Classic Meatloaf

History of Meatloaf:
MODERN AMERICAN MEATLOAF  The raw, ground meat commonly used to make today's American meat loaf has a humbler heritage. In the 19th century, we know the Industrial Revolution made it possible for ground meat be manufactured and sold to the public at a very low cost. At first, many Americans were slow to purchase raw ground meat products and generally regarded them with suspicion. Lack of reliable home refrigeration may have played into this decision. Cooks continued to mince their meat (often already cooked, as was the practice for centuries) by hand. Companies selling meat grinders to home consumers at the turn of the century endeavored to change this practice by provided recipe books to promote their products. Some of these recipes were simple, others quite creative. A late 19th century recipe for meat porcupine instructs the cook to press her ground meat into an animal-type shape mold and decorate it with pieces of bacon to achieve the desired effect. Eventually, the American public began incorporating ground meat into family meals. 
Since that time, meat loaf variations have been introduced and promoted by women's magazines, cookbooks, fairs, food manufacturers, diners and family-style restaurants. Meat loaf & gravy [often paired with mashed potatoes and canned green beans ] was very popular in the 1950s. This meal is still considered by some to be the penultimate comfort food. Did you know that "frosted meatloaf" is ground beef covered with mashed potatoes? Perhaps this recipe is a distant relative of shepherd's pie. 
Was meat loaf too homely a recipe to make American cookbooks published in the nineteenth century or earlier?...I find no meat loaves in American cookbooks before the 1880s; these were primarily veal loaves (a more economical meat early on than beef) and altogether different from the meal loaves so familiar today...Sarah Tyson Rorer offers a slightly more elaborate veal loaf in Mrs. Rorer's Philadelphia Cook Book [1886] along with something called "Cannelon," which is clearly the precursor of meat loaf as we know it today...Cannelons appear in cookbooks right into the 1920s, although by this time meat loaves were outnumbering them. Were meat loaves slow to come because of the lack of meat grinders? Or was it because of unreliable refrigeration (ground raw meat is extremely perishable)? Possibly a bit of both, but I can't say for sure... Though simple loaves of chopped meat may have been made during America's infancy and adolescence, only in the twentieth century did meat loaves truly arrive. And, yes, many of them did come out of big food company test kitchens. Like it or not."

Marie's Meatloaf
Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pounds ground Beef 
• 1 Egg
• 1 cup Sour Cream
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1 (1 ounce) package dry Onion Soup mix
• 1/2 cup Katsup
• 1 1/2 cups Italian-style dried Bread Crumbs
• 2 Celery stalk,  cook and chopped
• 1/3 cup Green Bell Pepper, cook and chopped
• 1 small Onion, cook and chopped * option
• 2 Garlic Cloves, chopped
• 1/2 Teaspoon dried Thyme 
• Kosher Salt and Black Pepper to taste
• 2 Tablespoon Olive Oil

• Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).  Using small frying pan add oil and cook celery, bell pepper and onion until tender; about 4 minutes - let cool.
  2. In a large bowl, combine the beef, egg, sour cream, garlic, celery, thyme, salt, pepper and Worcestershire sauce. Mix in soup mix, and bread crumbs. Form mixture into a loaf, spoon katsup on top of the meatloaf and place in a 9x5 inch loaf pan. Cover with foil.
  3. Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 45 minutes. Remove foil and continue baking for another 10 to 15 minutes. Let stand 5 to 10 minutes before serving for easier slicing.  *Be sure to set aside some of the dripping to make an gravy.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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