Meat Loaf with Creamy Onion Gravy
This is a culmination of all the meat loaves Ive ever eaten, says Andrew Curren, chef-partner of 24 Diner in Austin. My mom always made a good meat loafit never had the tomato goo on top of it. Then I tasted a meat loaf that had cheese in it; that was a good idea. In Italy, I was introduced to soffritto and realized the importance of cooking with carrots, onion, celery. Curren serves the meat loaf with creamy gravy, which is also excellent on lunchtime meat loaf sandwiches. More All-American Recipes
This is a culmination of all the meat loaves Ive ever eaten, says Andrew Curren, chef-partner of 24 Diner in Austin. My mom always made a good meat loafit never had the tomato goo on top of it. Then I tasted a meat loaf that had cheese in it; that was a good idea. In Italy, I was introduced to soffritto and realized the importance of cooking with carrots, onion, celery. Curren serves the meat loaf with creamy gravy, which is also excellent on lunchtime meat loaf sandwiches. More All-American Recipes
- 2 tablespoons ketchup
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 2 tablespoons worcestershire sauce
- 4 large eggs
- kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 pound ground pork
- 1 rib celery finely chopped
- 2 tablespoons dijon mustard
- 1 tablespoon canola oil
- 1 1/2 cups panko bread crumbs
- 1 large onion finely chopped
- 2 large carrots finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon tabasco
- 3 pounds ground beef chuck
- 1/2 pound monterey jack cheese cut into 1/2-inch cubes
- creamy onion gravy
- Carbohydrate 14.0003782199979 g
- Cholesterol 312.042122854167 mg
- Fat 45.0981947408858 g
- Fiber 1.31218325827155 g
- Protein 53.2453383641432 g
- Saturated Fat 18.2078327540398 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (255g)
- Sodium 688.266749737072 mg
- Sugar 12.6881949617264 g
- Trans Fat 5.89274876291395 g
- Calories 687 calories
Step-by-step
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- In a medium skillet, heat the oil.
- Add the onion, carrots, celery and garlic and cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 8 minutes.
- Scrape the mixture into a very large bowl and let cool.
- Add the panko, eggs, mustard, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco, 1 1/2 tablespoons of salt and 1 teaspoon of pepper and stir to form a paste.
- Using your hands, work in the ground meats and cheese until combined.
- Line a large roasting pan with parchment paper.
- Firmly pat the meat mixture into 2 loaves, about 10 inches long.
- Arrange the loaves 3 inches apart on the parchment and roast in the lower third of the oven for about 1 hour, until lightly browned and an instant-read thermometer inserted in the center of the loaves registers 150 degrees.
- Let the meat loaves rest for 15 minutes, then cut into thick slices and serve with the Creamy Onion Gravy.
Standard ingredient lists omit the critical thermal mass factor of combining three pounds of ground chuck with one pound of ground pork; straight from the refrigerator, that dense mass will drastically drop oven temperatures if loaded into a standard range without planning. Sautéing the aromatics requires patience because raw carrots and celery introduced directly to the raw meat payload will bleed water and compromise structural integrity during the roast. Proper execution demands careful attention to specific benchmarks throughout the mixing and baking process.
- Cool the cooked onion, carrot, celery, and garlic mixture completely before combining it with the raw eggs; hot vegetables will prematurely coagulate the proteins and create dense pockets in the finished loaf.
- Dice the Monterey Jack cheese into precise half-inch cubes so they distribute evenly without creating large hollow pockets of melted fat that cause the loaf to crack open.
- Insert the instant-read thermometer into the geometric center of each ten-inch loaf, pulling the pan from the oven precisely when the internal temperature hits 150 degrees to prevent dry meat.
- Allow the loaves to rest undisturbed on the parchment-lined roasting pan for a full fifteen minutes before slicing, permitting the internal juices to redistribute so the thick cuts hold their shape under gravy.
Substitutions alter the final chemistry considerably; swapping ground turkey for the pork removes necessary rendering fat, requiring added canola oil to prevent a chalky texture. Strict adherence to the ten-inch length specification ensures the heat penetrates uniformly within the one-hour cooking window.
