Meatloaf

-Keith

The Loaf

The Glaze

I cook a lot. And I cook food that covers a fair span of complexity. I have a tiramisu recipe that is not yet finished that I have been tweaking for around five years, (largely because it’s so rich I can only eat it a couple of times a year). I make pasta from scratch. I make spice blends from dried peppers to suit the food I’m coating them in.

But with all of these complex foods, my meatloaf is what I’d consider my specialty or signature dish. It is not comparable to any other meatloaf out there, and yours is likely to be as good as mine. But if it’s a cold day, if I’m feeling down, or need to make something for someone I care about, this meatloaf is what I make. It’s got relatively little prep, and that lets me be with my loved ones instead of in the kitchen.

I’ve chosen to make this my first recipe to post because this is what I think about when I think about why I enjoy cooking. Unlike most of my other favorite recipes, there is nothing special to me about it. It doesn’t show off my flair as a chef, or how deeply I’ve studied something niche. The best part of this dish is the time not spent cooking, but instead being with others. This is the dish I share first when others ask me to cook because I think it tastes great and it lets me be with them rather than elusively muttering incantations in front of a cutting board or stove.

In fact, this is the first time I’ve written it down. I’ve never before had this ‘recipe’ to follow. I had a recipe for my mom’s meatloaf, which was given to me in a binder full of my favorite recipes she had made me growing up (hands down one of the best gifts I’ll ever receive), but I’d often not have all of the ingredients she used. I used it as a guideline and adjusted it according to my taste, which was frequently reflected by what ingredients I had on hand in the fridge.

In making those adjustments, I realized how much I love to cook. I studied engineering and was constantly stressed. (I still am, though I’m working significantly on managing it). Cooking allowed me to escape because no matter what had to be done, for the next n minutes I was tied up with the food I was making. The food never cared about the math I had yet to solve, it needed attention regardless.

Since then, cooking has become both a stress relief and a passion. I’ll end up in restaurants ordering dishes, and deconstructing them to figure out how I could make them. If the dish required equipment I didn’t have, it was even better because it forced my engineering skills to work on it too.

Meatloaf is simple. It’s a hefty chuck of meat that when properly cooked cannot withstand the rapid acceleration necessary to make it a suitable artillery substitute during times of warfare, when resources are low. (It should be acknowledged that the enterprising individual might find suitable uses for meatloaf in non-lethal close combat). But it’s weakness in warfare are advantages at the dinner table. It might be at its best when accompanied by some dinner rolls, mashed potatoes, corn, and brown gravy. None of which have to take up your time actively prepping dinner and thereby letting you focus on those you love instead.