My Mom's Meatloaf
By Annie Copps

For some people, meatloaf is the food they ate when there was nothing left in the house. For me, the meatloaf was so good, I had to beg my mother to make it. My Mom, also a terrific cook, had a "thing" about meatloaf, I think she thinks of it as a little de classe. Occasionally she would succumb, but she couldn’t understand why we liked it so much. Now she confesses to making and enjoying it—no wonder, wait until you try this recipe, it is more dense than most meatloaves and it tastes great the next day in a sandwich with sautéed onions and ketchup.

Preparation Time: 30 minutes
Start to Finish Time: 90 minutes
Yield: about 9 pieces

Ingredients
3 slices white bread, crust removed
1 cup milk
1 pound ground beef
1/2 pound ground pork
1/2 pound raw chorizo sausage, casing removed
1 cup finely chopped onion
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon kosher or sea salt (approximately)
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 tablespoon dried sage
2 teaspoons dried thyme
2 teaspoons dried rosemary
1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 cup ketchup
3 bacon strips, uncooked

Directions
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Place bread in a small bowl. Pour milk over it and let the bread soak up as much liquid as it will hold.

In a large bowl, knead together beef, pork, and chorizo. Add bread, any milk left in the bowl, onion, eggs, salt, herbs, nutmeg, and ketchup. With super-clean hands, knead until ingredients are uniformly distributed.

Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil. On the lined sheet, mold the meat into a loaf shape, about 9 inches long. Lay bacon strips lengthwise on top. Bake 1 hour. Remove and let rest 20 minutes on a cooling rack. Transfer to a cutting board; slice and serve.

(Courtesy: Yankee Magazine)

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Annie B. Copps is a senior editor at Yankee Magazine. Annie oversees the magazine's food coverage, both as an editor and as a contributor of feature stories and columns.