Meatloaf

[kingfish]

I decided to do a meatloaf. WOW, was like nothing I have ever eaten. The texture is what really got me. It was like eating cake made out of meat.
Rough recipe:
3 lbs 80/20 Ground meat
4 cloves fresh garlic minced
1 sweet onion chopped
3 eggs
1/2c milk
2c saltines crushed
1/4c Lee and Pierens - could have gone 1/2c

Smoked over hickory (becouse that is ALL I can find here.) to 170°. Kept smoker at around 230° the whole time. Was about 4 hours if I remember correctly.


All the fixins ready to go.

Mixed up and ready to go on.

Ready to go get started. The wire rack is one of the $1 ones from WM. I decided to do some garlic, onions, and corn also.

The garlic after about 90 minutes. Turned out really well. I used VOO and sea salt. I about bit my fingers off after I turned them over after about 45 minutes.

Ready for glaze...Sweet baby rays original. Should have just used ketchup though.

Ready to serve. Great smoke ring.

Things I will do differently next time:
Chop the onions finer.
Crush the crackers less and use a few more - to add a little more texture.
Find some damn apple wood.
Add a few whole cloves of garlic.
Use Ketchup instead of bbq sauce.
Rub in my standard cayenne/garlic rub.

All in all...Was a good smoke and the meat turned out GREAT. The corn was ok also, though it is REALLY out of season and the stuff I got had to have been shipped in from south of the equator. The onions, well there was just not much too them. Maybe if I do them again I will do them a day before another smoke and use them in a fatty.

 

[mulepackin]

I occasionally get smoking wood from my local Ace hardware. Its the Luhr Jensen chips they use in the Lil Chief smokers. They have apple. I like hickory on beef pretty well though myself.

 

[bustedluckbarbq]

Great lookin' meatloaf!!

 

[ds7662]

Great looking grub. Excellent job on the pictures also.

 

[kookie]

Good looking loaf. Making me hungry now. I am not sure if you have a Menards in your area, but I get bags of apple and cherry and maple and mesquet and hickory, there for a couple bucks each for a 2 pound bag. Around here I know its alot cheaper then the little cheif brand wood. I believe Menard's brand is Western brand. Hope that helps.

Kookie

 

[cman95]

I love smoked meatloaf, looks good.

 

[smoke.eater]

LOL...I just read this line to my wife and we both laughed ourselves into tears........great description Kingfish!!

 

[charles1056]

Great looking meatloaf. Hadn't thought of putting BBQ sauce on as a glaze. When did you put it on?

 

[kingfish]

About half an hour before taking it off. It really didn't add anything to the food though. Should have used ketchup and done it an hour before.

 

[foozer]

Great looking meatloaf.

In what section of Wal-Mart did you find the wire rack? I would like to get me a few of those. Looks like it would work real real well for fatties and ABT's.

 

[kingfish]

Was with the BBQ stuff.

"Oscarware" brand
Disposable Grill Topper
UPC: 091221983449
Made in USA

 

[richoso1]

Meatloaf... a great comfort food when prepared as you have done. Congrats my friend.

 

[lance-a-lot]

Great lookin loaf brother, I made one on Saturday (my first one ever) and it didn't come out to good, hopefully next time it will look more like yours, nice job.

 

[oldgrandman]

Oak and maple (any of those trees in Alabammy?) are also good smoking woods, I have never tried actual smoking with them myself but have had meat other guys smoked using those woods and I had no complaints on their stuff. Just thought I'd toss that out there...Looked great the way it was though!

 

[gooose53]

That's a great looking meatloaf!! My first one tasted fine but fell like a cake. I did another one on Monday (since us feds had the day off) and it did much better and even tasted better....as they say...practice makes perfect!

 

[got smoke]

looks great did you trim a little of the garlic off the bottom or did you leave them whole?. the garlic i think would make a great smoked garlic butter in a food processor blended together yummy

 

[kingfish]

Yeah, I trimmed the bottoms. poured in VOO and sea salt. Put them bottom up for 45 minutes and flipped them for the rest.

 

[sparky30_06]

Kingfish, GREAT meatloaf. made it yesterday, had left overs for lunch today. WOW is all I have to say. only thing i did different is used breadcrums instead of crackers.

 

[big e]

Really nice Q-View. That meatloaf looks great.

I have bookmarked your post so I can steal your recipe and pass it off as my own.

 

[kingfish]

Would not have shared it if I minded.