Ina Garten-Inspired Meatloaf

Compiled by Igor Kukolj, Editor. Nobody here has cooked this — how these are made.

Dry meatloaf is usually blamed on lean mince or on overcooking. More often it is the breadcrumbs.

Dry breadcrumbs are a sponge, and in a hot loaf they take water out of the meat rather than adding any. What you want instead is a panade: torn bread soaked in milk to a paste, stirred through the mince. The starch swells and gels, the milk proteins get in among the meat proteins and physically stop them binding into a tight mass, and the whole thing holds onto moisture that would otherwise be squeezed out.

Same quantity of bread, entirely different result, and it costs five minutes of soaking.

Mix as little as you possibly can

Worked mince goes springy and bouncy — the salt-soluble proteins link up into a gel, which is exactly what you want in a sausage and exactly what you do not want here. Combine with your fingertips, stop the moment it comes together, and accept that it looks loose.

Free-form on a tray, not in a loaf tin

A tin holds the rendered fat and juices against the meat, so the sides stew rather than brown, and the loaf effectively boils in its own liquid. Shaped by hand on a lined baking tray, fat runs away and all four sides develop a crust.

Cool the onions before they go in

Warm onions start cooking the egg and begin softening the meat proteins while you are still mixing. Cook them first, spread them on a plate, and let them come down to room temperature.

Storing

Four days, and cold meatloaf in a sandwich is arguably the point of making a large one. It freezes well in slices for three months. Reheat in a little stock or gravy rather than dry.