Meatloaf
Ingredients
- 3 oz croutons (garlic-flavored)
- 1/4 t ground black pepper
- 1/4 t cayenne pepper
- 1/2 t chili powder
- 1/2 t dried thyme
- 1/4 onion (roughly chopped)
- 1/2 carrot (peeled and broken)
- 1/4 red bell pepper (seeded)
- 9 oz ground chuck (the fattiest grind of beef available to you)
- 9 oz ground sirloin (the leanest grind of beef available to you)
- 3/4 t salt (coarse)
- 1/2 egg (or 1 egg yolk)
- For the glaze:
- 1/4 c ketchup
- 1/2 t ground cumin
- 1/4 t Worcestershire sauce
- 1/4 t hot pepper sauce
- 1/2 t honey
Method
Heat oven to 325F.
In a food processor bowl, combine croutons, black pepper, cayenne pepper, chili powder, and thyme. Pulse until the mixture is of a fine texture. Place this mixture into a large bowl. Combine the onion, carrot, garlic, and red pepper in the food processor bowl. Pulse until the mixture is finely chopped, but not pureed. Combine the vegetable mixture, ground sirloin, and ground chuck with the bread crumb mixture. Season the meat mixture with the kosher salt. Add the egg and combine thoroughly, but avoid squeezing the meat.
Pack this mixture into a 10-inch loaf pan to mold the shape of the meatloaf. Onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet, turn the meatloaf out of the pan onto the center of the tray. Insert a temperature probe at a 45 degree angle into the top of the meatloaf. Avoid touching the bottom of the tray with the probe. Set the probe for 155 degrees.
Combine the ketchup, cumin, Worcestershire sauce, hot pepper sauce, and honey. Brush the glaze onto the meatloaf after it has been cooking for about 10 minutes.
Notes
SJ Note 7 Oct 2010: This is excellent! Moist, delicious. I've reduced the honey to 1/3 in this copy, as Chris found the glaze too sweet; our ground beef doesn't come with the fat content labelled, which is what Alton Brown was after, so I just got the fattiest and the leanest ground beef available to me (half of each), and it worked out well. We used our usual croutons ( http://myst.starforge.co.uk/index.cgi?block=3&op=view&id=95 ) for this. I've noted the time as best as I can remember; I forgot to keep track while we were cooking it, but it took quite awhile to cook. This is great - a definite keeper!