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Simple Meat Loaf

Source of Recipe

Master Chef Don Easley


Recipe Introduction

In this recipe the egg acts as a cementing agent that binds all the ingredients together. Otherwise, you would just have a big hamburger. The catsup top coat bakes into a nice homey congealed sauce and the bacon adds flavor plus it is very tasty and it is very hard not to just pick it all off the top and eat it before the dish gets to the table. Do not use extremely lean ground beef for this recipe since lean beef will dry out and not be as tasty in this meat loaf recipe.

List of Ingredients

2 pound ground beef
1 medium onion, diced
1 egg
2 slices of sandwich bread, torn up into crumbs
2-3 slices of bacon, cut in half to make them shorter
Catsup
For Italian meatloaf variant you will need these additional ingredients:
4-5 slices deli cold cut ham
6-8 thin slices mozzarella cheese
Garlic Powder
Oregano



Recipe

Mix together the ground beef, onion, egg and bread crumbs in a large bowl together with a
For a traditional topping, add a couple of more squirts of catsup onto the top of the loaf and spread it around with the back of a spoon.
Then lay the half strips of bacon to cover the catsup and the loaf.
Put the loaf in a 350 degree oven for a little over an hour until done!
Take it out of the baking dish right away so that it does not soak up the grease released by the baking.
Let the loaf rest on a serving plate for five minutes or so – that will allow it to set for easier slicing.

For the Italian variant:
Add several pinches of oregano and garlic powder to the mix. Then lay out the mix on a hard surface and press and spread it out in a rectangle of about 16x11 inches.
Then place several slices of mozzarella cheese and deli cold cut ham in the middle of the rectangle and roll it all up like a sandwich wrap.
Be careful to use some extra ground beef to patch the outside parts where the cheese may show through or else when it bakes the cheese will all ooze out. Bake normally. Add a couple of slices of mozzarella cheese.
This becomes a great combo of melted meats and cheese.