November 15^th 2010By Jamie Geller

January 13^th 2012By Chef Laura Frankel

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.

August 11^th 2011By Rochelle Rothman

January 4^th 2011By Jamie Geller

Jamie Geller discusses meat loaf and how to make little single serving meatloaves.