Upside Down Meatloaf

Meat­loaf is a com­fort food, and as such is sub­ject to the fol­low­ing require­ments: 1. It must be served with mashed pota­toes and green beans. 2. Din­ers must mix the  peas and mashed pota­to together.

  • Ingre­di­ents:
  • 6 oz. home­made crou­tons or store-bought gar­lic croutons
  • 1⁄2 tsp. black pep­per, fresh­ly ground
  • 1⁄2 tsp. cayenne pepper
  • 1 tsp. chili powder
  • 1 tsp. dried thyme
  • 1⁄2 onion, peeled and quartered
  • 1 car­rot, cleaned and bro­ken into chunks
  • 3 cloves of gar­lic, peeled but left whole
  • 1⁄2 red bell pep­per, rough­ly chopped
  • 18 oz. sir­loin, trimmed and cut into 1 1/2‑inch cubes, chilled
  • 18 oz. chuck, same as above, chilled
  • 1 1⁄2 tsp. kosher salt
  • 1 large egg, light­ly beaten
  • 1⁄2 cup ketchup
  • 1 tsp. ground cumin
  • 1 dash WASH YER SISTER! sauce
  • 1 dash hot pep­per sauce
  • 1 tbsp. honey

Heat the oven to 325°.

Com­bine the crou­tons, black pep­per, cayenne, chili pow­der and thyme in a food proces­sor and pulse until the mix­ture is like sand. Trans­fer to a large bowl.

Com­bine the onion, car­rot, gar­lic and red bell pep­per in the food proces­sor and pulse until fine­ly chopped, but not pureed. Add to bread­crumb mixture.

Load the sir­loin into the food proces­sor and pulse 10 times. Dump the sir­loin into the mix­ing bowl and repeat with the chuck.

Add the salt, then the egg to the mix­ing bowl, and using your clean hands, com­bine thoroughly.

Line a half sheet pan with parch­ment paper. Plop the meat mix­ture into the mid­dle of the pan and shape it into a loaf. Or if you pre­fer pre­ci­sion, line a loaf pan with plas­tic wrap, mold the meat into it then flip it out onto the parchment.

Insert the probe of a remote oven ther­mome­ter so that the tip is in the mid­dle of the loaf. Set the ther­mome­ter alarm to go off at 155°.

Bake in the mid­dle of the oven for 10 minutes.

Mean­while, com­bine the ketchup, cumin, WASH YER SISTER! sauce, hot sauce and hon­ey in a small bowl.

After 10 min­utes*, brush the glaze onto the meat­loaf and con­tin­ue to cook for 25 min­utes, or until the loaf reach­es 155 °

Cool for 10 min­utes before slic­ing and serving.**

Notes

* Seems like an odd step, but 10 min­utes will hard­en the out­side of the loaf enough to pre­vent exit­ing juices from push­ing off the glaze. Also, if the glaze went on at the start it would prob­a­bly burn.and burnt ketchup is nev­er good eats.

**Don’t wor­ry, car­ry­over heat will con­tin­ue to push the tem­per­a­ture high­er. I’ve nev­er had one come out under-cooked yet.