Bacon Wrapped Meatloaf

January 18th, 2010 by amanda

Meatloaf is definitely my favorite comfort food and I love trying new recipes so I was very excited to see that the Pioneer Woman had one in her cookbook. (We loved the one on her website too!)

This was one of the best meatloaf recipe I’ve tried. The bacon on top was awesome of course but the real star was the Parmesan cheese. Do not buy the already shredded stuff for this recipe. Grate your own into big chunks so that you get big bites of it every once in awhile.

The recipe suggests using a broiler pan so that the fat drains off but I couldn’t find the top piece of mine (the joys of motherhood) so I use a baking sheet. As soon as I pulled the meatloaf out of the oven I used a couple spatulas to move it to a serving platter and had no problems with the fat.

The one thing I didn’t like about this recipe was that you used soaked bread instead of bread crumbs or whatnot. I thought it gave it a weird texture, not bad just weird. Next time I’ll definitely use bread crumbs.

Bacon Wrapped Meatloaf

adapted from The Pioneer Woman Cooks

1 cup milk

4 bread slices

1 pound ground beef

1 pound ground pork

1 cup Parmesan, grated

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon Lawry’s seasoning salt

black pepper

1/2 cup parsley, minced

4 eggs, beaten

8 to 12 thin bacon slices

1 1/2 cups ketchup

6 tablespoons brown sugar

1 teaspoon dry mustard

Preheat oven to 350.

Pour the milk over the bread and allow it to soak in for several minutes.

Place the ground beef, milk soaked bread, Parmesan cheese, salt, seasoned salt, black pepper, and parsley in a large mixing bowl. Pour in the eggs. With clean hands, mix the ingredients until well combined. Form the mixture into a loaf shape on a broiler pan, which will allow the fat from the meat to drain.

Lay the bacon slices over the top, tucking them underneath the meatloaf.

To make the tomato gravy, pour the ketchup into a small mixing bowl. Add the brown sugar and dry mustard. Stir the mixture until well combined. Pour 1/3 of the mixture over the top of the meatloaf.

Bake for 45 minutes, then pour another 1/3 of the remaining tomato gravy over the meatloaf. Bake for an additional 15 minutes.

Serve with the remaining tomato gravy on the side as a dipping sauce.