Do you "stuff' your meatloaf?

[ipsedixit]

I was fortunate -- very fortunate -- to be invited over for a Monday night dinner at a friend's place, who just happens to be a kick-ass cook.

To my surprise, and delight, she served "stuffed meatloaf".

Keep reading, please. It gets better.

The meatloaf was stuffed with --ge this! -- whole, uncut Chinese tea eggs and Taiwanese sausages. A single row of tea eggs flanked by two rows of Taiwanese sausages essentially snaked their way through the belly of the meatloaf.

Fantastic.

Let me thank the cook/hostess again (and hope that you are reading ...).

So, now I want to know ... do you stuff your meatloaf? And, if so, with what???

[shaogo]

The idea of stuffing a meat loaf with sausage and tea eggs -- or even boiled eggs -- is very, very cool. There's an old-fashioned goodness one gets in using cooked eggs in meat dishes; a richness that goes overlooked these days.

I promise you I am going to immediately cook up a meatloaf with eggs, capers, ham and cheese inside it. I will report back with that recipe.

In the meantime:

I make a version of meat loaf that's "stuffed" in a roll sort of fashion:

1 pound sweet Italian sausage, casing removed
1 pound hot Italian sausage, casing removed
1 pound lean ground veal or pork
Roasted red pepper strips, patted dry
Sauteed (clarified, not caramelized) sweet onion (I saute a few cloves of garlic with the onion)

Combine the meat thoroughly and knead it until it gets a pasty consistency. Roll it out into a sheet -- then spread the sheet with the red pepper/onion/garlic mixture. Season well with salt and pepper. Roll up.

Cook the meat loaf at only 300 degrees for a couple of hours, or until a meat thermometer reads at least 160 degrees.

Let the meat loaf cool thoroughly. Slice it thinly and serve with Italian vegetable salad and good bread. I make a caper aioli to spread on these sandwiches.

[Rojellio]

In the BBQ sub-culture, when you cook something like that, and it is wrapped with a BAcon weave... its called a "Fattie" . Here is a collection of "Fatties", some wrapped in prosciutto, and deli ham. I am the guy in the houndstooth shirt. http://www.thesmokering.com/forum/vie...

[shaogo]

Thanks, Rojellio! It's nice to know that I'm not alone. I was not aware of the concept of the Fattie in barbecue culture. But now I am and didn't that open up a whole new can of worms...

(In *my* sub-culture, the New York City sub-culture, a "Fattie" is a rather large marijuana cigarette. But I assure you I didn't inhale.)

[Rojellio]

Meat aint the only thing some BBQ Chefs are smoking. ; ) While I smoked a Pastrami, Corned Beef & Chicken yesterday, I smoked some red bell Paprika Peppers.

The fatty was born of necessity. A BBQ pittmaster gets up at 3:00 am, to fire up the smoker and load it with Butts & Brisket... hes gotta eat breakfast. So he rolls out a pound of sausuage, sprinkles green onions, and scrambled eggs on it, rolls it up and wraps it in bacon and smokes it a few hours. The Dinner Fattie came along later. You can cook one in an oven, but I recommend having a cookie sheet on the rack underneath so that it drips away, and clear of the meat.

[Rojellio]

page 10 or 12 had the judging results. My presentation & appearance was quite good. There were entries that totally blew me out of the water with creativity, and decadence. As for taste and flavor, my Lasagna "Fattie" was incredible. Having gallbladder issues however.. one slice is all I can eat. In future I will replace sausage with Hamburger for more of a rolled meatloaf.

[foiegras]

I do not stuff my meatloaf ... and I try hard not to stuff myself with meatloaf after making it. I do, though, shape the loaf by hand and completely cover it with bacon.

[ipsedixit]

shaogo,

Please report back on your results!

I'm thinking about stuffing my meatloaf with some whole roasted Japanese yams, or some roasted carrots, or some boiled diakon ... possibilites are endless.

[shaogo]

Roasted carrots, with the addition of cooked onion and celery, would make a splendid "inside-out" meat loaf ("inside-out" because the usual vegetable sides are inside, not next to, it).

Boiled daikon, if boiled in flavorsome broth, would make a very unique addition to a meat loaf. Daikon chunks will hold a lot of water, however. Perhaps you want to salt the cooked daikon in a colander for a half hour, to let it drain a bit, before proceeding with the recipe.

Leeks. Oh, I gotta make one with leeks inside. We always have leeks around, too.

[MakingSense]

Mama used to do this with hard boiled eggs way back when. Cheaper than all-meat. And it looked really neat.
Once the no-so-bright husband of one of my cousins was over for dinner and he spent half the meal puzzling over how Mama had gotten "that egg inside that meat." We kids could barely contain our giggles.

I put all sorts of decorative inclusions in homemade pates. When sliced, they look like mosaics. One of the prettiest is a wave of bright green pureed peas through a salmon terrine.

[StheJ]

Lidia did this in some sort of veal breast roll she did last Sunday... It's an interesting technique, but I'm honestly not a huge fan of boiled eggs in my meat.

[shaogo]

Some brasciole recipes call for chopped hard-cooked egg.

The Italian combination of meats and boiled egg usually goes on with the accompaniment of things like capers.

Suffice it to say that I *am* a huge fan of boiled eggs -- in meat loaves and in lots of other dishes.

[nvcook]

My mom used to put sliced hard boiled eggs in one layer of her lasagna. It was quite good.

[coll]

Also excellent in eggplant parmigiana. You don't know it's there, but it makes it so much richer.

[JungMann]

After my aunt made me meatloaf stuffed with eggs and mushrooms I just can't resist the combination of egg and meatloaf. Another aunt stuffs her meatloaf with eggs, chorizo, pickles and strips of red bell pepper. Those larger meatloves are wrapped in caul fat and steamed with the resulting drippings thickened to create gravy.

[Emme]

i've made this using turkey before, but i'm sure it would be better with pork/beef if you like and eat it! http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/dail...