A strange problem

[liltreesy]

First, Ill just start off by saying I'm new, and I don't know if this is the appropriate place for this question, but it seemed like the only forum that I could "go to" (?) so to speak.

Secondly, my problem. A very wierd problem when I cook ground beef in the oven (meatloaf and the like). I will cook the meatloaf, check it, and it will be completely done, except for a "vein" of raw meat running through randomly. This isn't like the pink in the middle of a burger, but just a random line of raw meat that runs from top to bottom, left to right like a vein of mineral deposit!

I am at a loss as to if this is my oven, the beef, or gremlins.

I haven't seen it with any other type of meat that I bake, or cakes. Its just the beef. Has this ever happened to anyone else, or is there an explanation that will make me seem less crazy? Any help is appreciated.

 

[Barbara L]

I have absolutely no clue why that is happening, but have you tried turning your meatloaf halfway through cooking? Hopefully someone else will know more about the subject!

Welcome to DC!

Barbara

 

[Andy M.]

It may be due to incomplete mixing in of the ingredients. Specifically the bread crumbs. If the bread crumbs aren't mixed in to the meat evenly, you could be left with a vein of more dense meat that takes longer to cook.

 

[Chef Dave]

A very wierd problem when I cook ground beef in the oven (meatloaf and the like). I will cook the meatloaf, check it, and it will be completely done, except for a "vein" of raw meat running through randomly. This isn't like the pink in the middle of a burger, but just a random line of raw meat that runs from top to bottom, left to right like a vein of mineral deposit!

How are you checking the meatloaf? Are you using a thermometer? If you are using a thermometer, are you pushing the point into the middle of the loaf? Sometimes people push the thermometer all the way to the bottom ... but if you do this, you're actually measuring the temperature at the bottom of the pan and not the center of the meatloaf.

If you are measuring the temperature in the center of the meatloaf, what temperature are you looking for? Unless you had your butcher grind the beef, I typically cook it well done because hamburger from processing plants contains the meat of hundreds if not thousands of cows ... and the likelihood that some overworked and underpaid processor made a mistake and nicked the bowels spreading fecal matter throughout the meat is a strong possibility.

This is incidentally why all fast food burger chains cook their burgers well done.

 

[liltreesy]

It may be due to incomplete mixing in of the ingredients. Specifically the bread crumbs. If the bread crumbs aren't mixed in to the meat evenly, you could be left with a vein of more dense meat that takes longer to cook.

I had never thought about that, but it does seem to be a possibility, since I know I didn't mix the meatloaf very well last night (kids running amok, hooray!) haha. I had never thought that would cause something like that. I am still a fairly novice cook, so I just thought I had gremlins or something!

As for checking the temperatures, I use a meat thermometer in the middle of the meatloaf, between 1 and 2 inches in depending on the type of "loaf" im making, and I look for whatever temperatures it says on the packaging. Im not sure what type of meat we get at the commissary but most of the stuff is pretty local, which doesn't mean its not a big meat plant, just means the cows are from around here =)

Thank you so much for all the tips, and advice. I appreciate it, and will definitly mix the meatloaf better next time and see if that alleviates the problem. I had never had the problem before and I thought it was my oven, but now that Andy mentions bread crumbs I realize that when we moved here, I did switch from oats to bread crumbs! Oats are way easier to get mixed in there, and those little crumbs are... a pain =)