I Tried Our Most Popular Meatloaf Recipes and This One Was, Without a Doubt, the Best

I'll come back to this one again and again.

The fall leaves currently peeking through the landscape have me craving comfort food in a big way. Give me the casseroles, bring me the soups, let’s make a meatloaf. Eaten hot out of the oven with mashed potatoes, cold over the sink in the middle of the night, or griddled and sandwiched the next day, meatloaf ranks high on my personal list of feel-good food.  In the name of finding the quintessential meatloaf, I tried the five most popular recipes on Allrecipes, gave our family a solid case of the meat sweats, and found the very best one.

What Makes a Great Meatloaf?

The ideal meatloaf is moist, but never mushy on the inside. The outer shell should be crisp but yielding to the fork.  The loaf should maintain its shape when rested and turned out and should slice easily for serving. The seasoning should accentuate, but not overpower, the meaty main character. As far as meat goes, many recipes call for pork, veal, beef, or all three combined. For the purpose of this test and to narrow the playing field, I tested beef-only recipes.

‘Meat’ The Contestants

• Rempel Family Meatloaf submitted by Connie Levesque

• Cheeseburger Meatloaf by Douglas Tuccinardi

• Brown Sugar Meatloaf by tangastar

• Air Fryer Meatloaf by aigerekairfryer

• Easy Meatloaf by Janet Shum

The Criteria:

I used three basic categories to weigh the contestants:

• Texture: Meatloaf should never ever be mushy. But, perhaps more importantly, it should never be dry. The best texture is derived from a combination of breadcrumbs or crackers soaked in milk for tenderness, eggs for stability, and aromatics for crunch and flavor. Meatloaf texture is highly dependent on the methodology. Once all ingredients are combined, a light hand is called for when shaping the loaf. Too much manipulation will toughen the meat, while too little will result in a sloppy situation.

• Flavor: The best meatloaves get their flavor from aromatics, vegetables, and skillful seasoning: grated onion, carrots, celery, herbs, etc. Salt and pepper are great starting points, and if fresh ingredients simply are not on hand, garlic and onion powders will do in a pinch. Mushrooms, Worcestershire, and even fish sauce serve to amplify the umami qualities of the loaf.

• Crust: Ideally, the outer bits of your meatloaf should be evenly browned and lightly crisped. Classic meatloaves are baked or basted with a ketchup glaze across the top, in which case, the main goal is to avoid gumminess. The best way to achieve this is to bake the loaf and add the glaze either half way through or as soon as it comes out of the oven.
  

The Results

Best for Meatloaf-Related Emergencies

• The recipe: Rempel Family Meatloaf, from Connie Levesque

• Average Rating: 4.6

• Rave Review: “I’ve made this for years. I’ve tried others but always come back to this one.” -Vicki

This recipe was the easiest to execute of the bunch, with no vegetable chopping or grating required. Beef, crackers, Cheddar cheese, and onion soup mix are stirred together while eggs are whisked separately and combined with ketchup and steak sauce. The two mixtures are combined and shaped into a handsome loaf that bakes to perfection in an hour. The crust is nice and crisp, the interior is tender, and it slices easily. The onion soup mixture replaces fresh onion and results in a smooth crumb. This was a favorite among my family members.

Most Creative

• The recipe: Cheeseburger Meatloaf, from Douglas Tuccinardi

• Average rating: 4.4

• Rave review: “It was very delicious. My whole family loved it. I added some crumbled bacon because we love bacon cheeseburgers. It will go in the family cookbook.” -David0029

This was hands-down the most fun meatloaf to make—and it made an impressive amount of food. The recipe calls for a whopping 2 pounds of ground beef which is combined with breadcrumbs, onion, eggs, salt, and pepper. This mixture is then pressed out into a large rectangle, sprinkled with  three cups of shredded Cheddar cheese and rolled up, jelly-roll style into a log. It is then baked in a 10x13-inch baking dish for an hour. The crust was nice and crisp, and the cheese inside was such a fun departure from the norm.

Best For Sandwiching

• The recipe: Brown Sugar Meatloaf, from tangastar

• Average rating: 4.5

• Rave review: “I have tried lots of ways to make meatloaf this one is my all time favorite!” -Dinie

True to its name, this recipe calls for a ½ cup of brown sugar pressed and layered with ketchup into the bottom of a greased loaf pan. Beef is combined with eggs, onion, milk, saltines, and ground ginger. After baking and resting, this meatloaf turns out to reveal its glorious top. This recipe is delicious on its own, but as soon as I tasted it, I imagined it on toasted white bread with extra pickles. The flavor juxtaposition of that brown sugar topping with briny pickles would send anyone into a pleasure coma.

Best Texture

• The recipe: Air Fryer Meatloaf, by aigerekairfryer

• Average rating:4.6

• Rave review: “The air fryer effortlessly creates this amazing dish with a perfect crispiness on the edges, making it truly awesome.” -Russell

A few years ago you could not have convinced me to buy an air fryer. Another clunky piece of equipment that I have to find a place for in my already overcrowded kitchen? No thank you. However, the number of times an air fryer recipe has surprised and thrilled my soul is too much for me to count. Who would have guessed that you can make a meatloaf in an air fryer? Not only is the recipe spot on, starting with milk-soaked breadcrumbs, eggs and onion, the developer added fresh thyme, which lends a freshness and woodsy quality that I found to be delightfully nuanced. The glaze is brushed on near the end of cooking, which results in a perfectly crisped crust. It only takes 20 minutes to finish—and now I have to buy an air fryer.

Best Classic Meatloaf

• The recipe: Easy Meatloaf, by Janet Shum

• Average rating: 4.7

• Rave review: “This was a simple and delicious meatloaf. Big smiles all around from my family. I don’t like meatloaf but I’ll tell you, I ate this one and very much enjoyed it. The topping totally makes the whole meatloaf! Awesome” -Allrecipes member

Janet’s recipe calls on the classics: beef, egg, onion, breadcrumbs, milk, and salt, and pepper. After mixing and shaping, this mixture gets topped with a ketchup-mustard-brown sugar glaze before baking, which results in a smooth, shiny red top. This recipe tastes like Americana. The flavors are simple and homey, the texture is moist but not sloppy, and the topping is spot on. This is the meatloaf recipe I will feed my family again and again.

Read the original article on All Recipes.