The Best All Beef Meatloaf! Hands Down!

Surprise ingredient that makes your meatloaf moist and luxurious.

This is the best all beef meatloaf and it should be in your rotation. Tired of having to buy three types of ground meat. This recipe can easily be Kosher.

Brief History

Meat loaf goes back to 5th century Rome. Almost all countries have some version of a meat loaf. It looks like is appeared in the United States in the late 1800’s as a breakfast food and becoming a staple during the Great Depression of the 1930’s. It is now a comfort classic.

You Need A Great Meatloaf In Your Repertoire

Meatloaf is classic American comfort food. It sometimes gets a bad rap because there are so many bad versions of meatloaf out there. Follow this easy recipe and you will never make a bad meatloaf. I like this meatloaf recipe so much I put it on my corporate catering menu and I even put it on the menu of my upscale restaurant where it got a thumbs up from the Washington.

“I usually buy the ground beef on sale and the cost per serving comes out to less than $1.00 per serving”

Unflavored Gelatin Is The Trick For The Best All Beef Meatloaf

This is the secret ingredient to making a moist, velvety best all beef meatloaf. Have you noticed that meat loaf mixes usually contain ground veal or ground pork or both. They supply the moistness and softness. Gelatin will do the same thing, after all gelatin is derived from the collagen in animal parts.

Since most commercial gelatin contains pork if you have dietary restiction make sure you buy Kosher or Halal gelatin.

The Recipe- Simple Is Better- Some Simple Rules

General Rules for One Pound Ground Beef

• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup of milk or stock for Kosher
• 1/2 tsp unflavored gelatin
• 1 tsp kosher salt (use a little less if your using table salt)
• 1/2 cup panko bread crumb (use panko it makes the meatloaf lighter)
• 1/2 cup chopped onion sautéed
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• black pepper to taste I use 1/2 tsp.

The rest of the seasoning are up to you. You may want a Cajun twist, or Italian twist. We will address that later but this recipe is simple and my favorite and the seasoning is basically rosemary and we add a little ketchup and red bell pepper.

Let’s Make This Great Easy Recipe

This recipe is for two pounds of ground beef but you can scale it up just read the general rules above.

Preheat oven to 350. Start by mixing 1 tsp gelatin with 1/2 cup of milk. Sautee 1 cup of chopped onion, 1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper, and 4 cloves of garlic until soft. Set aside to cool.

Add 2 beaten eggs, 1 cup of panko, 2 tsp kosher salt, 1 tsp black pepper, 2 tbsp ketchup, and 2 tsp finely minced fresh rosemary to the gelatin/milk mixture. Mix well.

Add the cooled vegetables then 2 pound of 80/20 ground beef. Mix it and knead it until it is uniform.

Loaf Pan Or Free Form

Loaf Pan!!!!!

First, I never understood the free form argument! Sorry! Burnt bread crumbs and some type of burnt/caramelized sauce, plus a drier interior. I think crust people may not have eaten a great meatloaf but then I like deep fried chicken better than pan fried, it has a lighter less bitter breading.

The main argument I hear against the loaf pan is it makes a greasy meatloaf. Look at the photo below, not greasy at all. Sure there will be some grease in the pan but so what it was rendered from the meatloaf.

Pan it up!

I put the meat mixture in a standard loaf pan 8 1/2 by 4 1/2 by 2 1/2. Push it in the pan and spread it out evenly. Push it down to make sure the air bubbles are out of it, then spank it just to make sure.

Put it in the 350 oven on the middle rack uncovered.

Let It Cool

Cook the meatloaf until you get a temperature of 165 degrees in the center and before you dream of cutting it let it rest. I like to cook it a day in advance and let it cool overnight so I get a nice clean cut plus the flavor develops.

Make your favorite gravy or sauce with stock or bouillon. Reheat the slices in the gravy or grill or sauté it. I like to serve the meatloaf with gravy and mashed potatoes. Keep it simple.

Make It You Own

This is a basic recipe that you can customize, make it Cajun, Italian, add wine, but just make sure you use gelatin.

Try These!!!

Use this gelatin trick to make amazing super easy all beef meatballs.

Try this other ground beef comfort food Polish Stuffed Cabbage