Never Fails Me Meatloaf Recipes

NEVER FAIL MEATLOAF

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x13 inch baking dish.
• In a large mixing bowl, combine the ground beef, eggs, stuffing mix, hickory smoke flavored barbeque sauce, onion, garlic and milk. Mix thoroughly and place into the prepared baking dish. Shape into 2 loaves.
• In a small bowl, combine the barbeque sauce and brown sugar; blend well. Pour the glaze over the 2 meatloaves.
• Cover the baking dish and bake in the preheated oven for 60 to 90 minutes. Uncover the last 15 minutes of bake time. Let sit for 15 minutes before slicing.

NEVER FAILS ME MEATLOAF

Steps:

• Heat oven to 375. Wash hands.
• Pulse the crackers or oats in a food processor a couple of times. You don't want to see whole oats in the end.
• In a clean bowl, mix all ingredients except meat and oats (or crackers) well. Then add ground meat and mix only as much as is needed to incorporate all ingredients. Try not to overmix because this tends to make your meatloaf mixture more dense than is necessary. Mixing gently with your hands, mix in the oats or crackers until mixture is no longer runnuy. If it is, add more crushed crackers, oatmeal and/or pasta, remembering that the pasta will absorb excess liquid only as it cooks. Important: when right, the mixture should retain a shape made by your hand. If you don't get this part right, your meatloaf will not retain its shape when cooked. If you get the mix right, it will cut nicely and likely lose a crumble or two when transfering from the pan to plate. For that reason, I do this in mini muffin pans too and they come out just right, not crumbling.
• Put mixture into a loaf pan. Pat lightly to smooth out top of loaf. Cover loaf pan with foil and put in oven. Prepare topping by mixing ketchup with the 1 tsp of brown sugar and set aside.
• After 45 minutes, carefully pour off excess grease (place something on top of loaf so it doesn't fall OR use a turkey baster to suck out the juices) and thn spread topping over meatloaf. Put back in oven, uncovered. Cook for 5 more minutes and check to see if loaf is done by using a thermometer reading. If not done, check every five minutes until done. It is done and safe to eat at 160 degrees, but you can take it out at 152 and let it rest for five minutes and the temp will rise to a safe temperature.
• I do not trust the "it's done if it aint pink no more" method because ground meat products can both look brown long before they are safe to eat and look pink long after they are actually done. A thermometer is just easier to use and safer too. So, you use your own judgment on cook time. I pulled mine out of the oven after 52 minutes of cook time and it was 161 degrees and DELICIOUS.
• If you are making mini muffins, start your initial cook time at 30 minutes and keep checking with your temp till the center of the muffins reach at least 155. Also, you still have to remove the excess grease from the pans during cooking. For that reason, when making meatloaf muffins, I put a baking sheet under the pan to catch drips.
• A word of warning: This recipe is not friendly to subbing out the pasta or the lean ground meat. If you omit the pasta, the loaf will not be moist and hold its flavor. If you use higher fat ground meat, your pasta will be cooked in grease and the loaf will be mis-shapen, swimming in grease and unappetizing. Believe me, I know -- I've tried both. When you have both ingredients, just try it as it's written and most of all:.
• Enjoy.

NEVER-FAIL MEATLOAF

Steps:

• Mix all of the ingredients together thoroughly, using your hands. If you prefer to use a spoon, beat the eggs slightly before adding.
• Pack into a standard loaf or form a loaf on a baking sheet.
• Top the loaf with the bacon slices.
• Bake in a preheated 350 degree Fahrenheit oven for 1 hour or until done.
• Variations:.
• Replace the corn flake crumbs with any other dry cereal, cooked rice, uncooked rolled oats, or cracker crumbs. Increase the measure to 1/2 cup when using soft bread crumbs.
• Replace the sage with your favorite dry herb or herb mixture. When using fresh herbs increase the measure to 1 tablespoon.
• Add minced garlic when making meatballs.

BETTER THAN MOM'S MEATLOAF

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly coat a 9x5-inch loaf pan with cooking spray.
• Combine onion, bell pepper, milk, eggs, garlic, 2 tablespoons ketchup, parsley, 3 teaspoons Worcestershire, thyme, and Dijon in a large bowl and mix well. Stir in bread crumbs. Add ground sirloin, salt, and pepper; mix until just combined. Form mixture into a loaf shape and fit into the prepared pan.
• Combine remaining ketchup with balsamic vinegar and remaining 1 teaspoon Worcestershire in a small bowl. Mix until well combined and spread over the top of the meatloaf.
• Bake in the preheated oven until an instant read thermometer inserted in the center reads 160 degrees F (71 degrees C), about 1 hour. Let stand for 10 minutes before slicing and serving. The longer it sits, the easier it will be to slice.