Meatloaf

[mike carey]

I have a friend who was born into a very old, very wealthy Nashville, TN family. Every time I happen to mention that I'm having meat loaf for dinner she absolutely sneers and remarks that meal loaf was and is, as far as she's concerned, servants food.

I pity people who look down on peasant—or servants'—food, they don't know what they are missing. There's so much that you can do with a meatloaf that you can't with a steak. For my mother's 80th I made a turkey and pork meatloaf with pistachios and cranberries in it, that went over a treat.

[+ oldNbusted]

I went to Wegman's yesterday and found they had ground veal and ground pork in 1 pound vacuum packs, which I love because they can go directly in the freezer to be used when needed. They also had pillow packs of meatloaf mix. I'm thinking the veal is the expensive component, since the pork and beef have to be priced competitively. The two Giant's I checked do not carry ground veal, but maybe that's because I live on the peasant side of town.

 

At one job, we would go out to eat occasionally, and after I had a few turns to pick, one of my coworkers said "You really like 'rustic' food, don't you?" I laughed and said if that meant food associated with poverty or working class people, then yes, I love it, that's where I'm from.

[+ purplekow]

So I made a meatloaf yesterday and to my usual mix, I added a bit of grated jalapeno cheddar cheese. That added an especially nice kick to it. I grew up in a pasta 6 days a week family so you guys who were getting meatloaf were rich as far as I am concerned. As to your friend who looks down her nose at meatloaf, calling it servant's food, seems like she has gotten an A in Snobbery 101.

[+ Charlie]

A regular in our dinners when I was a child was beef tongue, which I loved, but I have hardly ever seen it in supermarkets.

[+ purplekow]

A regular in our dinners when I was a child was beef tongue, which I loved, but I have hardly ever seen it in supermarkets.

Yes I remember seeing tongue in the butcher case as a boy. It always made me sad, as did pig's feet. If the animal was recognizable from the meat, I did not want it. Same thing with fish.

[+ deej]

A regular in our dinners when I was a child was beef tongue, which I loved, but I have hardly ever seen it in supermarkets.

 

We'd have that occasionally. (And of course it's a staple in any NYC deli.) More common on our table, though, was beef heart. Mom came from a farm family and farmers we knew who did their own butchering almost couldn't give them away so it was always easy for her to get and suited her budget. As a result, of course, its a favorite for me and my sister.

 

These days, if you can find it at all it'll be priced as a luxury.

[+ azdr0710]

my mother would spend her childhood summers on the family farm.....she had a very favorite chicken and one day she came home to find it gone......she didn't eat chicken for an entire year

[+ Charlie]

My spouse's mother grew up on a farm, where fresh meat was served as part of every meal. As soon as she left home, she became a vegetarian, for the rest of her life.

[Epigonos]

Damn deej our family dinner tables were familiar. My mother prepared beef heart by cleaning it thoroughly and then stuffing it with a dressing similar to the one she used for a turkey. She made wonderful gravy after removing the heart from the roasting pan. She would then slice the heart and we would put gravy over it. It was usually accompanied with mashed potatoes and frozen peas. Mother also prepared a dish, we all loved, with calves kidneys cooked is a heavy brown gravy.

 

As I said in another post on this thread we NEVER had lamb. But many years ago a dear friend from England provided me with this wonderful winter dish. We, here in Southern California, are having one of the coolest and wettest winters in years so I recently had a group of friends over and served it with a nice green salad:

 

SHEPHERD PIE

2 lbs. Russet Potatoes, peeled and cubed

2 TBS. Sour Cream

1 lg. Egg Yolk

½ cup Cream

Kosher salt, to taste

Freshly ground Black Pepper, to taste

 

1 TB. Olive Oil

1¾ lbs. Ground Lamb

1 lg. Carrol, peeled and chopped

1 med. Onion, chopped

2 TBS. Butter

2 TBS. All-Purpose Flour

1 cup Beef Stock or Broth

2+ tsp. Worcestershire Sauce

½+ cup Frozen Peas

1 tsp. Paprika

 

Boil the potatoes in salted water until tender, about twelve (12) minutes. Rice (mash) the potatoes and combine with the sour cream, egg yolk and cream. Beat the potato mixture until well combined.

While the potatoes boil, preheat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the olive oil to the pan with the lamb. Season the meat with salt and pepper. Brown and crumble the meat for three (3) to four (4) minutes. Drain excess fat from the browned meat. Add chopped carrot and onion to the meat and cook for five (5) minutes, stirring frequently. In a second small skillet or sauté pan over medium heat cook the butter and the flour together for two (2) minutes. Whisk in the broth and Worcestershire sauce. Cook the gravy until it has thickened. About one (1) minute. Add the gravy to the meat mixture and stir in the peas. Preheat the oven to 400. Fill a small rectangular glass baking dish with the meat mixture. Pipe or spread with a spatula the mashed potatoes over the meat. Top the potatoes with the paprika and bake for thirty (30) minutes or until hot and bubbly. Place the dish under the broiled for a minute or so if it hasn’t browned

[MikeBiDude]

Damn deej our family dinner tables were familiar. My mother prepared beef heart by cleaning it thoroughly and then stuffing it with a dressing similar to the one she used for a turkey. She made wonderful gravy after removing the heart from the roasting pan. She would then slice the heart and we would put gravy over it. It was usually accompanied with mashed potatoes and frozen peas. Mother also prepared a dish, we all loved, with calves kidneys cooked is a heavy brown gravy.

 

As I said in another post on this thread we NEVER had lamb. But many years ago a dear friend from England provided me with this wonderful winter dish. We, here in Southern California, are having one of the coolest and wettest winters in years so I recently had a group of friends over and served it with a nice green salad:

 

SHEPHERD PIE

2 lbs. Russet Potatoes, peeled and cubed

2 TBS. Sour Cream

1 lg. Egg Yolk

½ cup Cream

Kosher salt, to taste

Freshly ground Black Pepper, to taste

 

1 TB. Olive Oil

1¾ lbs. Ground Lamb

1 lg. Carrol, peeled and chopped

1 med. Onion, chopped

2 TBS. Butter

2 TBS. All-Purpose Flour

1 cup Beef Stock or Broth

2+ tsp. Worcestershire Sauce

½+ cup Frozen Peas

1 tsp. Paprika

 

Boil the potatoes in salted water until tender, about twelve (12) minutes. Rice (mash) the potatoes and combine with the sour cream, egg yolk and cream. Beat the potato mixture until well combined.

While the potatoes boil, preheat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the olive oil to the pan with the lamb. Season the meat with salt and pepper. Brown and crumble the meat for three (3) to four (4) minutes. Drain excess fat from the browned meat. Add chopped carrot and onion to the meat and cook for five (5) minutes, stirring frequently. In a second small skillet or sauté pan over medium heat cook the butter and the flour together for two (2) minutes. Whisk in the broth and Worcestershire sauce. Cook the gravy until it has thickened. About one (1) minute. Add the gravy to the meat mixture and stir in the peas. Preheat the oven to 400. Fill a small rectangular glass baking dish with the meat mixture. Pipe or spread with a spatula the mashed potatoes over the meat. Top the potatoes with the paprika and bake for thirty (30) minutes or until hot and bubbly. Place the dish under the broiled for a minute or so if it hasn’t browned

Mmmmmmm

[+ deej]

Damn deej our family dinner tables were familiar.

 

Part of it is the era. (And I suspect my era was a little later than yours.)

 

There were a lot of casseroles based on recipes by Campbells and Redbook magazine. We never had a Shepherd's Pie, but there was a casserole featuring ground beef, canned (french cut, of course) green beans, cream of mushroom soup, and topped with 'Tater Tots. Same idea, but with a decidedly 1960s America twist.

 

Mom tried a lot of those recipes over the years, but she never came back to one of them twice. She always retreated to her simple formula of 1) meat, 2) veg, 3) potato. It wasn't until late in her life that we got her to accept rice as an acceptable starch.

 

It's actually a pretty good formula. I kinda stick to it. I just don't fry the hell out of things, overcook the veg, and rice will do nicely.