Jill Can Cook: Brown Sugar Meatloaf

Sometimes, there's no rhyme or reason to what I choose to cook and when. Kind of like last nights dinner. I felt like making meatloaf. We haven't had it in a while. In fact, we've hardly had any ground beef recently. What better use of ground beef than a hearty meatloaf meal! I wouldn't normally veer away from my normal "recipe" for meatloaf, since I already love the way it turns out. My "recipe" is so loose that it's not really a recipe, more like a dump and cook, involving ketchup, eggs, onion soup mix, garlic powder, etc.

But, I've got this blog now. I might as well try something new that you guys might want to know about. So, I found this recipe at American Heritage Cooking that seemed like it would be delicious, but also not so "out there" that I didn't already have all the ingredients at the house. No special trip to the store for lazy me.

 

Brown Sugar Meatloaf

Ingredients

Makes servings USMetricAdjust Recipe (Help)

I opted for Ritz crackers because I had them on hand, but you could use bread crumbs, saltine crackers, unsweetened cereal, mashed up bread. Whatever you think will act like a good binding agent!

 

• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 2 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 small onion, chopped (or 1 1/2 tbsp. onion powder)
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 sleeve crushed Ritz crackers

                    

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 5x9 inch loaf pan.
2. In a mixing bowl, combine brown sugar, ketchup, and Worcestershire sauce. Set aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl, mix all other ingredients together. Form loaf on pan.
4. Top with brown sugar/ketchup/Worcestershire sauce mixture.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour or until juices are clear.

Before we get into the pictures portion of this post, I just want to mention that I changed the recipe up here to what I would've done not what I actually did. I'll tell you more about it later, but trust me, you'll agree with the change.

Onto the pictures!!!

This looks extremely gross.

Normally, I'd cook a meatloaf in my special meatloaf pan, but since this recipe boasted a fantastic sauce, I wanted to make sure as much of the surface of the meatloaf could be covered with it. So, I made it on a cookie sheet.

The sauce.

The original blogger made the sauce sound so fantastic that she mixed hers in a pan so she could heat the leftovers up to use as additional sauce. I thought I would do that, but after tasting it, I thought that maybe less would be more.



The loaf all sauced up!

I made this completely on my own, but Joe was the one to take it out of the oven and plate it up. Before he cut into it, I begged him to take a picture of the finished product for you guys. This is what he came up with:

Not what I would've done, but I really like that he encompassed the loaf and the extra sauce. Kudos, Joe.

This is where I complain a little bit. As I mixed the loaf ingredients together, I noticed that it was REALLY juicy. Like, no bueno. Like this whole thing was going to fall apart like my cake. I only had one sleeve of crackers, so I couldn't sop up any of the seemingly extra liquid with more crackers. Into the oven it would go and I would just keep my fingers crossed for the next hour hoping it would still be delicious.

I wasn't there, but when Joe cut into it, he was surprised by how liquidy it was. When we ate it, it was very moist. Almost too moist. The original recipe called for 3/4 cup of milk, but I think the average meatloaf eater would be happier with 1/2 cup of milk, possibly even less. I usually eyeball the milk and I could kick myself for actually following directions!

Yummy, yummy, gimme more!!

I don't know about all 3 of you that read my blog, but I am picky about textures when it comes to my food. The texture of something can really ruin it for me, regardless of the flavor. Case in point: I love, love, love the flavor of cooked onions, but I can't stomach the texture. That's why I tend to dwell  on these things. Sorry for being a weirdo!

Anyway, even though the meatloaf didn't have my preferred texture, it still had a wonderful flavor and I still ate it (I almost went back for seconds!!). I am really glad I went for something new since putting ketchup or a can of tomato soup on top of my regular meatloaf was getting a little boring.

Same piece, different angle.

And the sauce was very delicious, although I'm glad I didn't put any more on top than I did because it could've easily overpowered the whole dish. We ended up serving this alongside baked sweet potatoes, since I'm on a sweet potato kick right now. The sauce really complemented the side dish as well.

A+ for this recipe! As long as the milk is kept to a minimum.