Making The Perfect Meatloaf

from the kitchen an American classic meatloaf here to share his secrets is Chris Kimball editor in chief of Cook's Illustrated and host of America's Test Kitchen Chris good morning first tell me your secrets I didn't tell me I'd have to do this entirely different sexes yes all right what stick with me what are the key ingredients in the classic meat well just think of me elope is this big hamburger that you overcook that's the concept you cook it to 160 degrees not medium-rare so there are four things you got to know to make that really turn out well so it doesn't get tough and dry out okay first of all you start with meatloaf mix which is half beef than 1/4 veal and quarter pork the reason you do that is if you do all beef as I said it's like a hamburger it's tight I was too tough it's too tough and actually if you only have beef there's a trick you can use 1/2 a teaspoon of powdered gelatin with the beef and that will help keep it a little bit softer and moister so that's a little we found that in the Test Kitchen about a year ago okay meatloaf mix is great the pork adds a little flavor and fat the veal adds gelatin okay because it's a young meat has a lot gelatin what else can you add to make sure it's not too well the two other really important things one is a cereal grain which my grape-nuts corn flakes we tried everything it turns out that saltines about 2/3 of a cup work great you can also use fresh breadcrumbs as well so that's important the other thing that goes with it and this is an old Italian trick called panade when they make meatballs they take bread in milk and put them together and that helps the protein that gets so tight when you cook it so we found 1/2 a cup of milk or yogurt with the 2/3 cup of saltines or fresh breadcrumbs works really well we tried alcohol of course we always try that in Test Kitchen inside that work I that the alcohol is great but not in the meatloaf because it doesn't really burn off but everything tastes better with alcohol we stick with you for trying we tried so that's the basic concept is that a couple eggs of course and that's the basic formula two pounds of meat a little bit of bread milk 2 eggs that's the basic formula and that'll keep it from getting too dry yeah what you want is to have that filler some people think it's just to save money but it's really to have a nice soft moist texture okay so now that cooking it it turns out that if you cook it in a pan like this loaf pan you see a lot of grease yeah so real Stew's the meat in its own juices right which we don't want to do so we found that doing it on a 1/2 baking sheet like this aluminum foil or you could put a rack on this as well and just free for me it like I just did then all the grease and the juices sort of go out and you don't end up skinny a nice crust and we're going to glaze this this is just brown sugar vinegar a little tomato ketchup okay glaze it I'm going to put some bacon on the top as well math you know adding pork by the way even dessert sometimes adding pork makes it better I just like there isn't many things in life that are not better with pork so I totally agree right okay so you glaze it up yeah I'm not not too thick take the bacon you want to tuck it under so like that and then we'll just continue with the other slices all the way through they get bacon wrapped which is what we have right there okay there you go so after you do all that what should you be preheating the oven to its 350 degrees for about an hour okay and but we have some variations on the theme this is the basic meatloaf that we came up with now we have a few others okay so this is after 350 degrees for an hour it should come out looking like yes and you can use an insta read thermometer that's a great tip in the kitchen you use it in surrey thermometer put it right in the middle should read 160 okay so it's fully cooked now I've never made meatloaf no I know you find that shocking guess what I can I tell you I had berries falling officer I have eaten my share of meatloaf and I think the greatest meatloaf I've ever had is a recipe from my girlfriend Bodie Boatwright she had a dinner party once where she served meatloaf two ways among other things with the with tomato sauce and then with brown gravy and mushrooms and I and it was like a double Pfister was like I mean I you know dinner and she gave us the recipe which she called which is right here yeah this is the one with the tomato sauce she calls it a Sicilian style meatloaf what does that mean and the second style means you shape it out into like ten by twelve and then you fill it in this way your friend put actually grated mozzarella cheese about nine ounces and then rolled it up and then cooked it so it's got a secret law Harry's probably discovering right now Maggie there's a secret inside which in this case is cheese and you can also top it with cheese as well but Sicilians rolled it up and they had a filling okay tell me about the other to Meatloaf's that you have brought here what is this one well this is the the formula for the basic meat is the same as this more or less this is called a frosted meatloaf this is a whole category which is mashed potatoes with a little cheese in them you cook the meatloaf to 140 frosted finish in the other ok that's why it looks like that on the outside in this one that's mrs. Rockefellers that was the wife of Winthrop Rockefeller former governor of Arkansas the 1960s she came up with a kitchen sink style which means she has onion soup mix curry powder hot sauce rye bread cottage cheese sour cream I could go on it none she got everything in there there's no restraint here this is without without borders okay let's go to America's Test Kitchen tasters Carrie and Maggie they have tried all for us now which one is the best Maggie before I even saw that your recipe had the bacon this was my hands-down favorite the one that can Chris mate okay bacon don't you you have a second second favorite I have to say bode boat writes it's kind of like a meatloaf parm yeah number two yeah I tell you like Rockefellers at all crazy about Rockefellers right love it a lot but really really like the meatloaf with the potatoes we tell the complete opposite oh yeah there's only a guy you guys didn't man tasted certainly get satellite or off you dessert thank you very much for coming he does have a clear from the right here

Channel: CBS News

Views: 40,347

Keywords: Chris, Kimball, Julie, Chen, Meatloaf, Cook's

Id: GBrURVWUUEk

Length: 5min 58sec (358 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 03 2009