Chicken Tacos

From the Doughnut Shop on Avenue U Sheepshead Bay Brooklyn $2!
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Return to Dinosaur

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Question of the Day

Can u use corn cobs that are labeled as squirel food for smoking bacon? Let me know your experiences making bacon folks!
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Ribs Anyone?

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Meatloaf on the Kettle - Part Deux

I mentioned a little while back that Julie from She Smoke inspired me to cook some meatloaf on the Weber Kettle. Now I don't usually make meatloaf, but Julie's comments about the "a few dried herbs and an egg to a hunk of ground beef, shaped it into a loaf, poured over a bottle of ketchup and cooked until well done," meatloaf of her youth peaked my interest. We certainly have a shared memory there!

Her new recipe for a tasty modern meatloaf, inspired me to take a crack at one of my least favorite childhood dishes. Hell, if Julie could do it, so could I. So I gathered the ingredients, most of which I had in the house and set out to conquer Meatloaf On The Kettle! Now I don't know about you, but I rarely follow recipes. In this case I made a conscience decision to follow Julie's instructions to the letter.

Take a minute and read Julie's recipe here. Don't worry, I'll be here when you get back....

Got that down? Good.

So I gathered my vegetables, trimmed them, chopped them, whipped them and mixed the meat and was left with two ingredients; the bread crumbs and the milk. This certainly had to be an over-site on my part so, I reread the recipe and found no instruction on what to do with the bread crumbs and the milk. What do I do with these rogue ingredients?

I called out to my wife and asked her what to do with them. She resisted the urge to tell me what I REALLY could do with them and she sat down and read the recipe. "They're not mentioned," she tells me. "But I would add them to the mix. Breadcrumbs are always in meatloaf, but I'm not sure what to do with the milk."

What was I going to do with this stuff? Julie had mentioned in her post that this recipe was "based on my recipe in She-Smoke (Not Your Mama's Meatloaf, pg. 164)," so I got out the book and read that recipe. "Oh, soak the breadcrumbs in the milk." Wait a minute, I'm using store bought canned bread crumbs. Soak them in the milk?

After some discussion with the wife, I dump the breadcrumbs into the meat mixture and about 1/2 of the milk. This made the wettest pile of meat I've ever encountered for a meatloaf. I let the meat mixture sit as I build my fire. I get the kettle settled at 300 degrees and return to the kitchen to shape the loaves.

Julie suggested making smaller loaves instead of one large one, so I fashion four loaves from the pile of meat. The meat mixture is light and airy and extremely moist. So much so, it has a hard time coming together. I resist the urge to add more bread crumbs, and work to roughly get the meat settled into an approximate loaf shape.

They go on the kettle, cook for a little more than an hour and come off as some of the tastiest meatloaf I've ever had. Thank you Julie! A couple of things, you'll notice that the meat is pretty craggy (is that even a word?) While the cracks and crevices did add to the outer layer's crunch, next time I'll work to smooth the loaves. In a re-heat of the leftovers a glaze was a much needed and nice touch.

Wordless Wednesday

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Giveaways: Penzey's Arizona Dreaming

Penzeys is giving a free bottle of Arizona Dreaming, you pay the shipping and handling. Code, 15853C, is entered in Express Ordering section. Click here to order.

Thanks to John Douglas over at The Smoke Ring for the head up.

It's Gotten Out of Hand

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Meatloaf On The Kettle

Yoo Hoo Julie - You inspired me today. Details to follow.
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BBQ Food: 3 Meats at RUB

It's Wordless Wednesday folks! I'll let the meat speak for itself.
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