My first reader-submitted recipe!

Laura P.'s Grandma's Meatloaf
submitted by Laura P.

2/3 C breadcrumbs I was all out of plain regular bread crumbs so I used Panko
1/4 C grated onion I pulverized my onion in my mini-chopper
1 C milk
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 lb ground beef
~1/4 tsp sage (recipe calls for 1/2 tsp but Laura's P's mom says to use less than that)
2 slightly beaten eggs

Sauce:
3 T brown sugar
1/4 C ketchup
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp dry mustard

Soak breadcrumbs in milk, add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Put in greased loaf pan. Cover with sauce. Bake 350 degree F for 1 hour.
_____________________________________

After posting my meat loaf recipe round up, Laura P. sent me her grandmother's recipe. I tend to forget about things if I can't get to them right away but I didn't forget this. My last meat loaf was great and it left me wanting more meat loaf. I had meat loaf on the brain. This is a similar recipe to the last one I made but it's those little bits of spice that intrigued me. Sage and nutmeg? I really wanted to try this.

I went to make this and realized I had no plain bread crumbs and Italian seasoned crumbs would have overpowered the sage and really made an entirely differently meat loaf. I was going to use oatmeal, which Laura had mentioned as an alternative to the bread crumbs. That would have worked and I love the texture of oatmeal in a meat loaf but I spotted the panko crumbs and thought they would be the better substitute. I think they are basically equivalent to regular plain bread crumbs when used as a filler.

What can I say? Another damn good meat loaf. I love that hint of sage in the meat and the hint of nutmeg in the sauce. Those are two spices I don't pull out often enough. They give this meat loaf it's own character but it's not in-your-face.

I think this recipe illustrates why it can be so difficult to recreate a treasured family recipe, if it was not handed down properly. This is a pretty standard meat loaf recipe but if Laura P. had no idea what Grandma was doing in the kitchen, would she ever come up with that touch of sage and bit of nutmeg on her own? Because without them you have a delicious meat loaf but it wouldn't be Grandma's meat loaf. And Grandma's recipe is good!

I'm going to add this to my meat loaf recipe round up.