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What Do You Cook Meatloaf In?

Article by: MTR | Photo by: Allrecipes

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You can buy special pans for meatloaf. Or, not.

You’ve made your meatloaf mix. Now--how do you go from formless ball of raw meat to round mound of sandwich- or gravy-ready loaf?

The easy solution is a loaf pan. Just dump the raw meat in, and it takes the shape of the loaf. Of course, it isn’t necessarily that easy. Here’s one for $11, here’s an All-Clad for $110). Problem is, a loaf pan also holds in lots of fat, which throws off the taste of your meatloaf and also makes it way more unhealthy than it really needs to be. Not that your nutritionist is ever going to recommend meatloaf, but still.

So our nation’s enterprising manufacturers have created special pans just for meatloaf (here’s one for $12, or a fancier one for $22). These two-piece jobs consist of a regular loaf pan with holes on the bottom and a shallow pan beneath to keep the fat from dripping into your oven and setting your kitchen ablaze.

TIP: Have a power drill? Of course you do, we were just kidding. Make your own meatloaf pan out of a regular loaf pan by drilling holes in the bottom. Prop it up with short stanchions. Then put a shallow baking sheet underneath to catch the fat.

Now, you may want to spend your money on beer instead of new kitchen crap, and your time on something other than drilling through a loaf pan and angering your wife. You can just form the meatloaf with your hands. You’ll still need to set it on something that catches the fat, like a shallow baking pan, or a kind of boat made of aluminum foil. You can take the suggestion of legendary cookbook author James Beard, and place the loaf on a bed of bacon.

Bacon will absorb the fat, add a little moisture, and if you have a whole package you should have enough to toss over the top of the meatloaf for even more flavor. I think you would’ve liked this James Beard fellow.

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