Meatloaf has always been a comfort food for me. Even when it was my stepmom making it from some grocery store kit and fatty corn fed hamburger it was still one of the few things I looked forward to eating.
Then when I discovered Market Street Meatloaf in a Silver Palate Cookbook as a young adult I was hooked. I’ve been tweaking this recipe for twenty some years now and it never fails to please. I like it better than any meatloaf I’ve eaten in a restaurant and even better than the Cook’s Illustrated meatloaf – where they try a recipe every which way, vote on it and make the ultimate of any given thing.
Tonight’s meatloaf meal was even more satisfying when I realized that most the entire meal came from my hands. I grew the carrots, onions, garlic, celery, red pepper, baked the bread from local grains for the breadcrumbs, made the ketsup and bought local grass fed beef, eggs and apple cider vinegar. The only thing not local was the brown sugar that went into the glaze and the spices. Even the mashed garlic potatoes and creamed kale were mine. The cream was from Everett. The blackberries for the cobbler were picked at Magnussen Park and the ice cream once again made from local eggs and cream from Everett.
You know when you can make a meal of that scale and have 95% or more of all the ingredients from local sources, let alone be able to trace most every ingredient in the meal, that you have reached a certain level of sustainability.
I celebrated by washing it down with a bottle of Columbia Valley Sinner’s Punch from the Giant Wine Company in Woodinville. Sweet victory.
As I settle into fall and see the end to my canning days, my pantry full of staples, bins full of local grains and the freezer filling with local pastured meat and poultry, I have a serene sense of food security. And it’s nice to know that most of the year’s groceries are paid for and ready to eat from the pantry or harvest from the garden.
My Market Street Meatloaf
Sautee in 2 tablespoons butter:
1/2 cup diced carrots
1/4 cup diced celery
1 large onion
1/4 cup red or green pepper (or roasted pepper out of season)
While sauteeing mix together:
1/2 cup ketsup
1/2 cup 1/2 and 1/2 or cream from the top of your raw milk
3 eggs
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg (or kryddpepper if you have it)
2-3 chopped cloves of roasted garlic from your freezer (if you only have raw then sautee with the veggies)
Place in large mixing bowl:
2 pounds grassfed hamburger
1 pound pork or chicken sausage (Italian sausage is ok but will change the flavor)
Combine sauteed veggies, liquids and spices with 3/4 – 1 cup of whole wheat bread crumbs and meat.
Form a free standing loaf in a small lasagna pan. Place that into a larger lasagna pan and fill the outer pan with hot water halfway up the sides of the smaller, inner pan.
Mix 1/2 cup ketsup with 2 tablespoons of brown sugar and 2 teaspoons of Rockridge Orchard apple cider vinegar. Spread over the meatloaf and bake at 375 until it reaches an internal temperature of 175 farenheit. Immediately drain any fat from the pan.
Like most meatloaves, this tastes even better the second day and makes stellar meatloaf sandwiches. This does make quite a bit of meatloaf but it freezes beautifully. You could even form two smaller loaves and freeze one but I just freeze any extra slices. They don’t last long in my household!
