Classic Meatloaf (The Food Lab)

Meatloaf that's deeply meaty, moist but not overly juicy, and tender yet firm enough to hold its shape when you spear a bite.

By
J. Kenji López-Alt
Kenji Lopez Alt
Culinary Consultant
Kenji is the former culinary director for Serious Eats and a current culinary consultant for the site. He is also a New York Times food columnist and the author of The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science.
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Updated February 01, 2023
The Food Lab's All-American Meatloaf

Serious Eats / Mariel De La Cruz

Why It Works

  • Veal adds good texture but no flavor. Our recipe replaces the need for veal with a mixture of buttermilk and gelatin to deliver a velvety, incredibly moist meatloaf.
  • A concentrated base of flavors including vegetable aromatics, mushroom, and umami bombs like anchovies, marmite, and soy sauce pump up the flavor.
  • Starting the meatloaf in an inverted loaf pan then removing the pan to glaze the exterior gives you a meatloaf with a perfect shape that cooks evenly while also maximizing exposed surface area for browning.

Here's another recipe excerpted from my book, The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science. I hope you enjoy it.

In his 1958 classic, 365 Ways to Cook Hamburger (at least, it should've been a classic), along with hundreds of recipes for burgers, sauces, soups, meatballs, and casseroles, Doyne Nickerson offers no fewer than 70 recipes for meatloaf. 70! A different loaf every night for over two months! 10 loaves apiece for every man, woman, and child on the cast of Full House! (Another classic.) Amongst this litany are such colorful offerings as Chili Hot Top Meatloaf (it's flipped upside down and glazed with Heinz Chili Sauce), Sunshine Meatloaf (that'd be a loaf topped with ketchup-filled peach halves), and two—count 'em, two—variations on Banana Meatloaf (one with green bananas mashed into the meat, the other topped with bacon and ripe banana).

With such a varied and prolific precedent set, you may be disappointed to find out that I offer but a single, lonely recipe for plain old all-American meatloaf and not even one recipe that combines ground beef with bananas. But while Nickerson is unparalleled in his prolificacy, I plan on besting him in thoroughness.

You see, Americans are proud of their meatloaf, and rightfully so. It's one of our national dishes and deserves a place up on the pedestal, rubbing shoulders with the likes of hamburgers, barbecue, and hot dogs. I mean, it's a loaf made out of meat. What could be more decadent-yet-comforting than that?

The very best meatloaf should be tender and moist, with a distinctly soft but never mushy texture. "Velvety" and "rich" should come to mind when tasting it, tender enough to slice with a fork but firm enough to pick up that bite without it breaking. It should be a sponge for moisture, oozing juices when you eat it but not leaving a puddle on your plate. It should be deeply rich and meaty in flavor and savory, with just a hint of vegetable undertones to complement and lighten the slice. But make no mistake: meatloaf is about the meat. And, of course, it needs to reheat well for sandwiches.

We already know quite a bit about how ground meat behaves from our adventures with sausage, and we've learned the benefits of grinding your own meat (or, at the very least, having it ground fresh at the butcher). From those starting blocks, arriving at perfect meatloaf is just a short skip and a jump away.

Meaty Matters: What Different Types of Meat Bring to Meatloaf

comparing raw ground beef, veal and pork
From left: ground beef, veal, and pork.

Let's start with the very basics. Anyone who's been to a supermarket has seen those plastic wrapped trays labeled "meatloaf mix," which contain a combination of pork, beef, and veal. Why the mix? What does each of these meats bring to the table? To find out, I made several identical meat loaves using a very simple mix of meat and a few sautéed vegetables (carrots, onions, celery). Each loaf was cooked in a vacuum-sealed plastic bag in a water bath set at precisely 145°F. That way, I was certain that each batch was cooked identically. For my first test, I cooked three loaves: 100% beef, 100% pork, and 100% veal.

a cross-section of meatloaf made with all beef
All-beef loaf.

After more tastings, including an exclusionary test (beef and pork alone, beef and veal alone, and pork and veal alone), and combining all three, a few things became obvious. Pure beef cooked in meatloaf form loses quite a bit of moisture and acquires a coarse, gritty texture and slightly livery flavor. Pork has a much milder flavor and more fattiness, with a less coarse, softer texture. Compared to beef and pork, veal loses very little moisture at all, and it has a tender, almost gelatinous texture when cooked. However, it's completely lacking in flavor. Why do three different meats cooked in the same manner return such different results?

a cross-section meatloaf made with all pork
All-pork loaf.

Well, pigs and cattle differ mostly in their fast-twitch versus slow-twitch muscles. Cows are large animals that spend most of their time walking around and grazing, requiring plenty of long, sustained effort from their muscles, which eventually turns them coarse, and flavorful, with a deep red color—a by-product of the oxygenation necessary for them to perform work.

Pigs are smaller and less active for sustained periods of time. You may see them trot over to the trough to gorge, but they spend the bulk of their time lying in the mud or in the shade to keep cool. Consequently, their dark slow-twitch muscles are less developed. Instead, you'll find plenty of paler, more fine-textured fast-twitch muscle, as well as a good deal of stored fat. Pork fat is also softer than beef fat, making it more pleasant to eat at normal serving temperatures. So, by combining beef and pork, you end up with a mix that has the great flavor of beef but an improved texture and softer fat from the pork.

a cross-section of meatloaf made with all veal
All-veal loaf.

Then what does veal bring to the mix?

The difference between veal and beef is a little more subtle, having to do with the age of the animal. When a cow (or almost any mammal, for that matter) is born, its muscles are not very well developed. Its fat is soft and malleable, its muscles pale and mild-flavored, with a high proportion of soluble collagen, the connective protein that transforms into gelatin as it cooks. It's the underdeveloped musculature that gives veal its tenderness, but it's the gelatin that lends ground veal its ability to retain moisture. How does this work? It helps to think of gelatin molecules as individual links in a very fine wire mesh and individual molecules of water as tiny water balloons. As the collagen is converted to gelatin inside a meatloaf as it cooks, these molecules of gelatin gradually link up with each other, forming a net that traps water molecules, preventing them from escaping. It's this same quality of gelatin that allows you to turn several cups worth of water into a quivering Jell-O mold with just a few tablespoons of powdered gelatin.

A cross-section meatloaf made with mixed meat
Mixed-meat loaf.

Thus the mix. Beef provides robust flavor, pork provides a good amount of tender fat, and veal provides plenty of gelatin to help retain moisture: The mixture provides the optimum balance of flavor, texture, fat content, and moisture-retaining ability. Or does it?

Say No to Veal, and What to Use Instead

Here's the problem with veal: It doesn't taste like much.

Sure, it adds gelatin to the mix, but it dilutes the meaty flavor at the same time. It can also be a bit of a pain to seek out (I have to travel all the way to the supermarket by my mom's apartment to get it, which means I've got to visit my mother every time I want veal; this can be problematic). I'd seen a few recipes that suggested replacing the veal with powdered gelatin*—an ingredient I always keep in my pantry. I made a couple loaves side by side, one with an equal mix of ground chuck, ground pork, and ground veal, and the second one with a mix of ground chuck, ground pork, and a couple tablespoons of unflavored gelatin hydrated in a bit of chicken stock and cooked until dissolved (I made sure to add the same amount of chicken stock to the first loaf as well). Texture-wise, both loaves proved to be moist and tender. Flavor-wise, the no-veal loaf had a clear advantage.

Gelatin it is.

*Since publishing this piece, I've been informed that the first instance of using gelatin in meatloaf as a means of helping retain moisture was in David Pazmiño's recipe for Glazed All-Beef Meatloaf recipe, a recipe he developed for Cook's Illustrated in their January 2006 issue. A shout out to him for the fantastic idea. It has helped meatloaves and meatballs around the world immeasurably since then.

Meatloaf Binders and Extenders

So, up to now, what we've essentially got is something that's halfway between a burger and a sausage. It's got the basic fat content of a burger, with the key difference being that the salt is mixed right into the meat rather than just seasoning the exterior. We all know what happens when you add salt to meat before mixing it, right? It causes the meat to become sticky and bind with itself as the salt slowly dissolves muscle proteins. But this is not a good thing for meatloaf, where tenderness and a loose, velvety texture are desired above all. We can mitigate those effects by adding the salt immediately before mixing and only mixing as much as necessary, but there are better ways to improve texture—namely, with binders and additives. Let's look at the most common ones to determine what role they play.

Eggs Add Structure

Eggs are an ingredient in nearly every meatloaf, and they have two distinct roles. Egg yolks, which are mostly water but contain a good amount of protein and fat, add flavor, richness, and moisture. They also help bind the meat together and get the loaf to set in a stable form without the need to overwork the meat. Egg whites have even more water in them, are devoid of any fat at all, and have a very mild flavor. Their main role is to add extra loose proteins to the mix to assist the egg yolks in their quest to add structure without overworking the meat or adding toughness. We'll definitely include them.

Dairy Keeps Meatloaf Moist

Milk and other dairy products, like heavy cream and buttermilk, contain both water and fat, adding two types of moisture to our meatloaf. There's a long-held theory that milk can tenderize ground meat, and this is the reason often cited for cooking ground meat in milk to make a Bolognese-style ragù. I'm pretty skeptical about this. Milk is mainly water, with some milk fat and a few proteins thrown in. What could cause it to tenderize meat?

Some sources claim that adding milk limits the cooking temperature to 212°F (the temperature at which water boils), which keeps meat from overcooking. What? Limiting temperature to 212°F? What good does that do? Meat toughens at temperatures a good 70 to 75°F below this threshold. Besides, plain old water (which is abundant in the meat and all the vegetables you add to meatloaf) will perform that function just as well. Indeed, cooking three batches of meat side by side, one simmered in milk, one simmered in water, and one allowed to simmer in its own juices, left me with three batches of meat that were equally tough. Fact of the matter is, milk does not tenderize meat. The only way to guarantee tender meat is not to overcook it. And that's a simple matter of using a thermometer when you bake the meatloaf.

Milk does, on the other hand, add moisture and fat and is worth including for that fact alone. Heavy cream works better. Better still is buttermilk, which has a unique tang that adds depth and complexity to the finished dish.

Breadcrumbs Keep Meatloaf Tender

Bread crumbs may, at first glance, seem like an unnecessary extender—something added just to stretch your meat a little bit further—but they are perhaps the most important ingredient of all when it comes to improving the texture of a meatloaf. Aside from absorbing and retaining some moisture as the meatloaf cooks, they physically impede the meat proteins from rubbing up too closely to one another, minimizing the amount of cross-linkage and thus dramatically increasing tenderness. In many ways, the physical structure of a meatloaf is much like the structure of an emulsified sauce stabilized with starch. In the latter case, starch acts like a bouncer, keeping fats from coalescing, while in the former, bread crumbs do the job, keeping meat proteins apart. I found that using crumbs from fresh bread slices ground in the food processor provided better moisture and binding capabilities than dried bread crumbs.

Mushrooms Act Like Breadcrumbs

Finally, mushrooms, while not necessarily a standard meatloaf ingredient, are an invaluable addition. Why do I include them under binders and extenders rather than lump them in with the aromatics? Because they act much more like bread crumbs than they do like, say, onions. Mushrooms are extremely porous and are full of flavorful liquid.

At the same time, they are soft and spongy. Just like bread crumbs, they prevent the meat proteins from interlocking, increasing tenderness while simultaneously adding flavor as they slowly release their liquid. In fact, they're so much like bread that I treat them exactly the same way—grind them in the food processor and add them to the raw mix, no parcooking necessary at all!

So, to summarize, we have the following chart:

 IngredientEffect How to Incorporate
 Egg YolksAdds richness and moisture, help bind the meat and bread to lend structure without toughness. Add to meat mixture. 
Egg Whites  Binds meat and bread to lend structure without toughness (more effective at binding than egg yolks). Add to meat mixture. 
 Bread CrumbsHelps retain moisture and physically impede meat proteins from cross-linking, increasing tenderness. Moisten with milk or stock to create a panade (a mixture of bread and a liquid). Add to meat mixture.
 Milk (or other liquid dairy)Adds moisture and tenderizes  Use to soak bread crumbs. 
 GelatinIncreases the capacity to retain moisture as meatloaf cooks.Bloom in chicken stock, cook to dissolve, and add to meat mixture (or use to moisten bread crumbs). 
Mushrooms (chopped)Physically impedes meat proteins from cross-linking, increasing tenderness while simultaneously adding flavor.Add to meat mixture. 
 SaltIf added too early, it can cause meat proteins to dissolve and cross-link, creating a bouncier, firmer texture. Add to meat mixture just before mixing and cook immediately. 


The Key to Great Flavor: A Concentrated Flavor Base

Onion, celery, and carrots in food processor bowl

With the meat mix and the texture of the loaf squared away, I shifted my focus to flavorings.

The base of carrots, onions, and celery made sense to me—the three vegetables are a classic addition to meat dishes and sauces for a reason—but when they are simply diced and added to the meat mix, their texture doesn't quite work in meatloaf; I found it interfered with the velvety-ness I desired. How to deal with this? Easy, just chop them finer and soften them. I used the food processor (already on my countertop to make the bread crumbs and chop mushrooms) to chop them into small pieces before sautéing them in butter until tender, adding a touch of garlic and Spanish paprika as well.

We've got the vegetables in there, now for a few ingredients to up the meaty backbone of the loaf, namely deploying my trusty umami bombs: anchovies, Marmite, and soy sauce. All three of these ingredients are rich in glutamates and inosinates, chemical compounds that trigger signals that tell our brains we're eating something savory and meaty. They make the meatloaf taste meatier without imparting a distinct flavor of their own. After sautéing all the ingredients for my flavor base together—the vegetables and the umami bombs—I added some chicken stock and buttermilk, along with softened gelatin, and reduced to a concentrated liquid simply bursting with flavor.

Mixing this flavor base into my meat produced a mixture wetter than any other meatloaf mix I'd seen. This led to a moister end product (that retained moisture with the help of the gelatin), but it proved problematic when shaping the loaf. I could bake it in a loaf pan, but I prefer making free form loaves on a baking sheet to maximize surface area for flavorful browning or glazing. The solution was to use a hybrid method. I packed my meatloaf mix into a loaf pan, covered it with foil, and then inverted the whole thing onto a rimmed baking sheet, spreading out the foil so that I now had a foil-lined baking sheet with an inverted meatloaf and loaf pan on top of it. I baked this way for about half an hour—just long enough to set its shape—and then used a spatula and kitchen towels to lift off the pan. The result was a perfectly loaf-shaped meatloaf (just right for slicing into sandwiches), with all the advantages of a free-form loaf and its extra surface area.

perfectly-shaped meatloaf

You can leave your meatloaf completely undressed, but I kind of like the old-fashioned, low-brow sweet vinegariness of a ketchup-and-brown-sugar glaze. Draping the loaf in bacon wouldn't do any harm either. I still haven't tried topping my loaf with bananas as Mr. Nickerson so helpfully suggested.

As he could tell you, though, the beauty of meatloaf lies in the almost infinite ways in which it can be customized. So long as your ratio of meat to binders is correct, the sky's the limit as to what you can do. I sometimes add chopped pickles or briny olives. Pine nuts or almonds also add texture and flavor. My mother—who, I believed for a long time, looked for ways to hide raisins where you'd least expect them—would probably enjoy some raisins in her loaf. I'm not one to judge.

Slicing up the meatloaf
J. Kenji López-Alt

August 2015

Recipe Details

Classic Meatloaf Recipe (The Food Lab)

Prep 15 mins
Cook 105 mins
Active 45 mins
Resting Time 40 mins
Total 2 hrs 40 mins
Serves 4 to 6 servings

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup homemade or store-bought low-sodium chicken stock

  • 1/4 cup buttermilk

  • 1/2 ounce (2 packets; about 1 1/2 tablespoons) unflavored gelatin

  • 2 slices high-quality white sandwich bread, crusts removed and torn into rough pieces

  • 4 ounces button or cremini mushrooms, cleaned

  • 3 anchovy filets

  • 1/2 teaspoon marmite

  • 2 teaspoons (10ml) soy sauce

  • 1 teaspoon paprika

  • 2 medium cloves garlic, roughly chopped (about 2 teaspoons)

  • 1 small onion, roughly chopped (about 3/4 cup)

  • 1 small carrot, peeled and roughly chopped (about 1/2 cup)

  • 1 stalk celery, roughly chopped (about 1/2 cup)

  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter

  • 12 ounces freshly ground pork (see note)

  • 1 1/4 pounds freshly ground beef (see note)

  • 2 large eggs

  • 4 ounces cheddar, provolone, Monterey Jack, or Muenster cheese, finely grated (about 1 cup)

  • 1/4 cup finely minced fresh parsley

  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the Glaze:

  • 3/4 cup ketchup

  • 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar

  • 1/2 cup cider vinegar

  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions

  1. Combine the chicken stock and buttermilk in a liquid measuring cup and sprinkle the gelatin evenly over the top. Set aside.

    Buttermilk, chicken stock, and gelatin in a measuring cup

    Serious Eats / Mariel De La Cruz

  2. Place the bread and mushrooms in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Transfer to a large bowl and set aside.

    Bread and mushrooms in a food processor

    Serious Eats / Mariel De La Cruz

  3. Add the anchovies, Marmite, soy sauce, paprika, and garlic to the processor bowl and pulse until reduced to a fine paste, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Add the onion, carrot, and celery and pulse until finely chopped but not pureed.

    Processed vegetables and spices in a food processor

    Serious Eats / Mariel De La Cruz

  4. Heat the butter in a 10-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until foaming. Add the chopped vegetable mixture and cook, stirring and tossing frequently, until it is softened and most of the liquid has evaporated, about 5 minutes; the mixture should start to darken a bit. Stir in the buttermilk mixture, bring to a simmer, and cook until reduced by half, about 10 minutes. Transfer to the bowl with the mushrooms and bread, stir thoroughly to combine, and let stand until cool enough to handle, about 10 minutes.

    Vegetable mixture in a pan, cooking with the buttermilk mixture.

    Serious Eats / Mariel De La Cruz

  5. Add the ground meat to the bowl, along with the eggs, cheese, parsley, 1 tablespoon kosher salt (or half that volume in table salt), and 1 teaspoon pepper. With clean hands, mix gently until everything is thoroughly combined and homogeneous; it will be fairly loose. Pull off a teaspoon-sized portion of the mixture, place it on a microwave-safe plate, and microwave it on high power until cooked through, about 15 seconds. Taste the cooked piece for seasoning and add more salt and/or pepper as desired.

    Hand mixing meatloaf mixture in a bowl

    Serious Eats / Mariel De La Cruz

  6. Transfer the mixture to a 9- by 5-inch loaf pan, being sure that no air bubbles get trapped underneath. (You may have some extra mix, depending on the capacity of your pan; this can be cooked in a ramekin or free-form next to the loaf.) Tear off a sheet of heavy-duty aluminum foil large enough to line a rimmed baking sheet and use it to tightly cover the meatloaf, crimping it around the edges of the pan. Refrigerate the meatloaf while the oven preheats. (The meatloaf can be refrigerated for up to 2 days.)

    Meatloaf mixture in a baking dish, then covered with foil

    Serious Eats / Mariel De La Cruz

  7. Adjust an oven rack to the lower-middle position and preheat the oven to 350°F. When the oven is hot, remove the meatloaf from the refrigerator and, without removing the foil cover, carefully invert it onto the rimmed baking sheet. Loosen the foil and spread it out, leaving the pan on top of the meatloaf (see note). Fold up the edges of the foil to trap the liquid that escapes from the meatloaf while baking. Bake until just beginning to set (the top should feel firm to the touch), about 30 minutes.

    Inverted baking dish on aluminum foil

    Serious Eats / Mariel De La Cruz

  8. Use a thin metal spatula to lift an edge of the inverted loaf pan, jiggling it until it slides off the meatloaf easily, and use oven mitts or a folded kitchen towel to remove the pan, leaving the meatloaf on the center of the foil. Return to the oven and bake until the center of the meatloaf registers 140°F on an instant-read thermometer, about 40 minutes longer. There will be quite a bit of exuded juices; this is OK. Remove from the oven and let rest for 15 minutes. Increase the oven temperature to 500°F.

    Meatloaf on aluminum foil

    Serious Eats / Mariel De La Cruz

  9. Meanwhile, Make the Glaze: Combine the ketchup, brown sugar, vinegar, and pepper in a small saucepan and cook over medium-high heat, whisking occasionally, until the sugar is melted and the mixture is homogeneous, about 2 minutes. Remove from the heat.

    Meatloaf glaze in a sauce pan

    Serious Eats / Mariel De La Cruz

  10. Use a brush to apply some glaze to the meatloaf in a thin, even layer, then return it to the oven and bake for 3 minutes. Glaze again and bake for 3 minutes longer. Glaze one more time and bake until the glaze is beginning to bubble and is a deep burnished brown, about 4 minutes longer. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 15 minutes. Slice and serve with any extra glaze and mustard or ketchup as desired.

    Meatloaf glaze being brushed on baked meatloaf, two slices of meatloaf served with extra glaze

    Serious Eats / Mariel De La Cruz

Special Equipment

9- by 5-inch loaf pan

Notes

For best results, grind your own meat. If grinding meat, use pork shoulder and beef chuck (or a mix of beef short rib and beef brisket). Keep your hands well moistened when forming the loaf, to prevent sticking. If you don’t require or desire a perfect loaf shape, the meat loaf can be formed free-form on a foil-lined rimmed baking sheet without using a loaf pan, though it will sag a bit and come out only a couple of inches tall. Cooking instructions are the same.

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
680Calories
40gFat
26gCarbs
53gProtein
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Nutrition Facts
Servings: 4 to 6
Amount per serving
Calories680
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 40g51%
Saturated Fat 17g85%
Cholesterol 225mg75%
Sodium 1572mg68%
Total Carbohydrate 26g10%
Dietary Fiber 2g5%
Total Sugars 17g
Protein 53g
Vitamin C 7mg34%
Calcium 261mg20%
Iron 5mg28%
Potassium 986mg21%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)

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