Glazed All-beef Meatloaf

 March 2025

Recipe from Cook's Illustrated, January 2006

I have tried several different recipes for meatloaf and written about them in this blog. For the last several years my go-to recipe was quick mini-meatloaf. Not only is the size of this dish convenient but it is easy to make and good to eat. I don't know what drew my attention to this older all-beef recipe, perhaps because it was an ATK Staff Selection for their 25th year, but I added it to my list of meatloaf experiments.

Monterey Jack cheese was grated on the medium holes of a box grater, spread on a plate, and placed in the freezer. Freezing prevents it from clumping. A rimmed baking sheet was lined with aluminum foil then a cooling rack was put inside. A perforated 10"x6" piece of foil was placed in the center of the rack. Finely chopped onion and celery were cooked in butter until they started to brown. Minced garlic, fresh thyme, and paprika were added and cooked for a minute then some V8 (in place of tomato juice) was added. This onion mixture was moved to a small bowl. Chicken broth and eggs were whisked in a large bowl then sprinkled with gelatin and let stand to bloom the gelatin. Soy sauce, Dijon mustard, crushed saltine crackers, minced fresh parsley, salt, pepper, and the onion mix were stirred into the egg mixture. The frozen cheese was crumbled into the mixture then ground beef was added (I used 1 pound 93% lean plus 1 pound 85% lean.) and mixed by hand. The meat mixture was transferred onto the foil rectangle on the cooling rack, smoothed with a wet spatula, and baked for about an hour in a 375° oven until the center of the meatloaf was 135°–140°.

While the meatloaf baked a glaze was made by cooking together ketchup, hot pepper sauce (as usual I used half the recipe amount), ground coriander, cider vinegar, and light brown sugar until thickened. Half of the glaze was spread on the meatloaf and broiled until bubbly. The last half of the glaze was then added and broiled again. It took 70 minutes to prepare the meat loaf for baking and a total of 2 hours 40 minutes from start to table.

This meatloaf was bit of a project to make though the ingredients were all pantry staples and nothing was difficult to do. We enjoyed eating it both the day it was made and as leftovers. It is tasty and has a nice tender texture, nothing like a burger, say, due in some part to the inclusion of gelatin in the all-beef mixture. The glaze is well balanced and not too spicy so its flavor did not overwhelm the meat loaf. This meat loaf should keep well in the refrigerator or the freezer and will provide us with many dinners.