For The Best Meatloaf, Choose This Beef Blend Every Time
Dense and dry meatloaf? You might have overmixed the meat, used the wrong binders, or even packed it too tightly inside the pan. However, if you aren't guilty of any of these meatloaf mistakes, you may need to reassess the ground beef you started with.
Take a look at a package of grocery store ground beef, and you'll find a pair of numbers on the wrapping. This ratio is an expression of the amount of lean meat versus fat inside. So, for example, 80/20 means 80% meat and 20% fat. The amount of fat in a classic beef meatloaf is a key ingredient because it carries oodles of flavor and also provides moisture; without it, your dish will be dry, mealy, and even tough. Meanwhile the meat provides the structure that the meatloaf needs to stick together and be sliceable.
While you might be tempted to opt for ground beef with less fat for health reasons, the flavor and texture of your meatloaf will suffer. Conversely, go for a fattier blend and your baked meatloaf may end up swimming in a pool of rendered fat and taste overly greasy. A middle ground of 80/20 or 80/15 is the sweet spot.
Select a leaner beef blend when adding pork or sausage to meatloaf
If you're making a meatloaf featuring different meats, you might need to adjust this ratio for optimum results. For example, pork or even crumbled sausage with a higher level of fat can be added to meatloaf to lend it a juicier quality. Veal, with its soluble collagen and rich measure of gelatin, helps meatloaf retain its moisture too. If incorporating any of these options into your meatloaf, select a beef blend with a lower amount of fat so the finished result isn't swimming in grease. Turkey, meanwhile, is much leaner than beef (and makes an appearance in this turkey quinoa meatloaf recipe), so you might want to go for a 80/20 beef blend versus a 85/15 to make up for its drier character.
If you only have lean ground beef on hand, such as a 90/10 blend, there are a couple of ways to make your meatloaf slightly juicier. For instance, you can incorporate a panade — a mixture of breadcrumbs and a dairy product, such as milk, cream, or buttermilk — into the recipe to compensate for the lower fat content. As these dairy products contain fat, they make the texture of the meatloaf less dense and provide flavor.