onday is meatloaf day at Watertown's Deluxe Town Diner. It makes sense to start the week with one of America's most comforting, satisfying, unpretentious dishes.
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Appropriate on diner menus and in home kitchens, meatloaf is something most of us were raised on. For some, the preference is for the family recipe from which the cook doesn't stray. More adventurous types throw in chopped parsnips one time, grated Parmesan cheese the next, chili peppers or Cajun seasonings when the mood strikes. Meatloaf is infinitely adaptable - and forgiving.
Most loaves have a few things in common. You take a mixture of ground meat and lighten it with fresh bread crumbs, then bind it with a beaten egg. Add seasonings, with wooden spoon or your hands, and shape it. Occasionally this can be done in a loaf pan, but it's most often shaped into a free-form oval or rectangular mound in a large baking dish. Then, coat the loaf with ketchup, tomato sauce, bacon, or anything to keep it moist as it bakes.
''A great meatloaf starts with good-quality ground beef,'' says Town Diner owner Don Levy. Using only one kind of meat simplifies things, he says, though old-fashioned loaves used beef, pork, and veal. Levy's seasonings include tomato paste, onion, garlic powder, oregano, and diced carrots (and sometimes turnips, which provide a little heat). The top is coated with ketchup to make it crusty. The accompaniment, he says, is obvious: ''Great meatloaf must be served with great mashed potatoes.'' Gravy is optional.
Levy's meatloaf seems to be the standard these days, with slight variations around town. Michael Aplin, owner of Geoffrey's Cafe-Bar in the South End, makes a similar loaf, using ketchup inside and out. Tons of it, he says (eight cups in a 10-pound loaf, eight cups spread on top). ''I've tasted many meatloaves, some heavily spiced, some with chopped vegetables, and I prefer plain old-fashioned meatloaf the way my mom made it,'' says Aplin, who was raised in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
Mom's meatloaf is Wayne Tyler's goal, too. The owner of Ed's Place in Natick, a breakfast and lunch restaurant, offers meatloaf as a special every other week. ''The secret to a great meatloaf is not to use too much bread because it makes the loaf dry,'' says Tyler. He adds garlic powder, a 12-ounce bottle of ketchup, and 21/2 cups of Parmesan cheese (the stuff in the green cardboard can) to about seven pounds of 90 percent lean ground beef. To that amount, he adds seven eggs, minimal bread crumbs (1 cup), and, yes, the ubiquitous ketchup is poured all over the loaf to keep the juices in.
While meatloaf will never replace hamburgers as America's favorite food, it has increased in popularity recently. ''Meatloaf has made a comeback in the last few years,'' says Bill Bartley, manager of Cambridge's popular Mr. & Mrs. Bartley's Burger Cottage. Bartley, son of the founders, adds that meatloaf is a small entry on the 36-burger menu, but customers can order it for lunch and dinner, either hot or cold. Cold, it's traditionally served on white bread with relish. Hot, it comes with the requisite - so says Mr. Bartley senior - homemade garlic mashed potatoes and pureed squash.
Bartley's meatloaf is particularly moist because it is covered with lettuce leaves while it bakes (the outer leaves that are typically thrown away). Bartley's has done that since someone recommended it as a way to prevent the top from burning.
Although most meatloaf in this region is made entirely of ground beef, the dishes popular 50 years ago were always a mixture. James Beard, the eminent food observer, wrote that beef, pork, and veal made the most delicious loaf. In ''The New James Beard'' (1981), he advised against baking meatloaf in a loaf pan because it becomes too moist from all the fat in the meat. That advice came before consumers could buy 90 percent lean beef, however.
Ground meat mixtures were designed to use up scraps of meat, and bread crumbs were added to stretch the mixture into a meal. Like many dishes invented out of necessity, meatloaf is now the ultimate comfort food.
And while most cooks will tell you that experimenting is fine, be careful you don't turn it into something it's not. Meatloaf shouldn't be fancy or weird. It should remind us of home, of Mom, or of the local diner.
Deluxe Town Diner meatloaf
Serves 6 to 8
2 1/2 pounds (85 percent lean) ground beef
2 medium carrots (or turnips, beets, or parsnips), coarsely chopped
1 can (6 ounces) tomato paste
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 cup fresh bread crumbs
2 eggs
1/2 tablespoon garlic powder
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 tablespoon dried oregano
1/2 cup ketchup
1. Set the oven at 400 degrees. Have on hand a 12-inch baking dish.
2. In a large bowl, combine the beef, carrots (or turnips, beets, or parsnips), tomato paste, onion, bread crumbs, eggs, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and oregano. Mix well.
3. Place the meat mixture in the dish and shape it into a mound that is about 2 1/2 inches high and 11 inches long.
4. Cover the dish tightly with foil and bake it for 30 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees, remove the foil, and brush the top of the loaf all over with ketchup. Bake, uncovered, for about 30 minutes more or until a meat thermometer inserted into the center of the meat registers 165 degrees. Tilt the pan to spoon out the fat. Cut into thick slices and serve at once with mashed potatoes.
From Deluxe Town Diner
