The Smoked Meatloaf Experiment - Final Lab and Conclusions


 
John Sp

John Sp

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Hello All,

Sorry I have been so scarce lately life has been crazy busy. I have been grilling but have not had the time to document and post anything. So hopefully I will be getting back into the swing of things with this post. Yesterday was my wife's birthday and I was planning to grill some steaks and asparagus for her but she was under the weather so I decided to do some good old comfort food - Meatloaf. I figured it was as good a time as any to finish my meatloaf experiment - as you may recall I have been trying out various methods for cooking smoked meatloaf and I think I have enough data now to make a call on our family favorite. The last try included a tight bacon weave wrapped around the outside of the loaf. That one was pretty good but the family had a preference for the unwrapped version (mainly due to the lack of smoky flavor in the meat itself. This time I decided to use a loose bacon weave to allow for more smoke penetration into the meat. Below are a few pics of this run at it...



Prepped Meatloaf (Hamburger, Bratwurst, Bread Crumbs, Egg, Water Chestnuts (not shown), Worcestershire, Benoits, & GS)


Wrapped in a Loose Bacon Weave


Mid Cook in the Mini - Running Hot - No Diffuser - Hickory - Basted in Five Sauce for the Last 20 Minutes - Pulled at 160


Resting


Sliced - Detectable Smoke Ring


Plated with Roasted Corn and My Daughter's Mashers​

Well the family liked this better than the last run. The loose weave allowed more smoke flavor into the meat - so that worked well. After reviewing all the results from my three runs (no bacon, tight bacon weave, and loose bacon weave), the verdict is in. As strange as it sounds smoked meatloaf is better without bacon (huh? I know right?) at least to the palates of my krewe. Live and learn I guess. Thanks for looking...

Regards,

John
 
Nice cook John. Barb is the meatloaf cooker here and we have come to the same conclusion as you did. But what she does now is put some chopped up bacon into the meat loaf. really adds to the flavor without blocking out the smoky taste.
 
Awesome job on the meat loaf John. It's about time for me to due another one or two, then I can freeze one for later on.
 
Chuck Dugas said:
Looks great John. Time to make some meat loaf. Can you fill me in on what is Benoits? and GS? Thanks Chuck.
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Chuck,

GS = Garlic Salt

Benoit's (pronounced Ben-wa's) is a variety of local Cajun seasoning. Just about every butcher shop in Acadiana makes their own seasoning blend. I like Benoit's because it is not stupid spicy and doesn't contain MSG (which my wife has trouble with). Benoit's shop is in Plaquemin3e, LA. You can reach them on-line at this link.

Regards,

John
 
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Steve_Williams said:
Wow looks great. I always wanted to create one but think it is hard to do. Is it?
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Steve - meatloaf is not hard at all. I will post my recipe in the recipes section when I get time but a good general recipe appears below. I have a large family so I make a three pound loaf whenever I cook one. Leftover meatloaf (if you have any - we never do) makes a killer sandwich for lunch...

2 lb 80/20 ground beef
1 lb of some Other Meat (bulk bratwurst, bulk Italian sausage, ground pork, ground turkey, etc.)
about 3/4 cup of Bread Crumbs (flavored or not)
1 egg
1/4 cup of Worcestershire Sauce
1 small can of Water Chestnuts roughly chopped (or use a similar amount carrot or celery or both)
1/2 cup of BBQ Sauce (I use Five Sauce)
Season to taste (I use about 2 tsp of Cajun seasoning and 2 tsp of Garlic Salt)

Put all the stuff in a bowl (except the BBQ sauce) and mix it thoroughly (I use our Kitchen Aide blender with a dough hook for this but purists like ot use their hands) until you get it well blended - it should be kind of sticky (you may need to add some bread crumbs to hold it together). Press the meat mixture into a greased loaf pan and turn it out onto a grill safe pan (I use a grill pan with holes in it). It should hold its shape (if it doesn't you probably need more bread crumbs) and look like a log. Put the loaf into the smoker and smoke over high heat (~325-350) using your favorite smoke wood (I like hickory for this). Smoke until 135 internal and then begin basting with the BBQ sauce every 5-10 minutes until 160 internal. Pull and rest under foil for at least 10 minutes before slicing.

Give it a whirl - you will be surprised at how easy it really is.

Regards,

John
 
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