I promised details. I have details. But first, some stuff I made a while ago that I didn't post.
I made significantly more of these than I could eat, but they were tasty. The shrimp were covered in garlic pepper before cooking. They're definitely better for sharing, but I think literally everyone I know either doesn't eat bacon, doesn't eat shrimp, or doesn't eat either.
Ground beef and quinoa mix together really well. This was a bowl of deliciousness.
And now,
The Meatloaf. I have the full process, though I haven't been hospitalized yet so I can't fulfill that part. I'm sure it's just taking a while to clog my arteries; I'll edit the surgery pics into this post when it happens.
First I mixed together all the loaf ingredients. This contained two pounds of beef, 1 and 1/3 cups of cracker crumbs (breadcrumbs suck), two eggs, a little over a cup of milk, and two small pan-fried shredded potatoes. I also added spices, but not enough (especially salt). It takes a lot of seasoning to flavor two pounds of meat I guess.
Frying the potatoes wasn't the best idea as they tried to glob up into a hash brown, so I think I'll bake them next time. I feel like I need to pre-cook them a bit or they'll be undercooked when the meat is done, but I might just be paranoid.
Anyway, I pressed the meat out into this rectangle shape that's about an inch thick.
Rolling it up was really hard. It involved grabbing it by the parchment paper (if I grabbed the beef my fingers just squished through), rolling it up, and peeling the parchment paper off before it got rolled into the meat. The meat really wanted to stick to the paper, though. I think next time I'll dust the paper with paprika or brown sugar first. Flour would probably work too, but that's the bland choice.
Also, some of you might see the fatal error here. I did not.
It's ready to go in the oven! I put it in at 350F for an hour and twenty minutes, taking it out at 20/40/60 minutes to brush the bacon with more maple syrup. I really like maple syrup.
All the cheese melted out because I left the ends open! If you try this at home, save some ground beef to seal in your cheese. It will save your life.
I usually put in more vegetables than this (chopped onion at least) but I was accommodating my carnivore roommate. The next one will have potatoes, carrots, onions, and whatever else I can think of that sounds good.
Next time I'll also avoid rolling it into a spiral shape. The ground beef at the center absorbed all the cheese oil or cooked differently or something, and the texture seems slightly off because of it. Beef on the outside, ham/cheese on the inside seems like the right choice.
This wasn't my best meatloaf, but I learned a lot here. The next one probably will be.
Author
Topic: Food Thread: Kitchen Chemistry (Read 578861 times)