The season has arrived when home cooks break out the heavy-duty pots and pans, and turn to their cool-weather repertoires, tantalizing families and guests with delectable aromas wafting from the kitchen.
Time-honored family recipes are brought out and put on prominent display in the kitchen. On the menu are stew, soup, chili, cornbread, chicken pot pie, osso buco and braised short ribs – along with that all-time favorite comfort food, meatloaf.
Meatloaf has been a staple since the mid-1800s, when ground beef first became available as a grocery item in America. For decades thereafter, recipes for meatloaf abounded in women’s magazines and cookbooks, where it often was teamed with mashed potatoes, gravy and canned green beans.
The dish was once ubiquitous on the American landscape, then fell into obscurity, disdained as too old-fashioned. It has re-emerged in recent years, thanks to a wave of nostalgia for retro foods.
These days, ground turkey, pork, veal and lamb are often combined with ground beef to reach new depths of flavor. Plus, many meatloaf recipes call for surprising ingredients: dried cranberries, olives, wild mushrooms, cheese, pecans and other nuts, and a garden of fresh herbs. Topping the loaf with a from-scratch sauce opens the door to even more depths of flavor.
What is it about meatloaf that keeps us coming back for seconds? Is it that it’s versatile, easy to make and tastes great?
“It’s all those things and more,” said Molly Hawks, co-owner with her husband, Michael Fagnoni, of Hawks restaurant in the Quarry Ponds Town Center in Granite Bay, Calif. “We all grew up with meatloaf, so it holds memories for a lot of people, including myself.”
Hawks is a serious, four-star dining destination (www.hawksrestaurant.com) that cures its own charcuterie and offers such dishes as monkfish with chablis butter. So what is something as mundane as meatloaf doing on its menu?
Well, technically it’s not there. But it does rotate with other classic dishes such as fried chicken and fish ‘n’ chips as part of Hawks’ “Sunday Supper” program, which offers four-course prix-fixe meals for $35 a person on Sunday evenings.
“Meatloaf is something everybody’s mom always made,” Fagnoni said. “Along those lines, for Sunday Supper we’ve made homestyle dishes a little fancier.”
“At the same time, we wanted to do something dressed-down from our normal operation,” Hawks added. “Sunday Supper is more inviting to families and at a lower price point than our normal menu.
“But offering meatloaf here has opened the door to a lot of criticism,” she added.
Oh?
“Yes – everyone compares our meatloaf to their mom’s meatloaf.”
OLD FAVORITE, NEW TREND
Like sliders and mac ‘n’ cheese, meatloaf is a retro dish that has found new favor with younger diners. With that as a starting point, its full-time inclusion on the menus of finer restaurants is almost trendy.
A case in point: Four of the five Bistro 33 restaurants in the Sacramento, Calif., area offer meatloaf (the midtown location is the exception).
“We make it with lamb and Italian sausage, top it with cayenne aioli and serve it with mashed potatoes (and a vegetable) for $14.95,” said Fred Haines, co-owner with his brother, Matt, of the bistros (916-455-2233 or www.sro-inc.com).
The newest Bistro 33 opened recently inside the Rocklin Mercedes-Benz dealership. (For my review, go to www.sacbee.com/pierleoni.)
“Our meatloaf (represents) good down-home cooking, but (the lamb) allows it to be a little upscale, a little Mediterranean,” Fred Haines said. “It’s one of our signature dishes and has become a staple. It’s in our top 10 most popular items.”
At Moxie restaurant in midtown Sacramento, meatloaf has been a tradition for 14 years
“We believe you should have the feeling of being at home when you come here, and at home you have hearty foods you’re familiar with,” said co-owner Adam Chaccour. “Our meatloaf is a fun and homey kind of thing. People tend to relate to comfort foods because they represent a lot of emotion and sentiment.”
Moxie charges $14 for its meatloaf, served with mashed potatoes and vegetables.
KEEP IT LEAN FOR HEALTH
Of course, a plate of meatloaf with a side of mashed potatoes and gravy is comforting in part because of the “mouth feel” it imparts, thanks to its fat content. How can home cooks make it more healthful?
“The key is to use lean meat,” said registered dietitian Ellie Krieger. “You can use ground beef if it’s 90 percent lean. Ground turkey is a good choice because it’s between 90 percent and 99 percent lean.”
Krieger hosts “Healthy Appetite” on the Food Network and is the author of cookbooks focused on healthful eating, including the James Beard Award-winning “The Food You Crave.” Her new title is “So Easy: Luscious, Healthy Recipes for Every Meal of the Week” (Wiley, $29.95, 272 pages); her Web site is www. healthylivingwithellie.com. She shared some of her healthful-cooking techniques recently on NBC’s “Today” show.
“Using lean meat doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice the moisture and flavor you’re familiar with,” she said. “Continue to use the traditional flavor elements, like garlic, onion and Worcestershire sauce. (Also) you can’t go wrong with fresh herbs, such as thyme or sage. Or you can go totally Southwest with cumin, coriander, oregano and chili peppers.”
What about the traditional bread-based binder?
“I love to use quick-cooking oats soaked in milk, instead of bread crumbs,” she said. “It works fantastically because the oats retain the moisture and have a binding effect just as bread crumbs would. And you get whole grain as well, without the flavor of whole grain.”
As for meatloaf’s comfort-food role, Krieger pointed to what she called “food memories.”
“Certain foods tap into deep feelings inside us, and that’s what gives them their ‘comfort appeal,’ ” she said. “If you go with that, then it’s clear that the times we have spent over meatloaf and mashed potatoes involved some of the more wonderful family dinners we’ve shared. There’s still a sense you’re being nurtured by the person cooking it.”
To reduce fat and calories in mashed potatoes, Krieger advised using low-fat milk or buttermilk instead of butter. “Use Yukon gold potatoes for their natural creaminess,” she said.
MEATLOAF ROYALTY
If there’s a candidate for Meatloaf Queen, it’s likely Maryana Vollstedt of Eugene, Ore. She’s the author of “Meatloaf: Recipes for Everyone’s Favorite” (Chronicle Books, $14.95, 108 pages) along with eight other titles, mostly in her “Big Book of …” series.
“Meatloaf is inexpensive, and you can make it ahead,” she said. “It’s not only good for one meal but makes wonderful sandwiches the next day. In our family, we always had meatloaf, but not the fancy ones that are in the cookbook just plain old mom’s meatloaf.”
Vollstedt (www. maryanavollstedt.com) “made up” the 40 recipes in “Meatloaf” – along with the recipes for the accompanying sauces and side dishes and tested everything numerous times.
“Doing so much tasting didn’t get too tiresome because the loaves were so different,” she said.
Included in “Meatloaf” are ethnic versions (Asian, Greek, Mediterranean), vegetarian brown rice, salmon, turkey and a four-cheese loaf.
Then there’s the Bloody Mary loaf.
“That one has vodka in it,” Vollstedt said with a laugh. “But if you don’t want to add the vodka to it … why, you can drink it!”
MORE INFORMATION
More info: In the mood for comfort food?
You can’t have too many comfort-food recipes during the cold months especially ones that are brief and to the point.
-Two handy collections are “Quick, Cheap Comfort Food” by Victoria Shearer (Sellers, $14.95, 144 pages) and “500 Casseroles” by Rebecca Baugniet (Sellers, $16.95, 288 pages).
-”Comfort Food” offers more than 100 dishes, including cheese-crab-mushroom quiche, blackberry-glazed pork tenderloin, herbed tomato orzo and Southern banana pudding.
-The dishes in “Casseroles” are even more substantial: chicken tetrazzini, lasagna Bolognese, cassoulet and braised pork with fennel.
-Allen Pierleoni