click photo to enlarge

This really is "really good" meatloaf. It's a bit of a gourmet twist on plain old meatloaf. Our members who've made it all rave about it. When you open the recipe, click on the button for "see all reviews" and you'll see what I mean. So, I thought it would be another good recipe to have in our learn to cook series.

There is a lot of chopping here but nothing technically difficult. This recipe will help you to learn how to be organized about the preparation of a dish that has a lot of ingredients. It also teaches you that it's ok to mix stuff with your hands as long as they are clean! This is one time when that parental admonition "Don't play with your food!" does not apply.

And for the first time in the cooking series, we have a complete meal. We recommend sides to have with the meatloaf and the step-by-step instructions tell you when to make them.

You'll use a bain marie (bahn marie) to cook the meatloaf. What the heck is that? I have no idea why the technique is called that, but it is. It consists of placing the pan with the meat in it inside a larger pan, and adding some water to the larger pan. This allows the meatloaf to bake in the oven until it's done without drying it out. It makes for a tender, moist meatloaf. Bain maries are also used for cooking delicate desserts like custards. So after you make the meatloaf, you'll know what one is and you won't need to be afraid of it.

Yeah, you could just throw the meatloaf into the oven without the bain marie. What you'll probably end up with is dried out meat reminiscent of bad cafeteria food. Don't think of this as "gourmet" cooking: it's simply a technique to ensure a thoroughly cooked yet moist finished product. Much of cooking is all about not over-cooking food, and this recipe just shows you one example of that.

At-Home Safe Food Handling *

* with permission from Kansas State University Research & Extension