Not Your Mama's Meatloaf!

Last October I had the honor and privilege of traveling to Massachusetts and up to Vermont with my mom and my dear Great Aunt, Dottie. We had many fine adventures and stopped at some fun places to eat, but the restaurant experience that stood out the most was our visit to Chandler's Restaurant at The Yankee Candle Company's flagship store in Deerfield, Massachusetts.

Where else will you find an old wagon filled with pumpkins?

We were seated in such a beautiful, cozy nook overlooking the mist-shrouded gardens.

There were "chandeliers" of hand dipped candles hanging from the ceiling.

We loved the exposed beam ceilings and rough timber floors.

An old fashioned lantern with holly berry bushes growing around it.

Seriously, does it get any more charming than these pictures show?  (Actually, yes it does get more charming! You have to see inside the massive Yankee Candle store to even comprehend what I'm talking about.. we're talking acres and acres of candle-y goodness!)

I digress.

Anyone who knows me well will tell you that I do not like meatloaf. Nope, nuh-uh, no way! Something about mashing up breadcrumbs, eggs and ketchup never pleased me in this lifetime... so you can imagine my hubby's surprise when he called me while we were at Chandler's restaurant and I told him I had ordered the meatloaf. I know! I was surprised too! But something prompted me to order it and I am so glad I did!

The meatloaf at Chandler's was unlike anything I had tasted before. It was dense, moist and not a lick of ketchup in sight! I could actually see the seasonings and minced vegetables in the sliced meatloaf and the taste was out of this world! It was served with a gravy that was as light as Au Jus, and had a sprinkling of onions, mushrooms and thyme included.

It. Was. Divine!

Five months later and I still cannot get that meatloaf out of my head. I wanted to go back to the kitchen and beg them to apprentice me so that I could learn the secret of this un-meatloaf! Since I couldn't do that, I spent the last five months pondering.. planning, and finally giving it a go for myself.

I think Chandler's meatloaf had veal in it but I couldn't find veal at my local market so I opted for 3 parts beef, two parts pork in my meatloaf mix. (I will warn you now, there is no recipe here because I winged it from start to finish!) I had the idea of mixing in ricotta cheese to give it more density and moisture, so I prepared the ricotta as if I was making stuffed shells... I added an egg, fresh parsley and garlic and mixed well. In the meanwhile, Hubby had been told offered to mix the meats for me because I'm a bit squeamish when it comes to raw meat. When I saw it was mixed well, I added two eggs, approx 1/4 c. of bread crumbs, scallions, salt, pepper, thyme, garlic, red pepper, and a splash of Worcestershire sauce to the mix. I was at a loss when it came to flavoring though because my normal method involves flavoring, tasting, then flavoring some more. Obviously, with raw meat this cannot be done. I knew that under-seasoned was better than over-seasoned though, so I kept the seasonings on the lighter side, trusting my gravy to do the rest.

At this point in the preparation, Hubby and I had a disagreement as to how the ricotta should be added. He wanted to use a square, glass pan and layer it like lasagna. I wanted to mix it in with the meat and put it in a bread loaf pan then tuck it in with a blanket of bacon. Because I had never made meatloaf before, I truly had no idea which method of preparation would turn out best so I suggested we do both and make it a contest.

The game was on!

Hubby took half of the meat mixture and began his layering process while I added my half of the ricotta to the meat in the mixer. When Hubby was done shaping his meatloaf lasagna, I kindly asked him to shape my meat into a loaf and place it into the pan. Then I took a thick, apple wood smoked bacon and cut the strips in half so I could gently lay the strips across the top of the loaf.

We put both meat creations into a 375 degree oven and set the timer for 90 minutes. In the meantime, I went to work on the gravy I had envisioned for my meatloaf. I caramelized some diced onion in butter and then added sauteed mushrooms to the pan. Then I added white wine, beef base and water. After simmering for a bit, I seasoned it up with salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic and  two cans of Campbell's beefy onion soup.  I thickened it up with cornstarch and it was perfect!

When the timer beeped, we took our creations from the oven. This is how they looked:

We agreed that I won the "Fresh from the oven" presentation prize and the truth is that I preferred the density and overall texture of my ricotta mix. Hubby's layered loaf had the advantage of mouthfuls of ricotta cheese, much like lasagna. Because both were essentially flavored the same, minus the bacon, the taste was a draw. It was such a fun experiment and we will definitely be making meatloaf in our household again, only next time I think I would like to finely dice some celery and sauté it before adding it to the meat mixture as well. I think the added texture and flavor would be perfect!