Thursday, February 11, 2010

Pioneer Woman Test Kitchen ::: Meatloaf

A few weeks ago I made the meatloaf recipe from my Pioneer Woman cookbook. I hesitate to post a picture with this post because ... let me be honest ... meatloaf does not photograph well. At least not in my kitchen, in the winter, when it is dark at 5 pm and dinner wasn't ready to photograph until 6 pm. I had to use my flash which gives the meatloaf this crazy glare. It's just not pretty. How about I just give you a link and if you want to see the meatloaf I made you can click it, okay? : )

This recipe is exclusive to the cookbook so I can't link you to a recipe on her site; I'll try to give you a little run-down on our thoughts. The meatloaf part was excellent. The recipe really wasn't that different that my regular meatloaf recipe that I've used for years and everyone at our table (even the little folk) ate it.

What I liked about the recipe? One thing that I going to incorporate from her recipe to mine is her use of bread soaked with milk instead of the crushed saltine crackers (or dry bread crumbs) that I usually put in our regular meatloaf. The soaked bread mixed with the meat much more consistently and I liked that. Her tomato sauce over the top is also very similar to mine and good.

What I didn't like about this recipe? PW wraps her meatloaf in bacon and for us city-slickers, it was just a little too much. The meatloaf took two pounds of ground beef, and with the added bacon ... it was a lot of meat. Maybe we would have liked it a bit better if it had been covered with a bbq sauce as opposed to a tomato sauce, I don't know. Either way, it was too much meat for our tastes.

Our final verdict: The meatloaf recipe is a solid one if you don't have one in your arsenal of comfort foods to cook. Not a full two thumbs up this time on account of the bacon (I can't believe I'm saying that; I love bacon!)

3 comments:

  1. I've not made any of PW's recipes, but a girlfriend of mine swears by her food! I've never really been a fan of meatloaf, but a year or so ago I made Alton Brown's recipe. (He's the host of "Good Eats" on Food Network.) It's SO GOOD!! What I like about his recipe is that he incorporates so many veggies into the loaf: carrots, red peppers, and onions. He uses flavored croutons instead of crackers or dry bread, but I've taken it a step further. I now use stuffing mix and it turns out great: moist and flavorful! I always use BBQ sauce instead of tomato stuff (I'm not a fan of ketchup.) and Alton includes his own BBQ recipe for his meatloaf. Good stuff!

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  2. I have never been a fan of meat loaf but I found a recipe for a sweet and sour meatloaf in a wedding gift cookbook, that I absolutely LOVE, and is the only one that is gets done in our house.

    However, any of her other recipes I have done I have absolutely loved.

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  3. Hey! I've been looking for a meatloaf recipe, so this may give me the excuse I've been needing to buy her cookbook.

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Thanks for commenting!

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