean ground beef to one part ground pork, with a good ration of green and red bell peppers to add character. If you try it, and especially if you tinker with it, I hope you'll take the time to let me know how it goes.

INGREDIENTS: (Serves four, or two with leftovers)

1 pound (a bit less than 1/2 kilo) lean ground beef
1/2 pound ground pork
1 medium yellow onion
1 medium green bell pepper
1 medium red bell pepper (or use 2 green)
1 cup (250 g) fresh bread crumbs
1/4 cup tomato juice or V-8 type vegetable juice
1 egg
Salt
Black pepper
OPTIONAL:
1 tablespoon (15 g) tomato paste
1 tablespoon Minor's brand beef base (or a bouillon cube)
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon cumin

PROCEDURE:

1. Preheat oven to 325F (160C).

2. Chop the onion fine. Chop the bell peppers into small squares, but avoid mincing them too fine, as the green and red bits studding the meat make for an attractive presentation.

3. Prepare the bread crumbs. You can use store-bought crumbs, but fresh, moist bread crumbs are tasty - I trimmed the crust from a couple of slices of Pepperidge Farm oatmeal bread and whacked them into coarse crumbs in the food processor.

4. Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl. You're welcome to skip or substitute freely for the optional ingredients. This is a good point to let your imagination go to work, choosing flavors that match your meat and menu. There's also room for variation in your choice of meats. A combination of beef and pork is standard, but all-beef is fine, or any combination of ground beef, veal, pork, lamb, even venison. I do recommend that you splurge for quality ground meat, though. I avoid supermarket ground beef, with its bizarre bright-orange fat.

5. When the ingredients are all mixed, divide them into two equal parts, shape each into a rough loaf form, and pop them into standard bread-loaf pans. (Or make one larger loaf and put it in one pan.) Bake in the preheated oven for about 1 hour, or 1 1/2 hours if you make the larger single loaf. It's better to gauge doneness by temperature (160F/70C) than time in any case.

The loaves will pull away from the sides of the pans and put off a fair amount of fat. Lift them out and let them drain briefly before slicing and serving. Meat loaf is often served with tomato sauce (or ketchup, if you must), which may be painted on top of the loaf for the last 10 or 15 minutes of baking. We prefer a brown beef gravy, made separately and served on the side, along with plenty of fluffy mashed potatoes. Now we're talking winter comfort food!

WINE MATCH: Our parents probably didn't serve this down-home fare with wine, nor is your average truck stop known for its wine list. Still, this hearty, beefy fare goes mighty well with a fruity, tart red, such as the recently reported Cantine Sant'Agata 2001 "Baby Barb" Barbera d'Asti ($11.99)
http://www.wineloverspage.com/wines/tn.phtml?id=334

Discuss this recipe in our online forum:
If you have questions, comments or ideas to share about this recipe or food and cookery in general, you're welcome to drop by our Food Lovers' Discussion Group, where I've posted this article as a new topic, "FoodLetter: Meatloaf: More than comfort food."
http://www.myspeakerscorner.com/forum/index.phtml?fn=2&tid=46747&mid=391892

Click the REPLY button on the forum page to post a comment or response. (If your E-mail software broke this long link in half, take care to paste it all back into one line before you enter it in your Web browser.)


Let us hear from you!

If you have suggestions or comments about The 30 Second Wine Advisor's FoodLetter, or if you would like to suggest a topic for a coming edition and recipe, please drop me a note at wine@wineloverspage.com. I really enjoy hearing from you, and I try to give a personal reply to all mail if I possibly can.

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Last Week's FoodLetter and Archives

Last week's Wine Advisor Foodletter: Holiday ... chicken? (Nov. 25)
http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineadvisor1/tsfl031125.phtml

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Administrivia

This is The 30 Second Wine Advisor's weekly FoodLetter. To subscribe or unsubscribe, change your E-mail address, or for any other administrative matters, please use the individualized hotlink found at the end of your E-mail edition. If this is not practical, contact me by E-mail at wine@wineloverspage.com, including the exact E-mail address that you used when you subscribed, so I can find your record.

Thursday, Dec. 4, 2003
Copyright 2003 by Robin Garr. All rights reserved.

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