Individual Meat Loaves

My husband’s favorite birthday dinner is meatloaf! His birthday is in January or “deepest darkest winter” as he calls it, and he craves warm-welcoming comfort food. Dennis is a professional chef and can certainly make or ask me to make anything he wants and meatloaf is at the top of his birthday dinner list. I like to make individual meatloaves instead of one big loaf and that way, everyone gets their own. The other advantage to individual loaves is that if you try to reheat a larger loaf, it tends to dry out. I like to make my meatloaves with ground beef because of the way beef stands up to the bold and tangy ketchup and I guess, it is what I grew up with and is most comforting. To keep meatloaf from becoming tough and drying out, I use a panade. A panade is a mixture of starch, fat and liquid used to bind meatloaf and some pastry items. The panade also keeps the meat from shrinking and becoming tough and dry when cooking. As the proteins shrink when cooking, the panade adds moisture, bulk and flavor to meatloaf, meatballs, fillings for dumplings and more. I favor fresh, fluffy breadcrumbs for my meatloaf, but rice, oatmeal and flour will work as well.

• Prep time: 10
• Cook time: 20
• Ready time: 30 min

4-5

• 2 egg yolks
• 2 tablespoons white wine
• 2 tablespoons chicken stock or water
• 3/4 cup fresh breadcrumbs, leftover challah works well for this
• 20 ounce ground chuck
• 1 small red onion, diced
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Preheat oven to 325

1. Mix the egg yolks, white wine, chicken stock or water and bread crumbs together until they become a gooey paste. Lightly mix the ground chuck into the mixture until well combined. Do not over mix or the meatloaf will be tough.
2. Add the remaining ingredients. Shape the loaves into 5 football shaped loaves. Place the loaves on a parchment lined jelly roll pan.
3. Bake the loaves for 20 minutes. Generously dollop ketchup on the loaves and continue baking until a thermometer registers 160 when inserted into the thickest part.
4. Dollop more glaze on the meatloaves before serving.