Last summer I sought help for my meatloaf which was mediocre at best, and received at least a million responses. The thread went on and on, and my ultimate conclusion was that f you don't know how ask a proper question, you can't get a helpful answer. I believe I failed to express myself well. There were tons of suggestions, and since then, I've gone through a couple of cows making meatloaf, none of them too exciting. I now suspect that it's not my recipes that are at fault, it's my meatloaf pan which is in two parts. The inner part which holds the meat, is drilled full of holes on the bottom. This is supposed to enable you to get rid of excess fat. This pan, fits inside an outer pan which is apparently no more than a regular bread pan. It is sufficiently deep, so that there is at least a half inch of empty space between bottoms of both pans as the meatloaf cooks. When the meatloaf is done, there is always a considerable amount of melted fat and other juices at the bottom of the outer pan. I'm beginning to wonder if this is why I'm cooking crappy meatloaf? Maybe the best part of my meatloaf is going the drain!
I'd like to hear from those who have opinions on this matter. I'm thinking of trying a free form meat loaf on a flat pan, or even in a traditional pan. I like chuck, but I have used very lean meat (tasteless) and it too has exuded liquids that maybe shouldn't be extracted with a two pan method. If I cook in a regular pan, wouldn't it fill up on the bottom with fat?
I'd like to hear from those who have opinions on this matter. I'm thinking of trying a free form meat loaf on a flat pan, or even in a traditional pan. I like chuck, but I have used very lean meat (tasteless) and it too has exuded liquids that maybe shouldn't be extracted with a two pan method. If I cook in a regular pan, wouldn't it fill up on the bottom with fat?