Old School Meatloaf

This is a very simple, comfort food recipe that is super easy to make on a busy school night. My boys love it! There are so many versions of this dish and you can basically add whatever veggie ingredient you like. 

Meatloaf of minced meat was mentioned in the Roman cookery collection Apicius as early as the 5th century. It is a traditional German, Scandinavian and Belgian dish, and a cousin to the Dutch meatball. American meatloaf has its origins in scrapple, a mixture of ground pork and cornmeal served by German-Americans in Pennsylvania since colonial times. Meatloaf in the contemporary American sense did not appear in cookbooks until the late 19th century.

Swedish meatloaf is called "köttfärslimpa" (literally "minced meat-loaf", from köttfärs, "minced meat", and limpa, "loaf") and is usually made from a mixture of ground pork and beef. It is served with boiled or mashed potatoes, brown sauce gravy, often made from the meat juice that comes from cooking the meatloaf, and lingonberry jam. 

My version, however, is with minced beef (no pork) and then I add onion, leek and coriander. Now, if Pia were to come over to my house for dinner, I'd of course switch the coriander to parsley as she cannot stand coriander. And for Caroline the vegetarian, I'd tell her to stay home and have her hubby Jip come over instead, because he loves meatloaf! 😁 What makes it extra delicious is of course the bacon that I put on top. I personally believe that everything tastes better with bacon.🥓 And better yet, the Swedish lingonberry jam is also a must of course!

Enjoy! 💗 Helena

INGREDIENTS:

• 1,200 grams of minced beef
• 3 eggs
• 450 ml milk (or water if you prefer)
• 12 tablespoons bread crumbs
• 3 teaspoons salt
• ¾ teaspoon white or black pepper (or more if you like it spicier)
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 leek, chopped
• Handful of coriander, chopped 
  
  
  

DIRECTIONS:

1. Set the oven to 175°C on the convection setting. 
2. Pour the milk into a large bowl and mix in the bread crumbs. Let it sit and swell for 10 minutes. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. Chop the onion, leek and coriander. 
   
   
   
4. Add the salt and the pepper to the milk and bread crumbs. 
   
   
   
5. Mix in the minced beef. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
6. Add the eggs and mix well, but quickly. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
7. Mix in the veggies. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
8. Transfer the mix into a bread pan. Shape into two long loaves. 
   
   
   
9. Decorate with bacon on top. 
   
   
   
10. Bake the meatloaf on the lower rack in the oven for approx. 50 minutes or until it starts to brown at the edges and the bacon is looking crispy. The inside should also be greyish when it's done.