We were called upon for the main dish, a meat dish of some sort, for
a family group dinner for 12. Roslind was thinking chili but when I hit
the store lean ground beef was $6 a pound while ground pork was
just $3 so I bought 4 pounds of pork and switched things out to a
meatloaf.

I do not like the taste or texture of rolled oats in any kind of
meatloaf. For beef, toasted fine bread crumbs are best but for pork
I always use yellow cornmeal. That just seems right to my tastebuds.

I didn't measure but I used 4 pounds of medium (23% fat) ground
pork, 1 smallish onion, diced, (I would have added celery too but we
were out), 4 cloves garlic, minced, a good handful (maybe 1/2 cup)
of cornmeal, 1 tsp each salt (pretty low salt, most people used more
at the table), pepper, home grown ground cayenne, thyme and sage, 2
eggs, 1/4 c or so ketchup and about 1 tb prepared mustard. I baked
it free form in an 8 1/2" X 14" baking pan and poured off the
accumulated grease and drippings twice while I baked it for 65
minutes at 350 F. I wasn't sure about the timing as I usually don't
make them that large so I used a meat thermometer and pulled it as
soon as the interior hit 160 F. It turned out quite nice. I bought a
jar of Habitant "ketchup maison" (red tomato chow chow relish) to go
with it, into which I stirred in 1 tsp each of vinegar and Chinese
fermented chile sauce to give it a little (barely detectable) extra
zip, so not too hot for the others.

A young great niece brought home made Red Lobster style cheese
biscuits which were quite nice, and others brought salads, soft
drinks (a couple of the guests don't drink so I didn't either),
chips and store bought desserts.











Cheers

Jim


... Meatloaf: It's meat shaped like bread.

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