The ultimate American comfort food: how to make meatloaf

Meatloaf has some obstacles to overcome: it has an unprepossessing appearance, and an uninspiring, slightly off-putting name, which it shares with the famous singer. And it wasn’t a compliment when it was given to him: the singer’s father took one look at his newborn son and said he looked like ‘nine pounds of ground chuck’, before persuading the hospital staff to put the name ‘Meat’ on his crib (which is real commitment to a joke).

I can’t speak for baby Meat Loaf, but when it comes to the dish, the name is at least an extremely accurate description. Meatloaf is made up of ground meat (often beef, sometimes pork, occasionally veal, or a mixture thereof), cut with bread or other carbs, and bound together with egg. The whole thing is generously seasoned, before being shaped into a loaf, glazed, and baked either freestyle or in a loaf tin. It’s a little like a hamburger, a little like a giant meatball, but is served in thick slices, like a loaf of bread.

There are meatloaves all over the world and across history: in De re coquinaria, the Roman cookbook, the author Apicius has a recipe for a patty made of chopped meat mixed with wine-soaked bread, pine nuts and spices. Almost every country has its own version of a baked ground meatloaf (many, interestingly, have whole boiled eggs inside them): Sweden has köttfärslimpa, the Philippines have embutido, the Czech Republic call it sekana. Unusually, it’s never quite caught on over here in the UK, although haslet, a minced pork mixture cooked in a loaf tin and sliced, is popular in its home county of Lincolnshire. But it’s America that has truly taken the meatloaf to its heart.

The ‘original’ American meatloaf came from Pennsylvanian Dutch settlers in the 18th century, who had a dish called scrapple, which was often served for breakfast.