Mega meatloaf | Jamie Oliver recipes (2024)

FAQs

How to make Jamie Oliver meatloaf? ›

Pick the herb leaves, finely chop half of them and add to the veg pan, saving the rest for later. Leave the veg to cool completely, then tear in the mozzarella and add the breadcrumbs, minced meat, mustard, eggs, and a good pinch of sea salt and black pepper. Scrunch and mix well, then shape into a loaf.

The only way to guarantee tender meat is not to overcook it. And that's a simple matter of using a thermometer when you bake the meatloaf. Milk does, on the other hand, add moisture and fat and is worth including for that fact alone.

In meatloaf, this is most commonly the eggs and breadcrumbs. Your binding ingredient is only second to the meat itself in your recipe and the reason why meatloaf crumbles. When this happens, it's because you didn't use enough. Next time, try adding in an extra egg and/or some more breadcrumbs.

The Basic Meatloaf Formula

All recipes for meatloaf start with the same basic formula: 2 pounds of ground meat and a “panade” made of bread or crackers soaked in milk. Along with a few eggs, this panade helps to hold the ground meat together and adds some essential moisture to the mix.

One of the most common reasons meatloaf is watery is an overabundance of liquid ingredients. Adding broth, milk, or eggs can enhance flavor and moisture, but too much can lead to a soupy consistency. Use these ingredients sparingly, and consider adding breadcrumbs or oats to absorb excess moisture.

Onions, garlic and celery do pose one problem though: they don't cook down easily. Little bits of crunchy onion or celery or potent, hot garlic will spoil the comforting aspect of eating meatloaf.

Sure, egg yolks add some rich flavor to a meatloaf, but the real reason we need eggs is for structure—to help bind the meatloaf together. This is especially important since we're making a free-form meatloaf, or one that you shape by hand, versus using a loaf pan.

If you don't have any bread, you can substitute it for breadcrumbs, crackers, cereal grains, oatmeal, instant rice, instant barley, or even potato flakes! However, bread is still the best choice of all the potential options.

I later learned how I could avoid this problem and make a fully smooth meatloaf by pre-cooking any vegetables, especially the onion, before adding them to the ground meat. This way the meatloaf gets the flavor without the rawness -- a method from the smart people at Cook's Illustrated.

Baking soda acts as a tenderizer for ground beef, keeps it moist during cooking, and encourages deep browning by raising the acidity level of the surface of the meat. Simply add 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda to 1 pound of ground beef for more tender meat with better browning.

Why not cook meatloaf in the loaf pan? ›

A free-form meatloaf exposes more surface area to the direct heat from the oven and creates more of that crunchy, nicely-browned crust that many people love. Meatloaf made in a loaf pan, however, corrals more of the juices and fat, resulting in a moister, some say "steamed" texture (via the Food Network).

Every meatloaf recipe requires a binder, otherwise, you don't get the same moisture retention and tenderness when you cook it. Most recipes require bread crumbs soaked in moisture as the binder to improve the quality of your meatloaf, but there are plenty of other options.

Joanna Gaines Meatloaf Recipe from Magnolia Table Cookbook is really the best and the easiest meatloaf recipe ever. This easy meatloaf is made with ground beef, finely chopped onion, tomato sauce, saltines, Cheddar cheese, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper; and glazed with ketchup.

The meatloaf can be cooked uncovered. However, if you are concerned about it burning, you can cover the meatloaf with foil for the first 45 minutes and uncover it for the final 15 minutes to allow the meatloaf to brown on top.