Meatloaf
Meatloaf is a dish of ground meat that has been mixed with other ingredients and formed into the shape of a loaf, then baked or smoked. The final shape is either hand-formed on a baking tray or pan-formed by cooking it in a loaf pan. It is usually made with ground beef, although ground lamb, pork, veal, venison, poultry and seafood are also used, sometimes in combination. Vegetarian adaptations may use imitation meat or pulses.
The cooked loaf can be sliced like a loaf of bread to make individual portions. Because the dish can become dry, various techniques exist to keep the dish moist, like covering it with sauce, or wrapping it, or using moisture-enhancing ingredients in the mixture, filling it with fatty meats, rich cheeses, or vegetables.
History
Meatloaf of minced meat was mentioned in the Roman cookery collection Apicius as early as the 5th century. Meatloaf is a traditional German, Scandinavian and Belgian dish, and it is a cousin to the Dutch meatball. American meatloaf has its origins in scrapple, a mixture of ground pork and cornmeal served by German-Americans in Pennsylvania since colonial times. Meatloaf in the contemporary American sense did not appear in cookbooks until the late 19th century.National variations
Austria
The Austrian version of meatloaf is called Faschierter Braten. Most of the time it is not filled, but it is wrapped in ham before baking it. Often it is served with mashed potatoes or with sauce cumberland.Bangladesh
The Bangladeshi version of meatloaf is called Mangsher loaf. The dish has started to become popular after 2010 when Sauslys started to cater to an urban crowd.Belgium
The Belgian version of meatloaf is called vleesbrood, however fricandon is also used to refer to it in Dutch. In French, they call it pain de viande. It is usually served warm and can then be served with various sauces, but can also be eaten cold with a loaf of bread.Bulgaria
Rulo Stefani. The Bulgarian rulo Stefani meatloaf is similar to the Hungarian Stefánia meatloaf, with hard-boiled eggs, and sometimes with chopped carrots and pickled gherkins in the middle.Chile
Chilean meatloaf, known as Asado Aleman is a staple of southern Chilean cuisine, especially in areas known for having been influenced by the arrival of German colonizers during the 18th and 19th century. The most common recipe nowadays consists of ground beef, carrots, sausages, boiled eggs and breadcrumbs, cooked in the oven and normally served with a side-dish of mashed potatoes or rice.Cuba
The Cuban version of meatloaf is called pulpeta. It is made with ground beef and ground ham, and stuffed with hard boiled eggs, and it is cooked on the stovetop. The dish was brought to public attention, albeit mistakenly referred to as a sausage, in the second episode of the third season of The Cosby Show, entitled "Food for Thought".Czech Republic
In the Czech Republic, meatloaf is referred to as sekaná. It is optional to put hard boiled eggs, gherkins, or wienerwurst inside.Denmark
Danish meatloaf is called forloren hare 'mock hare' or farsbrød 'ground-meat bread' and is usually made from a mixture of ground pork and beef with strips of bacon or cubed bacon on top. It is served with boiled or mashed potatoes and brown gravy sweetened with red currant jam.Finland
Finnish meatloaf is called lihamureke. It is completely based on the basic meatball recipe. The only spices used are salt and pepper. It is not customary to stuff lihamureke with anything. The usual side dish is mashed potatoes, and lihamureke is usually served with brown sauce.Germany
In Germany, meatloaf is referred to as Hackbraten, Faschierter Braten or Falscher Hase 'mock hare'. In some regions it often has boiled eggs inside.Greece
In Greece, meatloaf is referred to as rolo and it is usually filled with hard boiled eggs, although several other variations exist.Hungary
Stefania meatloaf or Stefania slices are a type of Hungarian long meatloaf baked in a loaf pan, with 3 hard boiled eggs in the middle, making decorative white and yellow rings in the middle of the slices.Indonesia
Indonesian version of meatloaf is using sweet soy sauce as seasoning, then baked or smoked. It is usually served with sambals.Italy
In Italy, meatloaf is called polpettone and can be filled with eggs, ham and cheese, and other ingredients.Jewish cuisine
In Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine, meatloaf is called Klops and can be served cold or hot. It is sometimes filled with whole boiled eggs. The name presumably comes from the German Klops 'meatball'.Lebanon
In Lebanon, kibbeh can sometimes be formed in a loaf and baked. It is sometimes made from raw meat.North Macedonia
Rolat is a similar dish to the chiefly Arab, though also Persian and South-Asian, kofta. Ground beef is rolled and cooked until brown. It can be cooked with vegetables and various sauces.Mexico
It is known as albondigón and has a small size.Mongolia
Khuchmal is served with mashed potatoes cooked over the ground meat.Netherlands
The Dutch version of meatloaf is called gehaktbrood and can be eaten warm or cold. A mini-version of meatloaf called slavink is also served in the Netherlands.Philippines
Embutido is made of well-seasoned ground pork, raisins, minced carrots, sausages, and whole boiled eggs. The meat is molded into a roll with the sausages and hard boiled eggs set in the middle. Another variation of the dish involves wrapping the meatloaf with pork crow or mesentery. It is then wrapped in aluminum foil and steamed for an hour. The cooked embutido may be stored in freezers. It is usually served fried and sliced for breakfast.Embutido is sometimes confused with morcón, due to their similarity in appearance. However morcón is a beef roulade, not a meatloaf.
Hardinera is a Filipino meatloaf made with diced or ground pork topped with sliced hard-boiled eggs, pineapples, carrots, bell peppers, peas, tomatoes, and raisins, among others.
Poland
Called pieczeń rzymska or klops is made of ground pork and/or beef, onions and garlic, with obligatory hard boiled egg inside.Puerto Rico
In Puerto Rican cuisine, meatloaf is known as albondigón or butifarrón al horno. Puerto Rican style meatloaf is made with ground pork, beef, turkey, adobo, worcestershire sauce, milk, ketchup, potatoes, red beans, breadcrumb, parsley, with a hard-boiled egg in the middle.Romania
In Romanian cuisine, there is a meatloaf dish called drob, similar to other minced meat dishes in the region like the Bulgarian Rulo Stefani or the Hungarian Stefánia meatloaf, the major difference being that it is always made with lamb organs and the hard boiled eggs in the centre of the drob are optional.Sweden
Swedish meatloaf is called köttfärslimpa and is usually made from a mixture of ground pork and beef. It is served with boiled or mashed potatoes, brown sauce gravy, often made from the meat juice that comes from cooking the meatloaf, and lingonberry jam.It is also used and as a spread on sandwiches when thinly sliced.
Turkey
In the Turkish cuisine there is a version of meatloaf called dalyan köfte or rulo köfte; it is typically filled with carrots, peas, and whole boiled eggs.United Kingdom
In the UK there are regional pork meatloaf dishes known as haslet, which can be eaten cold or hot.United States
During the Great Depression, cooking meatloaf was a way for families to stretch the food budget by using an inexpensive type of meat and leftover ingredients. Along with spices, it was popular to add cereal grains, bread or saltine crackers to the meatloaf to add bulk and stretch the meat. This tradition of additions still lives on, but with new goals: primarily, producing a lower-fat dish with superior binding and consistency.American-style meatloaf is typically eaten with some kind of sauce or relish, often applied before cooking. Many recipes call for a pasta sauce or tomato sauce to be poured over the loaf, which forms a crust during baking. One of these tomato-based sauces may be substituted with a simple brown or onion gravy, or a can of cream of mushroom soup, but the meatloaf is prepared in a similar manner. Barbecue sauce, tomato ketchup, or a mixture of ketchup and prepared mustard may also be used. This style of meatloaf may be topped with a "meatloaf sauce" consisting of ketchup and brown sugar. Another variety of meatloaf, in the same style, is prepared by "frosting" the loaf with mashed potatoes, drizzling a small amount of butter over the top, and then browning it in the oven.
American-style meatloaf is normally served warm, as part of the main course, but it can also be sliced as a cold cut. This dish can be considered a typical comfort food in the US, and so it is served in many diners and restaurants. In a 2007 poll by Good Housekeeping, meatloaf was the seventh-favorite dish of Americans.