Alton Brown's "Good Eats" Meatloaf -- SMOKED

So Caseydog posted a thread today that got me thinking about smokd meatloaf. The wife asked what we were gonna do for dinner and I replied, "MEATLOAF!"

So I looked up Alton Brown's recipe for meatloaf and made only a couple of minor variations. Here's what went in it:

*8 ounces onion & sage flavored croutons (ground in processor
*1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
*1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
*1 teaspoon chili powder
*1 teaspoon dried thyme
*1/2 onion, finely chopped
*1 carrot, finely chopped
*3 cloves garlic, minced
*1/2 red bell pepper, finely chopped
*3 lb ground beef
*1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
*1 egg

Here's the ORIGINAL recipe:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/good-eats-meat-loaf-recipe/index.html

Alton's recipe called for garlic flavored croutons, but I only had the ones listed. He also called for finely chopping the veg in a processor and adding in raw, but I saute'd the veg after finely hand chopping. I added salt and pepper to veg and then added it to the ground croutons.

He also called for 18 ounces each of ground chuck and ground sirloin, but the wife already picked up 3 lbs of ground beef, so that's what I used.


So after adding the spices, veg, bread crumbs and meat to a bowl and mixing it was a bit dry and crumbly, so I added another egg to the mix which worked.

Formed into a loaf and sprinkled with Simply Marvelous Cherry Rub (LOVE that stuff! Steph, I'll be ordering more of that FO SHO!!!!)......


Then on the smoke for about an hour over cherry wood until it hit 145d internal.
Finished......




Sliced.....


And plated with my famous (around our house) sour cream mashed potatoes, cottage cheese, saute'd asparagus and homemade chicken gravy (from drippings of the 4 yardbirds I smoked right before the meatloaf:heh.....


WOW it's great to be workin the smoker again.
GOOD WEEKEND!!!!:thumb:

Thanks for lookin'!

bigabyte said:

I KNOW that's good! I've made that recipe before (maybe not with the exact same variations).

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Yeah, I really loved the cayenne and chili powder in it. At first, I was questioning them in meatloaf. THEN I thought, "How can I possibly question Alton?" Needless to say, he was right. No real heat to speak of, just a little sump'n-sump'n! I loved it.

I also got the idea of saute'ing the veg before adding to the meat from an episode of Bobby Flay's Throwdown. The basic idea is that PREcooking the veg makes the flavor work into and throughout the meat better. This was a tip (BTW) of the CHALLENGER, who ended up winning the Throwdown. Usually my 6yo won't touch anything with veggies incorporated into it, but he had 2 pieces!

BobBrisket said:

I'd hit that!! How bout sharing the sour cream tater recipe. Thanks for sharing!

Bob

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Now THAT I can't do. It's a secret.
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:laugh:
JUST KIDDING!!!

It's nothing real special, but the kids LOVE it.

Basically, it's standard mashed taters but with sour cream instead of milk. To feed our crew, it ends up being anough potatoes to chunk and almost fill a 3 qt. pot (usually around 5-6 large taters I think). Boil until fork JUST fork tender, drain and return to pot. Add 1 stick of butter and maybe 2 heaping table spoons (not a real TBS, jus the large spoons) of sour cream and hit it all with the beaters until blended, but not TOO much or they'll get tough. S&P to taste. I usually start with just the butter and S&P, mix a bit and add sour cream until it's creamy enough.

Enjoy!