Best Traditional Meatloaf Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to a great meat loaf? ›

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.

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.

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.

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.

In meatloaf, this is most commonly the eggs and breadcrumbs. Your binding ingredient is only second to the meat itself in your recipe and the reason why meatloaf crumbles. When this happens, it's because you didn't use enough. Next time, try adding in an extra egg and/or some more breadcrumbs.

The oven temperature is typically set at 350 degrees F for making meatloaf. That's the temperature you want to be sure to use so the meatloaf cooks and doesn't dry out. Too high, and the outer crust will burn before the interior is cooked all the way, too low and you don't get that delicious crust.

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.

By free-forming a meatloaf—not cooking it in a loaf pan—we get maximum surface area exposure, and therefore maximum flavor. So not only does it make it easier to slice and guard against sogginess, but mounding your meatloaf instead of panning it also makes your meatloaf literally tastier.

Gordon Ramsay's meatloaf recipe is made with ground beef, although you could use ground lamb, pork, veal, venison, or poultry as well if you like. When your meatloaf is cooked, you can slice it like a loaf of bread to make individual portions and serve them to your family or guests.

Does Joanna Gaines have a meatloaf recipe? ›

This Meat Loaf recipe from Joanna Gaines' Magnolia Table Cookbook Vol. 1 was a complete original for me. And to say that it was a big-time winner just might be an understatement. It will for sure be my new standard go-to recipe that I will use over and over again, the family gobbled it right up!

Ina Garten makes sure her meatloaf remains the star of the meal, but she typically serves meatloaf with creamy mashed potatoes and sautéed green beans.

Adding baking soda to the beef keeps it moist by stopping the proteins from binding too quickly (which dries out the meat).

Like meatballs, many meatloaf recipes include a blend of meat, which will determine whether you need fattier or leaner beef. If it's an all-beef recipe, avoid 90/10, and go for 80/20 or 85/15. Most recipes call for 70/30 or 80/20 ground beef, which makes a rich and juicy burger patty with a good exterior crust.

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.

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

Not only does sheet pan meatloaf bake up faster than its traditional loaf-shaped cousin, it also has more surface area, meaning every bite is laden with that deliciously caramelized topping.

A neat trick to soak up the grease under your meatloaf is to line the bottom of the pan with bread slices. The bread soaks up the grease as the loaf bakes. When the meatloaf is done, you can either throw out the bread or bake it to make some truly indulgent toast.