Last edited Tue Nov 5, 2013, 11:14 PM - Edit history (1)

Use oatmeal rather than breadcrumbs or use fresh bread crumbs you make yourself and avoid making them too fine.

Don't grind or process the meat too finely. You might combine the ingredients by hand and don't pack the loaf pan tightly.

I know what you mean because I don't care for dense meatloaf.

I assume you mean rolled oats and not stone ground.

But I've never used oatmeal in meat loaf. Use fresh bread, usually, in medium pieces, (not crumb) to make it less dense.

For one pound of ground beef, I use one piece of bread, whatever kind I have, just torn into pieces. It breaks up and mushes in with the rest of the ingredients. for that amount of meat, I use one egg, and about a quarter cup of milk or other liquid. One recipe I've tried, is Martha Stewart's mother's recipe, which uses celery, onion, & carrot, processed as much as you can in the food processor (sneaking in veggies for kids) and liquid from the veggies is the only liquid you need.

Yuck! Bread crumbs or rice is a much better "meat loaf extender". My dear mom also used oatmeal in meatloaf.

I like brown basmati cooked with low sodium chicken broth. I refry this rice to remove excess moisture and give it kind of a crunchy texture before adding to the meatloaf mixture.

Steel cut oats (groats) might be a healthy and good tasting alternative. I think I would prepare them pretty much like the basmati rice above.

Meatloaf is one of those things that should taste like the meatloaf you ate growing up. I make my aunt Eileen's meatloaf with rolled oats, milk, an egg, onions, salt, pepper, and sage. The only modification I make is adding garlic.

Like your aunt Eileen, mom didn't use garlic either.

I had a brother-in-law who thought he hated all sorts of dishes... until my sister made them. Eventually, he realized that his mother couldn't cook for shit. Neither could his sister. One of the things my sister and I used to chuckle over when we got together (and her hubby wasn't around) was the serial horror story of the latest "family Thanskgiving".

That said, I've nothing against using rolled oats in oatmeal. I've done it, many times, and it works fine, even if you don't like oatmeal in it's other forms.

Mix of meats (shoulder, pork, lamb), breads, etc. I think you'll find far more articles on a fluffy meatball than fluffy meatloaf, yet effectively they're the same thing.

I grind the meat with my meat grinder and my recipe is a bit different, but there's a lot of good methodology in the video for getting a good meatloaf.

enough with a food processor? Would it need some fat?

There's nothing wrong with using a food processor to chop meat, but I just like a little more consistency with meat loaf so I use a meat grinder. Using a food processor has its advantages if you are also using it for the other ingredients as you'll have less to clean.

For the meat, Alton is using a mixture of half sirloin and half chuck. Sirloin has about 10% fat and Chuck has about 20%, so the end product will have around 15% fat which is pretty much ideal for a meat loaf. Turkey thigh meat only has around 5% fat and breast meat is even less.

it was kinda fatty when cold. Not the best for sandwiches.

However, most people are going to prefer some fat content anytime you're trying to get ground meat to stay together. So when it comes to sausages, hamburger patties, meatballs and the like most people are going to prefer fat content that is around 15-20%. I usually shoot for around 15% in all of those things.

If the meat is cold, saturated fat is not going to be in a liquid state so taste and texture are going to be a bit different, especially if you're using ground beef with a high fat content. Some ground beef will have a fat content as high as 30%. That's why a lot of recipes will mix in a leaner ground meat to get the fat content down.

find. I was never found of her meat loaf. My wife's meatloaf is on the other extreme. She uses lots of vegetables, shredded carrots, chopped celery, and onions that she saute before adding.

Adds to the fat.

I now see how I've been getting the glaze on my meatloaf wrong for lo these many years.

I'm going to give that a try.

And the glaze recs were also interesting.

Squeezing compacts everything together and makes the whole thing leaden.

I've taken to making my meat loaves about 1/4 vegetables by volume- a finely chopped mirepoix of celery, carrots and onion. I wouldn't call them "fluffy", but they seem less dense than all meat.

But I use green peppers instead of carrots.

That's been the standard in my family for generations.

ground beef
oats
eggs
milk
diced onion
poultry seasoning (sage and thyme)
S&P

Delicious.

never have used a loaf pan for it.

A panade is bread mixed with dairy, milk, 1/2 & 1/2, or cream. The other way to lighten the meat loaf is to not over mix it, treat it gently. That's the best way to make a good hamburger too.

with some beef broth. That will not only make it more fluffy, it will wake up the flavor. Cut back on the salt, though, if you use that idea. You might actually not need *any* salt. I never do when I make it. Don't punch it down too much, either. That causes it to clump up and become a bit tougher.

Or am I just a weirdo?

I use whole meat, chopped by hand, and well-mixed with the rest of the ingredients, also chopped. All medium-to-fine dice, maybe 1/4 inch. After it's all well mixed, I run it through the meat grinder with a fine die and catch it right in the loaf pan, just patting it enough to fit. It barely holds together when it comes out, it's crumbly and spongy but in a wonderfully light way. Also a literal way, an inch-thick slice will actually absorb about half a cup of gravy

I have made this recipe hundreds of times, had lots of request for it. I add a package of dry onion soup, a finely chopped onion and a little chopped celery. One thing I do is soak about 3 slices of bread in milk. After 10 or 15 mins, squeeze out the milk and discard the milk and add the squeezed bread to the meat mixture. Add 1/4 cup catsup, little black pepper, some dry parsley flakes, one beaten egg and a tablespoon or two of Worcestershire. sauce About 1 1/2 to 2 pounds ground chuck makes a good size loaf for my family. I like ground chuck, it has good flavor and a little more fat in it than ground sirloin. ( Please no fatty cheap hamburger). Mix it well with hands and place in greased baking dish, shaping into loaf. I "ice" it with catsup and lay green bell pepper strips on top. I started leaving out the bell pepper in the meat because some in my family didn't like them. So they are still there for the bell pepper lovers, the other can pull them off the top.

I cover it with foil and bake at 325 degrees for an hour or so, take off the foil. If the meat loaf gave up liquid and fat, drain it off when you remove the foil. Put back in the oven and let the meatloaf brown up, should take 15 to 20 minutes. When out of the oven, it slices better if it stands for 5 or 10 minutes.

This loaf is not fluffy, but dense and meaty, and it slices up well when cold and half the deliciousness of meatloaf is when you eat it cold in a sandwich.

dense meaty meatloaf. But I think I prefer a little fluff. Agree it doesnt stay together well for sandwiches.

Thank you for the input.

seems to help make it fluffier

A fine, messy pile of grated onion. This is good in meatloaf, meatballs and burgers. Makes them juicier/tender.

I also use soda crackers that I bust up in a zip lock with my rolling pin, instead of oatmeal or bread.