Well, it’s a loaf….of meat.
There’s more than one way to make a meatloaf, but typically this dish involves a mixture of ground meat, seasonings and something called a panade (more on that below). It’s baked in a loaf pan and served sliced, often glazed with a sweet and tangy sauce on top.
You can make meatloaf with any ground meat, including beef, pork, veal, lamb, turkey and more. Sometimes recipes (like our Home-Style Meatloaf with Maple Glaze) will call for a mix of two or more kinds of meat, which is a nice way to punch up the flavor.
It’s also fun to play around with adding different vegetables to a meatloaf. Our Zucchini Meatloaf disguises veggies from picky kids, and adding minced mushrooms and fresh herbs can give a meatloaf a lot of savory umami flavor without changing the texture.