I’ve been wanting to smoke a meatloaf since receiving my #1 right before Christmas. I’d cut my teeth (successfully) on my smoker with some ribs and several batches of smoked salmon, and had learned the nuances of controlling the heat and the amount of smoke, etc. So feeling confident, I planned a dinner with friends around a main course of
smoked-first-then-grilled meatloaf. IT WAS FABULOUS.
I know a lot of folks aren’t fond of meatloaf, and as near as I can tell (from asking them), the reason is likely their
pathetic meatloaf recipe. So before I share my smoked meatloaf experience, I will share my Meatloaf Manifesto and my meatloaf recipe.
MEATLOAF MANIFESTO: Meatloaf is about meat, and should taste like meat, not green peppers. No self-respecting meatloaf has carrots, celery or any other random vegetable in it - just a little onion - that’s it. Adding vegetables doesn’t make a meatloaf “healthier” or moist, it makes it awful (IMHO), and tends to make it fall apart. If you want “healthy,” serve the vegetables on the side. When it comes to meatloaf, LESS IS MORE. The beauty of this recipe is its simplicity. This recipe doesn’t have any meaningless herbs/spices to mask the flavor of the beef/meat. Don’t mess with it, and don’t substitute ground chuck with any kind of "hamburger." If you’d like a blend of meats, say beef, pork, veal, etc., make sure it’s ground meat, and nothing seasoned like breakfast sausage or Italian sausage. The eggs and bread crumbs aren’t “filler,” they’re glue to keep the ground meat together while it cooks. Stepping down from my soap box to share recipe . . .
GREAT MEATLOAF
Ingredients:
Meatloaf
• 1-1/2 lbs. ground chuck - no other kind, and preferably grass-fed
• 2 cups fresh bread crumbs; use any kind of bread you like, but nothing seasoned like focaccia or strong like rye - buzz the bread fine in food processor
• 2 eggs - beaten with milk before adding
• 1 medium (weighs about 8 oz.) sweet onion, minced. A food processor works best for this so the onion bits are finely minced enough to “melt” into the loaf when it roasts. No big onion chunks!
• 1 or 2 cloves fresh garlic, minced - process the garlic with the onion
• 1 teaspoon regular table salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 cup milk, any kind
Glaze
• 1 cup ketchup
• 1/4 cup brown sugar packed
• 2 tablespoons cider vinegar
Directions:
1. For the glaze - whisk all ingredients in saucepan over medium heat just until the sugar dissolves. Reserve 1/4 of this glaze to use for extra sauce at the table with the finished meatloaf. Simmer the remaining glaze over medium heat until it’s slightly thickened – this gets brushed on the meatloaf while it cooks.
2. For the meatloaf - in a large bowl mix all the meatloaf ingredients together well with your hands. Shape the mixture into a free-form loaf, but DO NOT put it into a loaf pan. When shaping the loaf take care not to leave any air bubbles in the loaf. Once shaped, rub your fingers over the surface of the loaf to create
smooth finish – dampened fingers help. Brush some of the cooking glaze on the loaf, then roast it in the open pan (no lid) at 375°F for about one hour. Midway through remove it from the oven (so you don’t lose all your oven heat) and brush on more glaze, then return it to the oven and cook for another 30 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 160°F. Rest the meatloaf for 10 minutes before slicing.
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The recipe instructions here are obviously for roasting the meatloaf in the oven, but here’s what I did to smoke it.
1) Made the meatloaf the night before, then let it sit overnight in the fridge wrapped in plastic (might leave the plastic off next time). Because I didn't have something better, I fashioned a smoking grid from two old cooling racks to create a small cross-wire platform for the loaf that would allow smoke to reach the bottom. I placed the loaf on the grid, but DID NOT brush it with glaze - I wanted the meat to smoke, not the glaze.
2) I used 2 hickory chunks (about 3 oz total). I placed the meatloaf on the bottom shelf of my #1, and inserted a temperature probe. I didn’t use a water pan. I started cooking the meatloaf at 200° with just one of the wood chunks. When the smoke started to slow down (about an hour), I opened the door and added the other wood chunk to the wood box, then raised the temp to 225°. About 2 hours later, the interior temp of the meatloaf had reached 155° - slightly underdone, as I planned. The loaf dripped a little in the smoker, but about a tablespoon or two at the most – not the big mess that I anticipated.
3) I let the loaf rest and cool on my kitchen counter for about 1-1/2 hours where it dripped about another tablespoon of lovely pinkish juice. It had developed something of a dry pellicle in the smoker, and I believe that’s the result of making a smooth finish when shaping the loaf. The loaf kept its shape very well – it didn’t flatten out - lost less than 1/2-inch in height I'd guess. Touching my finger to the surface, it had a delightful smoky taste with no bitterness. See the attached picture (haven't figured out how to insert one yet).
4) When cooled enough, I wrapped it in plastic, put it in the fridge, and it stayed there (to improve the flavor and firm up for easier slicing) until the next day when phase two began. . .
5) I unwrapped the meatloaf, and with a serrated knife cut 1-inch slices on the diagonal. The reason I sliced them diagonally was to make the slices slightly bigger than they’d be had they been cuts straight across. I laid the slices out on a tray and let them come to room temp, then brushed one side with some (but not a lot) of the ketchup glaze, but only on the
cut side – I didn't let any spill down the outer edge that received the smoke. I put the slices onto my fiercely hot gas grill, glazed side down, then glazed the other cut edges quickly and closed the lid. Two minutes later I flipped the nicely grill-marked and slightly-charred slices over, and gave them another 2-3 minutes.
It was delicious. My dinner guests discussed erecting a shrine to me while they inhaled it. I forgot to take pictures of the grilled slices, but they were a thing of beauty.
