Meatloaf's Big Makeover

This Will Make It Taste Good

I really love meatloaf, but I don't make it very often. It requires a little more pre-planning than I usually do on a weekday, and on the weekends my husband often takes over the main course duties on the smoker or the grill. There's also the fact that he expects gravy with meatloaf, and I expect a ketchup-like glaze, so one of us is always a little disappointed.

This recipe is a fancier version of my idea of meatloaf; there's no ketchup involved, but there is a sweet and tangy glaze that looks a lot like ketchup, but it's made entirely from scratch (in a food processor!) And it uses the Herbdacious we made back when our basil plants were overflowing (https://cookwithheather.com/This-Will-Make-It-Taste-Good-Herbdacious/) in the meatloaf itself, along with kalamata olives and a bit of onion.

I'm not 100% pleased with the texture I achieved (it fell apart a lot), but it tasted great! I would have loved a pool of extra sauce, so next time I would probably go lighter on the glaze and maybe warm and reduce the leftover on the stove to serve with it. It also makes an incredible meatloaf sandwich!

I was able to find the full recipe online here: https://www.thedailybeast.com/make-star-chef-vivian-howards-crave-worthy-meatloaf-from-her-book-this-will-make-it-taste-good

Captions

[00:00]: [Music]
[00:04]: hello and welcome to cooking the books
[00:06]: with Heather today we're going to be
[00:08]: using something we've already made from
[00:11]: Vivian Howard's cookbook this will make
[00:13]: it taste good and we're going to be
[00:14]: making what she calls Meatloaf's big
[00:17]: makeover
[00:18]: this uses herb dishes which I will link
[00:22]: up here that we've already made it's
[00:24]: kind of like a pesto kind of like a
[00:26]: chimichurri it's got garlic confit in it
[00:29]: it's really delicious it's a good way to
[00:31]: save some basil for the rest of the year
[00:35]: when you're when it's going
[00:38]: to seed it's going
[00:41]: mine is currently sort of declining for
[00:44]: sure because it's gotten a little cool
[00:46]: here recently
[00:47]: anyway so that's why we're gonna so we
[00:49]: made another big batch and we're gonna
[00:51]: use that
[00:53]: um the very first thing we have to do
[00:55]: well first we preheated our oven to 325
[00:59]: so that's ready for us and she says to
[01:01]: use a 10 or 12 inch Skillet and
[01:05]: we're going to just sweat these onions
[01:08]: she says about 10 minutes over medium
[01:11]: heat we don't we're not looking for
[01:13]: color we're just looking for soft and
[01:15]: translucent so
[01:17]: I'm not going to show you that that's
[01:19]: pretty boring just going to put this pan
[01:21]: with a little bit of olive oil in it I
[01:23]: didn't measure this time because it does
[01:25]: really
[01:26]: really much
[01:26]: um just don't put a ton in
[01:29]: um and we're gonna cook the onions and
[01:31]: I'll let you know how long they take be
[01:33]: right back I also forgot to mention
[01:35]: we're putting a little bit of the salt
[01:36]: not all of the salt for the recipe but
[01:38]: uh some salt in with those onions while
[01:42]: we sweat them
[01:45]: our onions are basically doing nothing
[01:48]: because it's taking them a while to
[01:50]: start to cook but while the onions are
[01:54]: sweating we're going to be making a
[01:55]: sauce for the top of the the meatloaf
[01:58]: this is not a ketchup based sauce but it
[02:00]: is in that vein so
[02:04]: all of the ingredients here
[02:06]: and we're going to be making it in
[02:09]: the uh
[02:12]: in the food processor
[02:15]: there we go
[02:17]: so
[02:19]: the first ingredient is some
[02:23]: sun-dried tomatoes in oil in extra
[02:27]: virgin olive oil and we're going to just
[02:30]: dump all of that in here
[02:33]: with the oil and everything
[02:37]: so now we have a jar of
[02:41]: roasted
[02:42]: red peppers and I really appreciate I'm
[02:45]: having a hard time open this I really
[02:47]: appreciate her including the size jars
[02:50]: to use I also really appreciate that I'm
[02:52]: not roasting these Peppers myself
[02:53]: because although it's pretty easy it's
[02:55]: just another step and more stuff to get
[02:57]: dirty and all of that so I like this
[02:60]: finally got it open we are going to
[03:02]: drain this though thus the strainer
[03:06]: strained as much of the liquid out as I
[03:08]: could but I'm not too concerned about it
[03:10]: being
[03:11]: or being a little bit of liquid in there
[03:12]: because
[03:13]: some sauce
[03:14]: so now we need some honey and sadly I've
[03:17]: already used my plunger thing that I
[03:20]: would use for this so I'm going to have
[03:21]: to use
[03:22]: my tablespoon
[03:24]: so I'm just gonna
[03:26]: I'm gonna get a small spatula to try to
[03:28]: get all the honey out
[03:30]: you can also sort of line it with oil
[03:32]: which helps but I didn't do that
[03:36]: I could have used it to measure the oil
[03:39]: for my pan but I didn't measure the oil
[03:42]: for my pants so
[04:03]: I think I've done the best I can with
[04:05]: getting the honey out of here so now I
[04:07]: need to add some red wine vinegar
[04:25]: there you go and some some more salt
[04:29]: from the recipe but not
[04:31]: yeah so we're doing the salt in three
[04:33]: different things but the amount is
[04:35]: listed all together but she does at
[04:36]: least list the amount in each thing so
[04:39]: now we're just going to blend this until
[04:42]: it is smooth
[04:47]: all right so this
[04:50]: is going to be the sauce that we put on
[04:52]: top
[04:54]: of our meatloaf
[04:56]: so it's a little like ketchup like a
[04:59]: ketchup face sauce because there is you
[05:02]: know their tomatoes and there's uh some
[05:05]: sugary stuff from the uh honey and then
[05:08]: there's sour from the vinegar so
[05:13]: then there's the red peppers that's good
[05:18]: okay
[05:20]: so that is it for this for this sauce
[05:23]: it's just Blended smooth
[05:27]: take this
[05:28]: set it over there set it aside because
[05:30]: we don't need to do anything else with
[05:32]: this and I'm going to put this away
[05:33]: onions are still cooking but we're going
[05:34]: to go ahead and get started on mixing up
[05:36]: the meat mixture We're Not Gonna mix it
[05:40]: all up together with the meat until that
[05:42]: is done though because we don't want to
[05:44]: overwork I mean
[05:46]: so we're going to make sort of a base
[05:48]: first for our meatloaf of our flavors
[05:51]: and uh all of that before we
[05:56]: um add the meat
[05:59]: so I've got some eggs
[06:01]: used as a binder
[06:04]: I'm just falling apart
[06:11]: there we go
[06:13]: okay we got our eggs
[06:17]: we've got some sour cream that's an
[06:19]: interesting ingredient that I was not
[06:20]: expecting in the meatloaf but
[06:24]: I mean I often put soak my bread crumbs
[06:28]: in milk
[06:29]: to write a little more moisture now we
[06:32]: have our herb dishes so I've measured
[06:34]: that out and we're just gonna
[06:36]: out of here
[06:39]: this is from a second batch that I made
[06:43]: made a big double batch which was
[06:45]: perfectly fine and now I'm going to add
[06:48]: some Worcestershire sauce
[06:51]: or Worcester sauce depending on where
[06:53]: you're from
[07:06]: here we go
[07:08]: [Music]
[07:10]: all right now we're going to add
[07:13]: something else that's chunky
[07:15]: but I'm going to go ahead and mix this
[07:17]: up before we whisk that in because I
[07:20]: don't think then we'll go through the
[07:21]: Whisk very well
[07:23]: and I want to get the eggs broken up
[07:41]: all right there we go
[07:43]: it doesn't matter how much we would
[07:44]: whisk this up honestly until we add the
[07:47]: meat it's not a problem I've got some
[07:49]: Kalamata olives that I have roughly
[07:52]: chopped they're pitted and chopped
[07:55]: so I'm just gonna mix those in here
[07:59]: there we go
[08:03]: [Music]
[08:06]: now that is ready when our onions are
[08:09]: ready
[08:11]: mix it all up
[08:12]: okay I'm gonna call these soft and
[08:15]: translucent I don't know how long
[08:16]: they've been cooking but my editor can
[08:19]: put that right here
[08:21]: so
[08:23]: I'm gonna let them cool just briefly so
[08:27]: they're not super hot when I add them to
[08:28]: my eggs and beef
[08:33]: um but the next thing I need to do is
[08:35]: add my
[08:38]: ground beef
[08:41]: um which this is a lot of ground beef
[08:44]: it's a mixture of two different fat
[08:48]: content because I sent my husband to the
[08:50]: store and that's what I got
[08:52]: um
[08:53]: he got a 90 10 and a 97 7 which is kind
[08:58]: of lean for what you usually do with
[08:60]: meatloaf but we are adding an awful lot
[09:02]: of fat to this with this sour cream and
[09:04]: the herb dishes which has a lot of olive
[09:06]: oil in it
[09:07]: so
[09:09]: I think it'll be fine
[09:10]: and then I'm going to put the rest of
[09:13]: the salt in the recipe I think that's
[09:16]: what she says just the rest of the salt
[09:18]: not she doesn't give you yeah the
[09:20]: remaining oh she does give you an uh the
[09:23]: the measurement here so that is nice
[09:30]: I wash this hand
[09:32]: but I was going to say she doesn't tell
[09:34]: you what that percent to get for the
[09:37]: ground beef so it's really up to you
[09:41]: um oh I was supposed to put the pepper
[09:43]: in with the onions so I'm going to do
[09:45]: that now
[09:51]: all right
[09:53]: those are still really hot I also have
[09:55]: some bread crumbs you could also use
[09:58]: crushed saltine crackers but I have a
[10:01]: bunch of breadcrumbs still
[10:03]: in my freezer
[10:05]: so
[10:07]: I'm going to use those
[10:09]: I'm gonna go ahead and put these on top
[10:13]: everything else is pretty cold
[10:17]: should be okay
[10:20]: she doesn't say you have to cool these
[10:21]: completely or anything before you add
[10:23]: them
[10:25]: and I'm not putting them directly into
[10:27]: eggs that have nothing else so I
[10:29]: shouldn't scramble eggs
[10:32]: okay there's that I'm gonna start using
[10:35]: by using a spatula because I just want
[10:38]: to sort of get everything broken up and
[10:40]: start to get it mixed together
[10:43]: um
[10:44]: she does say you want to treat this with
[10:47]: kid hands you want you don't want to
[10:52]: mix it and squeeze it and all of that
[10:55]: because then it will um
[10:58]: it will affect the texture so we're
[10:60]: gonna
[11:04]: smash it too much we're just going we're
[11:06]: not going to knead it we're just going
[11:08]: to try to get it mixed together to where
[11:11]: it looks like it's all one texture
[11:16]: mostly so I'm gonna use my hands in just
[11:19]: a second I just wanted to
[11:23]: get those onions not hot not so hot that
[11:27]: they would burn me
[11:29]: now that they've been mixed in with
[11:30]: everything else should be okay
[11:33]: all right so now I'm gonna
[11:42]: just try to get it all
[11:45]: mixed together so I don't have this
[11:49]: pockets of unseasoned
[11:53]: uh
[11:54]: ground beef
[11:57]: [Music]
[12:03]: seems like a very
[12:05]: fine line between
[12:07]: over mixing and under mixing here I
[12:10]: don't know I'm trying to be very gentle
[12:12]: with it
[12:15]: but I also don't want huge
[12:18]: pockets of
[12:21]: like I said unseasoned ground beef
[12:25]: all right
[12:29]: okay I'm not gonna bother washing my
[12:32]: hands but I am going to make a little
[12:33]: more room on my
[12:36]: work surface so I have a baking tray
[12:39]: that I have lined with
[12:42]: um
[12:43]: parchment paper she says you could also
[12:45]: use aluminum foil I like parchment I'm
[12:48]: just going to
[12:51]: whack that in here
[12:54]: top
[12:56]: this is a lot of meatloaf
[13:00]: to bother you and there we go
[13:06]: so
[13:08]: the goal now
[13:11]: is to form this into a loaf
[13:15]: approximately
[13:17]: three inches wide and three inches tall
[13:21]: and 12 inches long
[13:25]: which seems
[13:28]: kind of thin but
[13:39]: starting
[13:44]: but I think that is I think that's
[13:46]: good enough I think that's
[13:49]: close
[13:52]: and there we go that's the that's the
[13:56]: loaf of meat now look she says this
[13:57]: serves four people
[13:60]: I think you're looking at at least six
[14:02]: there's a lot of meat in here and now my
[14:04]: family will never be able to eat all
[14:06]: this my family of four
[14:08]: decently uh large appetite eaters
[14:13]: will not be able to eat all of this I
[14:15]: know that so we're gonna have leftovers
[14:17]: which is great I love leftover meatloaf
[14:19]: I really like the leftover meatloaf
[14:21]: sandwich
[14:22]: so we'll have to see how this does for
[14:24]: that all right now I'm gonna wash my
[14:26]: hands okay so now
[14:30]: we're gonna spread the uh mixture that
[14:34]: we made in our
[14:37]: food processor over the top
[14:41]: and we're going to have to she says to
[14:43]: take care to make sure that you cover
[14:45]: the sides so
[14:48]: so that's what we're going to do this is
[14:49]: a lot
[14:53]: of sauce
[15:03]: so I'm just gonna
[15:05]: kind of
[15:08]: push this
[15:10]: over the edges
[15:15]: it's all covered now the picture is not
[15:20]: of a fully covered meatloaf
[15:24]: she made a nice little design on it
[15:27]: but we all know
[15:29]: the pictures and the instructions do not
[15:33]: always line up
[15:39]: cooking from a cookbook
[15:41]: mostly because
[15:44]: sometimes what's pretty is not the best
[15:47]: method so this is going into our
[15:51]: preheated 325 degree oven she says for
[15:55]: an hour or until it's cooked all the way
[15:57]: through
[15:58]: um I think for beef cooked all the way
[16:02]: through is 165 but I will check that
[16:07]: while this is baking to make sure that
[16:09]: we get it
[16:10]: fully cooked uh you do not want this
[16:15]: rare medium rare even if you like your
[16:18]: burgers that way that is not how you
[16:20]: want
[16:21]: this
[16:23]: it's all been mixed up and it's if there
[16:26]: was any contamination anything on the
[16:28]: outside it's all all throughout so you
[16:31]: want a meatloaf to be done
[16:33]: anyway in the oven I will let you know
[16:36]: how long mine takes and show you what it
[16:38]: looks like when it comes out of the oven
[16:40]: [Music]
[16:48]: on this episode of cooking the books
[16:49]: with Heather you watch me make
[16:51]: Meatloaf's big makeover from Vivian
[16:54]: Howard's this will make it taste good
[16:56]: and this was using
[16:58]: um the previous recipe we made which was
[17:01]: called herb dishes which was a little
[17:03]: bit like a pesto a little bit like a
[17:04]: chimichurri at least when I made it with
[17:06]: cilantro I'll link that uh around here
[17:09]: in the in the description and it'll be
[17:12]: here somewhere I'm sure because we used
[17:15]: a lot of that in here
[17:18]: um
[17:19]: I thought the meatloaf was delicious
[17:23]: um I really liked the sauce the sauce
[17:25]: was very complimentary I didn't feel
[17:28]: like there was enough sauce to meet
[17:30]: ratio
[17:33]: I think I would prefer to more lightly
[17:36]: sauce the outside and then maybe
[17:39]: reduce the sauce a little bit on the
[17:42]: stove and serve it in a puddle of that
[17:44]: sauce because that was great the sauce
[17:47]: was delicious
[17:49]: um the meatloaf
[17:53]: stick together very well it was a little
[17:56]: crumbly but that might be because of all
[17:58]: the there were olives in there
[18:01]: um
[18:02]: I'm not sure I have a hard time getting
[18:04]: meatloaf to
[18:06]: uh keep the texture that I want where it
[18:09]: kind of stays together better but not
[18:12]: super hard and rubbery
[18:15]: I don't know if there's a good
[18:18]: middle midpoint there uh
[18:22]: there's some place that I know that
[18:24]: makes a really good one but they won't
[18:25]: share their recipe
[18:27]: so
[18:29]: um
[18:30]: it
[18:31]: does say that this recipe serves four
[18:34]: people but it uses two and a half pounds
[18:38]: of ground beef and that's
[18:41]: that's way more than we can eat so we
[18:45]: ate it for
[18:48]: one dinner and then
[18:51]: at least three or four lunches and
[18:56]: we we ate it for a while
[18:58]: um for our family of four so it was way
[19:02]: way more than four people
[19:04]: my husband did end up
[19:05]: end up in a couple meatloaf sandwiches
[19:09]: with uh toasted uh with cheese and he
[19:13]: thought that was absolutely delicious
[19:15]: he's not a big meatloaf sandwich kind of
[19:18]: person in fact he's not a ketchup on
[19:21]: Meatloaf person he's a gravy with
[19:23]: meatloaf person
[19:25]: I grew up as a ketchup with me meatloaf
[19:28]: meatloaf family so I don't make meatloaf
[19:31]: a lot because my idea and his idea are
[19:34]: very different and this was more my idea
[19:36]: of meatloaf
[19:38]: but he really enjoyed this one
[19:40]: um more than I think even he expected so
[19:44]: and that sandwich was delicious so it's
[19:48]: great to have the leftovers
[19:50]: to have the sandwich so so I didn't mind
[19:54]: having that much meatloaf
[19:56]: um
[19:57]: it was actually relatively easy had to
[20:00]: make the sauce which you know not too
[20:02]: bad and then you just sort of mix
[20:04]: everything else up together
[20:06]: um you do have to cook the onions but
[20:10]: that's pretty common in meatloaf because
[20:12]: they won't cook enough to be less than
[20:14]: crunchy so cook the onions
[20:18]: and that's it really just it's a
[20:20]: meatloaf it's not too hard uh
[20:23]: and you could make up the sauce the
[20:25]: night before probably make up the
[20:27]: meatloaf the night before and just bake
[20:29]: it up when you wanted to if you're in a
[20:31]: time crunch so
[20:34]: um yeah so we really enjoyed it it made
[20:36]: an awful lot try it on a sandwich
[20:40]: if you enjoyed watching me make this
[20:42]: please give me a thumbs up hit the
[20:43]: Subscribe button and come back and watch
[20:45]: me make something else next week
[20:47]: [Music]