No, but let’s think about it…it’s pretty common to see recipes for chili, lasagna, various stews (whether dubbed New England boiled dinner, pot at feu, carbonnade, etc)…theres a pretty basic formula for most of them.
But I dont see a lot of recipes for meatloaf, and the recipes vary wildly from kitchen to kitchen. Sure, we all start with ground/mince protein (usually meat, but…) but from there it goes wherever the cook wants to go…onions, garlic (or not) egg, panade, oatmeal, ketchup, bbq sauce…it goes off the rails pretty quickly!
Put the oven rack in the middle position and preheat oven.
Oil a 9 inch square baking pan or a casserole or earthenware.
Stir together the bread and milk in a large bowl and let stand 10 mins.
Add the beef, lightly beaten eggs, the spices and you can use AGED provolone or AGED Reggiano Parmigiano and mix with your hands until combined and then combine the prossciuto.
Scatter 2 tablesps. of BREAD CRUMBS in an 8 x 4 earthenware rectangle on a piece of 16 inch papillote paper.
Then in a row dow the middle, place the ground meat and press it to form a single 8 x 4 inch LOAF.
Bake 45 - 55 minutes.
Let stand at least 10 minutes before slicing.
I drizzle with a Marinara sauce however, it also works well with polenta or mashed potatoes …
Though I generally avoid unitaskers, I have a meat loaf pan. This is a loaf pan with a perforated lift-out insert that allows all the juices to drain without burning. Once the finished meatloaf is lifted out, it is easy to pour the juices into a pan, to make gravy. I use condensed cream of mushroom soup, plus Gravy Master or Kitchen Bouquet or HP Brown Sauce to extend the meat juices. Sometimes red wine as well.
The only gravies I eat off-season after Thanksgiving are béarnaise and hollandaise.
4 Likes
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
28
This may be another of those transatlantic language differences but, in the UK, those are sauces not gravies. Yes, gravy is a sauce but, to us, it’s a very specific one, derived from meat juices and definitely not to be confused with other wet things you might put on your plate.
Are there others that are good? Husband loves gravy in gravy portions (as opposed to sauce in sauce portions), but hates mushrooms. Do make it over a a few days at Thanksgiving, but I’d love to find something he likes without having to make it.
This varies regionally in the U.S. As a northerner, I consider “gravy” to be one very specific sauce, i.e. stock of some type (usually meat or mushroom) thickened with a roux. I know some Southerners who refer to just about any sauce as gravy, as well as some Italian Americans (from all over the U.S.) who refer to tomato sauce as gravy.
Someone’s sauce is another person’s gravy. Three of the classic French sauces are bechamel, veloute and espagnol. They would be familiar as gravy to many Americans. The one gravy I’ve thought as an oddball in the American canon is red eye gravy. Taste fine with ham, but I can’t say I ever seen it used anywhere else.
1 Like
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
33
I encountered “Sunday Gravy” in a Boston restaurant in 2012. Place was Italian-ish. And my notes tell me this was a tomato “gravy” enhanced with shreds of beef. It was served with gnocchi and was damn tasty. That was our first dinner of the trip and the food quality just continued throughout (including one place suggested by my longterm friend here, and Chowhound, LindaWhit)
Exactly the point I was making above. In the case of bechamel, most Americans would probably refer to it as white gravy (or milk gravy), to distinguish it from veloute or sauce Espagnole (aka chicken gravy or brown gravy). White gravy is more common to southern American cooking than northern, though, and northerners would probably be just as likely to call bechamel “white sauce” as “white gravy.”
Williams Sonoma makes a good jarred turkey gravy base. It’s only available at Thanksgiving but that is about another month in retail world. In the past they made few variations, I’m not sure what will be available this year but the traditional turkey is already available on line. I always used to buy several jars and kept them to use throughout the year. https://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/turkey-gravy-base/?pkey=cturkey
It’s not a difference. They are sauces here, too. Gravy is made from drippings. Except for “Sunday gravy” which, in some areas, is what Italian-Americans call spaghetti sauce made with meat(s).
I buy the mushroom because it’s vegetarian, and I have some of those in the family. They also make regular turkey gravy which is good as well. I’ve only noticed the gravy for sale around Thanksgiving and Christmas though. You could stock up then and keep it the freezer.
Just checked out the site (thanks for posting it)- they say it’s available for order and will be delivering 9/6 or 9/7 to both your zip code and mine. We have a store here, I might go buy a few jars early next month.
