Weekly Cooking (and related issues) Thread

[Jamestown1630]

My Grandmother, who largely raised me, was born in 1890. She lost her mother when she was only ten years old, and at that young age became largely responsible for her younger brother, while their father plied his trade as a small sailing ship captain in the Tidewater, transporting freight.

She married the first time at a very young age - and actually lied a little to do it, because she wasn't quite sixteen.

She died at the ripe old age of 94; and until the last six months of her life she was completely running her own household, doing the budgeting, the meal-planning, even some of the housecleaning.

All of which is to say that she was COOKING for people, for a very long time.

A few months before she died, she was bed-ridden and comfortable, but in-and-out of lucidity. We took care of her at home, and took turns sitting and talking with her. One day we realized that we had never gotten her Chicken Pie recipe. So, my brother sat with her, and asked her how to make the Chicken Pie; and Granny said, "well, first you get a chicken; and you take all its feathers off."

She was remembering the old days, when gathering food and preparing it was very different than it became in the mid to latter 20th century.

Granny's life was often difficult; and I think that after many decades of cooking, day-in and day-out for lots of people, she welcomed the new convenience foods that became available in her later lifetime. She loved cake mixes - Duncan Hines was always her favorite - and she became a great fan of Hamburger Helper; but I think she really appreciated the Lipton Onion Soup Mix when it came out, and she used it a lot.

Her Meatloaf was wonderful, and it always had the Lipton stuff in it. I'm not sure where she first found the recipe, but I know that 'Dear Abby' of the newspaper advice column fame, published a meatloaf recipe that included the Lipton Soup mix. If you look up 'Dear Abby Meatloaf Recipe', you'll find that a similar recipe also comes up as the 'Ann Landers' meatloaf recipe. (In the 1950's, the ladies styled as 'Abby' and 'Ann' were actually sisters, and rivals in the Advice Column business ;-)

I searched a long time for a meatloaf recipe that was really like my Granny's; and the closest one I found was one that claimed to be 'like Boston Market's'. I can't find the same one now, under that search - I think it was a 'Top Secret' recipe - and now there seem to be several recipes out there claiming to be 'like Boston Market'; but here's what we do (and I like the Friedman Sisters' idea of bacon on top, as a variation, q.v.):

Meat Loaf

2 eggs

4 T. sour cream

4 T. ketchup

4 T. flour

2 packages of onion soup mix, dry

2 lbs. of ground beef

Extra ketchup for the top

2/3 c. spicy V-8 Juice (or 1 can El Pato tomato sauce with jalapenos, and 3/4 can water)

Into blender put the first 5 ingredients exactly as given. Blend until smooth.

In medium bowl combine with beef. Mix well and shape into a loaf.

Bake in a greased pan at 400 degrees F for 60 minutes. After the first 20 minutes, add the El Pato and water around the loaf; return to bake for 20 minutes. After second 20 minutes, coat top with ketchup and return for final 20 minutes.

-JT

[Jamestown1630]

“Blackberry balsamic merlot reduction” sounds heavenly :-)

-JT

[Liz]

This is the dish Hollywood insiders ate at the "in" restaurant...LA's premiere dining spot started in 1983 by comic actor Dudley Moore and director Tony Bill. Techniques are French in origin.

MEAT LOAF / 72 MARKET STREET OYSTER BAR AND GRILL, Venice, Ca

PREP Saute soft/dry 3/4 c ea minced onion/green onion, 1/2 c ea minced celery/carrot, 1/4 c ea minced red/green pepper, 2 tsp. minced garlic, 3 tb butter; cool. Add combined tsp. salt, 1/4 tsp. cayenne, tsp black pepper, 1/2 tsp wh/pepper, 1/2 /tsp ea ground cumin, nutmeg.

FINAL Now stir in 1/2 c HnH, 1/2 c catsup, 1 3/4 lbs ea lean ground beef, sweet Italian sausage, 3 beaten eggs, 3/4 c dry bread crumbs; mix well.

Form loaf on greased sheetpan or bake in 9x5" loaf pan.
Bake 350 deg 45-50 min. Let stand 10 min. Pour off fat.

Slice into desired servings. SERVE slices w/ gravy.

GRAVY Saute/soften/sweat 4 minced shallots, tsp minced garlic, tb ea minced green/red pepper, sprig fresh thyme, bay leaf, pinch black pepper, tb butter (do not brown).

Add cup wh/wine; cook/reduce to glaze on high. Add 1 1/2 ea veal/chic/stock (or use 3 c chix/stock); thicken/reduce by half. Stir in 2 tb butter, S/p. Strain out solids.

[Liz]

FOR REALLY MOIST MEATLOAF: A really neat technique
some chefs use when cooking meatloaf in a loaf pan: about 1/2
hour before done, drizzle in V8 vegetable juice at sides of pan.

[Liz]

Fiery Texas-type meatloaf served in a burrito.

TEXAS WILDFIRE BURRITOS

FILLING Brown 2 lb ea grnd sirloin and porterhouse cubes 3-5 min til done. Set aside. Saute 1/2 stick butter, lb fresh mushrooms 1/2 tsp ea pepper/cayenne/garlic salt, 2 tsp ea Worc/Tabasco, cups red wine, 3 chp gar/cl. Add 2 bunches chp green onions, can diced tomatoes, chp whole green/red bell pepper, canned green chiles, Serranos, chipotles, all diced, 4 diced habaneros (or omit for tamer dish). Simmer/stir w/ meat 2-3 hours.

ASSMBLY Fill flour tortillas w/ meat/sautéed veg. Rollup into burrito. Bake in 9x13 glass baker 5-6 min.

Plate burritos, smother w/ chili.

SERVE topped w/ sour cream, shredded cheese, lettuce, guacamole, chp tomatoes, slivered/canned jalapenos.

[V K Lee]

That onion soup mix is good for a Salisbury type burger. Fry burger after a dip in flour mixture. Drain excess grease, add dry soup (I use half an env for 2-3 patties. Add water/1/2 of that called for, allow to come to boil, stirring. Cook about 15 min and then add a cornstarch/water to thicken the soup mixture. The Hearty Lipton onion soup or reg onion soup works. Also, sometimes add some thinly sliced onion pieces to the burger berfore adding dry soup. A bit of Kitchen Bouquet is a plus as well. The gravy is great atop mashed potatoes or rice. The WARNING - this is a high sodium factor. So moderation, please.

[Liz]

The perfect drink w/ meatloaf. A pre-prandial libation.
Or get happy while washing the meatloaf down your gullet.

METHOD In shaker, combine 3 oz best vodka (Ketel One),
3 tbsp pickle juice (best w/ McClure’s Spicy Pickle Juice), ice.

Strain into chilled martini glass.

SERVE garnished w/ pickle spear.

[Liz]

Italian meatloaf patted out thin and layered with ham slices and mozzarella, then rolled up.........or stuffed with spinach, onions, and cheese.

Yummy....these are fantastic variations.

Maybe serve w/ fragrant homemade basil tomato sauce?

[Jamestown1630]

The stuffed mushrooms sound great!

I would never trust myself to differentiate safe mushrooms from poison ones ;-)

-JT

[RginTN]

wonder if it was butter rolls. Biscuit dough spread in the pan or rolled up and sliced like cinnamon rolls, then baked in a sauce of milk and sugar. The sauce gets thick almost like a pouring custard. I will look for the recipe, my grandmother used to make it when I was young and I may have her recipe. You could try searching online for old fashioned butter rolls.

---

I think thats a version of it.
The butterbread desert I’ve had isn’t rolled like cinnamon rolls tho.

[Jamestown1630]

When I saw your post, I mentioned to my husband that we never see ‘meatloaf mix’ in the stores here anymore. If you want it down here, you have to buy the parts separately.

(Or maybe I should widen my horizon of shopping venues...)

-JT

[miss marmelstein]

Probably a decision by the meatpacking companies to make you pay more money. I’m seeing less of it as well.

[greeneyes]

That sounds very tasty. I’m going to try that.

I like meat loaf - never eat it from a restaurant though.

I’m still trying to figure out something to use besides bread crumbs, though to make it low carb.

[Jamestown1630]

My low-carb Husband Person says: “Pork rinds are your friend!”

-JT

[Jamestown1630]

Perhaps; but I think it has more to do with the fact that there’s really not much butchering done in modern supermarkets.

I think I’ve mentioned previously on another ping-list that I used to be able to go to the grocery, ask for some suet (to make my bird-feeding cakes) and the butcher would give me a pound of it for pennies. But they don’t do that stuff in the stores anymore. The most the meat department in local supermarkets will do, is grind up the plastic-covered meat for you; or chop the plastic-covered whole fowl into pieces. Butchering has been ‘removed from the neighborhood’.

-JT

[greeneyes]

That’s a fact! I have been using those every day. However, when I tried them in frito pie it didn’t work out so well. Soggy Rinds are a no go for texture.

Now I make up the pie ingredients and just use the rinds to scoop it up. Much better - no time to make a soggy glump of yuk.

[bgill]

For LC you have to eliminate the bread/crackers/oats/rice. It’s not as good LC. Fashion a rack of sorts from foil so that the fat can drain off since there’s nothing to soak it up.

[Yaelle]

There is only one meatloaf recipe I have ever liked and I don’t just like it, I love it. Paul Prudhomme’s. I make it a bit less spicy and of course I make it kosher ( Easy, just use all beef and no pork, use water instead of the milk and coconut oil instead of the butter).

This is the BEST meatloaf ever.

http://www.food.com/recipe/paul-prudhommes-cajun-meat-loaf-412134

[SaraJohnson]

Wow! That looks good. Thanks!

[SaraJohnson]

Wow! That looks good. Thanks!

[greeneyes]

For now, but somewhere, there’s got to be something that helps. LOL