Meatloaf has long been the poster child for by-product. My own mother never made our family the dish because her childhood experiences had scarred her so: meatloaf became the hole where soft tomatoes, barely-salvaged green peppers, vegetable steamed limp and watery, and any leftover that was deemed otherwise unsuitable for consumption–from stale pasta to chicken legs–went to die. Meatloaf was a menace that was only tolerable through a hearty mask of ketchup.
Fortunately, I will try anything once, and I thought that hit was especially weird that I hadn’t ever tried meatloaf. I figured that I like hamburger, so a meatloaf would sort of be like having a lot of a really good thing.
When I started researching recipes, however, it became clear that a huge tin of hamburger probably wasn’t going to be very appetizing. Especially if I was stuck eating it for a few days.
It is important to have at least a quarter of the ingredients be fresh. Their bright color helps just as much as the sprightly flavor. If you were to make a meatloaf using entirely cooked or canned ingredients, it will probably taste akin to rotting tires and have about the same consistency. Secondly, it is important to think about how “meatloaf” sounds, and steer your product away from that. Adding a starch–such as bread or potatoes–right into the batter not only stretches the finished product, it makes it light–all the better to pile masked potatoes on top of.
I made the following recipe in muffin tins. The smaller size is more portion friendly, cuter, and it cooks faster. I had none of that in mind when I made it, I simply couldn’t find my loaf tin. Happy accidents all around.
Turkey and Friends Meatloaf
I took a slightly more discerning “clean-the-fridge” attitude when I made this. If you look at this and feel intimidated b a list of ingredients you don’t have, don’t panic. No parsley? Use spinach or kale, or just leave it out. Don’t like mushrooms? Chunks of carrots or, if you’re fun, rutabaga, will be delicious as well. As long as you keep the ingredient in the same species as the one suggested, you will have good results. And if not, there is always ketchup.
1 package of ground turkey breast
2 eggs
¼ cup onion, minced
1 cup chicken broth
2 cups of stale bread, cubed
¼ cup sun dried tomatoes, diced
½ cup mozzarella cheese
1 cup mushrooms, sliced
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp parsley, minced
1 Tbsp thyme, minced
2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Soak the bread chunks in the chicken broth until all the broth is absorbed. Add all the other ingredients and mix with your hands until it is all loosely combined. Scoop fistfuls of batter into the muffin tins. If there are any empty muffin tins, fill them half way with water. This ensures that the other meat-cakes will bake evenly. Bake for 55 minutes. Make sure to check doneness (no pink or redness) before serving. If you are making this in a loaf pan, cook for 1 hour and 25 minutes.
Also AMAZING in sandwiches! Especially grilled cheeeeeeeese with lots of KETCHUP. Sometimes it's really too bad that this meat loaf is tasty. My love for ketchup is so great that I really wouldn't mind drowning some mystery meat in it every once and a while.
