Meat Loaf (Beef or Lamb)

Recipe No. 288 from the U.S. Army’s WWII cookbook — Meat. Quantities are exactly as printed, for 100 servings; a scaled-down 8-serving version is in the notes.

Ingredients

• Meat, carcass — 45 pounds
• or — as needed

Meat, ground — 31 pounds*

• Onions, finely chopped — 3 pounds (3 No. 56 dippers)
• Celery, finely chopped — 3 pounds (3 No. 56 dippers)
• Garlic, finely chopped — 1 to 2 cloves
• Bread crumbs, soft — 6 pounds
• Salt — 6 ounces (¼ mess kit cup)

Pepper — ½ ounce (2 mess kit spoons)

• Eggs, slightly beaten — 48 eggs (2½ No. 56 dippers)
• Meat stock** — 2 to 3 quarts (2 to 3 No. 56 dippers)
• Bacon fat — as needed

Directions

Key ingredients

Bacon Grease

1. Cut meat into small pieces; grind.
2. Combine meat, onions, celery, and garlic.
3. Add bread crumbs, salt and pepper, slightly beaten egg and stock; mix well but avoid overmixing.
4. Mold into loaves about 4 inches wide by 3 inches high and as long as baking pans are wide. Place in baking pans. Brush tops of loaves with bacon fat.
5. Bake, uncovered and without water, at constant temperature in moderate over (325° F.) 1½ hours or until desired degree of doneness is reached. Avoid overcooking.

Notes

SCALED TO 8 SERVINGS (the original is ÷12.5): Meat, carcass — 3 lb 9⅔ oz or — to taste Meat, ground — 2 lb 7⅔ oz Onions, finely chopped — 3¾ oz Celery, finely chopped — 3¾ oz Garlic, finely chopped — scale to taste (1 to 2 cloves) Bread crumbs, soft — 7⅔ oz Salt — ½ oz Pepper — a pinch Eggs, slightly beaten — 3¾ eggs Meat stock — scale to taste (2 to 3 quarts (2 to 3 No. 56 dippers)) Bacon fat — to taste

10 to 12 pounds of the 31 pounds ground raw meat may be left-over cooked meat. Amount of stock used depends upon quantity of moisture in bread crumbs. Meat loaf is a roast. Gravy may be made in pans in which meat was cooked.

— TM 10-412, Army Recipes (War Department, 15 August 1944), recipe No. 288, Meat. Army measures: 1 No. 56 dipper = 1 qt; 1 No. 55 dipper = 1¾ qt; 1 mess kit cup = 1½ pints.