meatloaf recipe

Mulligan’s Meatloaf

/ sandramervillehart

by Ane Mulligan

Ane Mulligan, welcome to Historical Nibbles! Ane is a talented author and dear friend. I love how her love of books and drama collide in Take My Hand, her new release. I can’t wait to read it! She is sharing a recipe for delicious Mulligan’s Meatloaf with us. Thanks for joining us today, Ane!

Nearly everyone has had meatloaf, but it has an interesting history, which has changed since the 1700s, when German immigrants brought meatloaf to the United States. It was first served as a breakfast food in New England. The first recorded recipe for modern American meatloaf dates back to the late 1870s. The recipe called for chopping up whatever meat was on hand, adding salt, pepper, onion, egg, and milk-soaked bread. 

I have a series of books (The Georgia Magnolias series) placed in the Great Depression. I researched foods and found meatloaf became a household staple in the 1930s, when families were struggling to stretch their food. People combined ground meat with seasonings and stale breadcrumbs to create a flavorful and filling meal. Meatloaf became more creative and personalized in the 1950s and 60s, with recipes including sherry-barbecued, mushroom-stuffed, and spicy peach loaves.

This is our favorite meatloaf recipe. We don’t measure when we cook; we simply use what feels right, then later adjust by taste.

Meatloaf:

1¼ -1½ lbs Ground beef, 65-70% lean. If you go higher, the meatloaf isn’t as juicy, and you can pour off the excess fat.

3 eggs

Italian bread crumbs

3 med onions, diced

1 red pepper, diced

1 yellow pepper, diced

Garlic powder

Dried parsley

Onion powder (yes, even if you add onions, it rounds out the flavors)

Salt & pepper

Red onion sauce:

1 med onion, diced

1C (or more) Ketchup

Garlic powder

butter

Instructions:

Sauté 2 onions and the peppers in butter. Mix in a large bowl; the ground beef, sauté mixture, bread crumbs, garlic powder, dried parsley, onion powder, and salt and pepper. Put in loaf pans or use parchment and form a loaf in that. We prefer this because the excess grease leaks out. Be sure if you use parchment to put it on a baking sheet. Bake at 375 for an hour.

When the meatloaf is done, set it aside and sauté the onion in butter with garlic powder. Add the ketchup and cook until hot and thick. Serve over slices of meatloaf.

Take My Hand

Dreams and futures are at stake.

Small town community theatre changed Marleigh Evans from a shy, timid girl into a confident young woman. Now she wants to pass that gift along to others and dreams of owning her own theatre. After years of searching, she’s found the perfect place in Sugar Springs to see her dreams realized … and transform her community.

Chef Gabe Sadler has grown irritated at his father’s business practices. His dream is to own a farm-to-table restaurant and enough land for a small urban farm. After years of searching, he’s found the perfect place in Sugar Springs to see his dreams realized, and he’s not used to anyone standing in his way.

Which one will win? And at what cost?

Amazon

About Ane

Ane Mulligan embraces life from a director’s chair—in community theatre and at her desk creating novels. Entranced with story by age three, at five, she saw PETER PAN onstage and was struck with a fever from which she never recovered—stage fever. One day, her passions collided, and an award-winning, bestselling novelist emerged. She believes chocolate and coffee are two of the four major food groups and lives in Sugar Hill, GA, with her artist husband and a rascally Rottweiler. You can find Ane on her website.

Merle Smith Williams’s Famous Southern Meatloaf

/ sandramervillehart

by Sandra Merville Hart

I was so excited that friend and fellow author Debra DuPree Williams shared a recipe from her debut novel, Grave Consequences, that I asked her if I could share another one from her novel. Happily, she agreed.

I’m always happy to find a new recipe for meatloaf. This is her family’s recipe.

Merle Smith Williams’s Famous Southern Meatloaf

1 ½ pounds ground beef (use more if you have a big family)

1 cup cracker crumbs or stale bread broken into pieces (these days, I use canned breadcrumbs)

1 onion, chopped

½ bell pepper, chopped (I use red ones but you may use any or all colors)

½ cup shredded carrots

1 egg, slightly beaten

1 ½ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

½ can condensed tomato soup

Water if mixture seems too dry (add slowly, no more than ¼ cup at most)

 

Debra also included a tip from her dad: add 1 teaspoon baking powder to your meat mixture to keep it from drying out. This also works for hamburger patties. Thanks for the tip, Debra!

Combine all ingredients. Instead of using extra water, Sandra used extra tomato soup for enhanced flavor. Yum! Also, Sandra used Panko bread crumbs.

Form into a loaf and put it into a loaf pan.

Ingredients (for the topping)

½ cup ketchup

¼ cup dark brown sugar

1 tsp prepared mustard (the bright yellow kind)

Combine the above and spread over top of meatloaf.  Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Yields 8-10 servings.

Sandra’s note: my meatloaf needed an extra 10 minutes, so mine baked just under an hour.

Delicious! There’s a surprising sweet flavor until you remember about the brown sugar in the topping. The meat is moist and packed with vegetables. Shredded carrots are new ingredient for me to add to meatloaf and I liked it as an easy way to get an extra serving of vegetables.

My husband likes plain meats so I don’t often make meatloaf. I gobbled a couple of slices for supper one evening. Then it made a comforting sandwich for lunch 2 days before I froze the rest. That insures more meatloaf sandwiches in the future.

Thanks for allowing me to share this recipe with my Historical Nibbles family, Debra!

Sources

Williams, Debra DuPree. Grave Consequences, Firefly Southern Fiction, 2020.

Meatloaf Recipe

/ sandramervillehart

When I was a child, meatloaf was a staple in my home. I don’t know my mom’s recipe so I rarely make it. When I found this recipe in The Fannie Farmer Cookbook, I was excited to try it.

The cookbook offers a few variations of its standard recipe. I chose Meat Loaf with Parsley and Tomato. I chose to remain light (1/2 teaspoon of dried) on the parsley because it called for ¼ cup of minced parsley and I know from past experience that this seasoning packs of lot of flavor.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Chop one onion and set aside. (I didn’t use the whole onion because it was too much for my taste. Instead I used about ¾ of a medium-sized onion.)

Prepare two cups of freshly made bread crumbs or buy them. I like the flavor of Panko bread crumbs, so I used them. (It was a great choice!)

Butter two loaf pans or use cooking spray.

Mix together 2 cups of bread crumbs with the reserved chopped onion. Add 2 pounds of ground beef and mix together. (I find using my hands is easier than a spoon.)

Then stir in 2 slightly beaten eggs, 1 ½ teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon ground black pepper, ½ teaspoon parsley, ½ teaspoon basil, and ¾ cup tomato sauce. Blend this all together.

Divide it into two and pat it into place in the loaf pans. Pour ¾ cup tomato sauce on the top of the unbaked loaves.

Bake for 45 minutes.

This is a good recipe. I liked the texture. When hot, I tasted the basil and thought about omitting it for the next time. Then I had a cold meatloaf sandwich the next day. Yum! The basil is not as strong in cold meatloaf.

This comforting dish gave me a nostalgic feeling for all those childhood suppers. I hope you enjoy it, too.

-Sandra Merville Hart

Sources

Revised by Cunningham, Marion and Laber, Jeri. The Fannie Farmer Cookbook, Alfred A Knopf Inc., 1983.