Meatloaf is personal. We all have a favorite recipe. That said, there's no other way to say this: I Love My Mom's Old-Fashioned All-Beef Meatloaf. I know many of you do too, because you've made it and you've told me so. Both my mother and grandmother used beef exclusively to make meatloaf -- never a combination of beef, pork and veal. My grandmother, who owned a mom and pop grocery store during the Depression era, simply did not like the gelatinous texture that comes from adding mild-flavored veal and did not approve of mixing pork and beef together -- no bacon strips were ever draped over a meatloaf (to muddle up the flavor) in any of my family's kitchens.
Stewed tomatoes w/onions, celery & green peppers, makes for an amazing accompaniment to mom's meatloaf.
Mom never glazed her meatloaf with anything. On nights when mom was serving meatloaf with mashed potatoes, mom would mix the precious-few beefy meat drippings with some seasoned flour and a can of beef broth to whip up some brown gravy to drizzle over the top. On nights when mom was serving meatloaf with macaroni and cheese, she would mix the precious-few beefy meat drippings with some seasoned flour and a can of stewed tomatoes to drizzle over the top.
We affectionately referred to it as: stewed tomato gravy.
1/4 cup beef drippings from mom's meatloaf
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon celery salt
1/2 teaspoon coarse-grind black pepper
2 tablespoons unbleached, all-purpose flour
1 14 1/2-ounce can "original-style" stewed tomatoes w/onions, celery and green peppers, NOT, Italian-style stewed tomatoes with my mom's all-beef meatloaf
~Step 1. In a 1 1/2-quart saucepan, place meatloaf drippings. Stir in seasonings (onion powder, celery salt and black pepper). Heat over medium until drippings are bubbling. Add the flour.
~Step 2. Increase heat to medium-high and stir constantly until a thick, pasty roux forms, about 30 seconds. Add stewed tomatoes. Reduce heat to simmer gently and cook, breaking tomatoes into smaller pieces with side of spoon, about 1 minute. Remove from heat and serve.
Serve gravy w/meatloaf & mac-'n-cheese please:
Stewed-Tomato Gravy for Mom's All-Beef Meatloaf: Recipe yields 1 1/2 cups tomato gravy.
Special Equipment List: 1 1/2-quart saucepan; spoon
Cook's Note: For another meatloaf my mom would occasionally make, just for us kids, check out my ~ Kid's Stuff: Souper Fix-Quick Bowling-Night Meatloaf ~. This quick-to-throw-together-recipe uses a package of store-bought meatloaf mix, and, it gets its tomato-y flavor from Campbell's condensed tomato soup. My brother and I adored it. And yes, you guessed it, this recipe goes great with stewed-tomato gravy drizzled on top too.
"We are all in this food world together." ~ Melanie Preschutti
(Recipe, Commentary and Photos courtesy of Melanie's Kitchen/Copyright 2019)
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