To Ketchup or Not To Ketchup

When Mom T taught me how to make meatloaf, back when I was a new bride for the first time, she insisted that one does not put the ketchup* on the meatloaf while it cooks, only afterward, at the table. Since her meatloaf, a bumpy, chewy feast of textures and flavors, nicely caramelized and guaranteed to encourage overeating, is still my gold standard, I have always followed her dictum.

Lately, however, I've begun to question this doctrine. Meatloaf lovers, I'm curious - do you add the ketchup while the meatloaf is cooking, or not, and what is your reasoning for doing it whichever way you do?

Mom T's Meatloaf

2 lbs. ground beef
1/4 lb bulk sausage**
1.5 slices bread, torn into small pieces
1 egg
1 medium-large onion, chopped
1 or 1 sticks celery, chopped

Sauté onion and celery until soft. Add to other ingredients in a large bowl and mix thoroughly with your hands. Push into a shallow baking pan (it should be about 2" thick) and bake at 375 degrees for about an hour, to desired dark brownness. Serve with ketchup, preferably the sublime ketchup* that June Taylor makes.

**I realized upon typing this out that I have made a modification to her original recipe; I use 1 pound of ground beef and 1 pound of sausage, either bulk sausage or sometimes spicy Italian sausage. I also use whatever bread I have around although she always used sliced white bread.

Meat Loaf By Any Other Name...

My pal Annie calls meat loaf, "Meat Lump," which seemed appropriate since this time my loaf was more of a mound. My elder brother and his lovely wife have christened this dish, "Woodchuck" and that name also seemed particularly appropriate this time, as the recipe I was following added fresh ground pork (ground hog=woodchuck, right?) to the ground beef, chopped onion, panko crumbs, egg, Worcestershire sauce and celery. But, like a rose that would smell as sweet by any other name, meat loaf tastes good, no matter what you call it.

I tried two new ideas with this lump and, sadly, in my view neither was a total success. Ground pork didn't add much to the flavor; next time, I'll return to my half-and-half mixture of ground beef and bulk sausage - or I might try Italian sausage. And cooking the groundhog on the barbecue didn't add as much smoky flavor as I had hoped it might - next time, I'd either plank it on a cedar shake or add smoking chips to the coals to multiply the smoke.

Still, it was good in that homey, hearty way that meat loaf always is and grilling it with just a thin layer of foil between it and the grate over the coals resulted in a nicely caramelized, crusty edge all around the outside that added texture to the slices.

It's a work in progress, inventing the perfect meatloaf. Ain't life grand when it offers such lovely challenges?