Mother’s Meat Loaf

I have mixed feelings about meat loaf. Part of me thinks it’s a great comfort food. And part of me remembers it as one of 4 meals my mom cooked when I was growing up: Meat loaf, tuna casserole, shepherd’s pie and American chop suey. We had those things a lot, so I kind of got burned out with them. With the exception of Tuna Casserole, which I love to this day, I rarely make the others. In fact, the only time I make shepherd’s pie is for my husband’s birthday because it’s one of his favorites.

When I was going through my Grandma Barbara’s recipes last weekend, I came across her recipe for Meatloaf and I thought “why not. Let’s give it a try.” There were actually 3 separate recipes that she had: Meat Loaf – Mother’s, Meat Loaf for 2 – BLH (Barbara Lincoln Holbrook – my grandmother), and Hamburg Loaf.

Grandma Barbara obviously used the Meat Loaf for 2 and the Hamburg Loaf recipes more often. There were cute little notes on these. Things like

“Oct. 76 – very good. Cooked – 1 hour in mod to hot oven.”

“2 small pats for R + I”

“O.K. Nov. ‘74”

Mother’s recipe would have been her mother, my Great Grandmother Edith Baldwin Lincoln. She passed decades before I was born, but many of Grandma Barbara’s recipes mention her mother, so I feel like I know her somehow.

Since all the recipes had very similar ingredients, but Mother’s Meat Loaf made a larger loaf, so that’s the one I went with.

This was very easy to put together and ended up being so delicious. Maybe because I haven’t had meat loaf in years, or maybe I was feeling particularly nostalgic that day. This hit the “comfort food” spot. Thanks Grandma Barbara and Great Grandma Edith!

Notes:

All 3 of my grandmother’s recipes called for poultry seasoning. But one said that you could substitute minced onion, so that’s what I did.
I use 80% Lean Ground Chuck for this recipe as the higher fat content allows it to hold together better and stay juicier.
For the cracker crumbs, I used Ritz crackers. You could also substitute bread crumbs
I use a loaf pan for this recipe, but you could also do a freeform loaf and cook it on a cookie sheet.

Here’s the recipe. If you give these a try, please let me know how they came out. I’d love to hear from you. Follow me on Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook for more stories and recipes from my family table to yours.

Enjoy.