Hi apteryx,
Ahhh... typically one of America's favorite comfort foods!
Interesting search trying to nail down the history and origin or
invention of meatloaf.
From the Food Timeline history notes Meatloaf & related ground meat products
http://www.gti.net/mocolib1/kid/foodmeats.html#meatloaf
About meatloaf & related ground meat products.
"Who invented meatloaf, why & when? Good question! Food historians
tell us that from Ancient times to present cooks have been mixing
ground meat with bread products, spices, sauces, and other thickeners.
For what reasons?
1. To distribute meat to more people (protein economy)
2. To conserve resources (use it up, don't throw it out)
3. To make tough meat more palatable (aid digestion)
Early ground (finely chopped or minced) molded meat recipes featured
sausages in skin casings, meat fritters (similar to meatballs),
rissoles, hashes, terrines, and croquettes. The meat employed in these
early recipes was usually already cooked, as opposed to the raw meat
typically used to make meat loaf today. Finished products were
typically fried, stewed, or baked (in molds or pastry).
The raw, ground meat commonly used to make today's American meat loaf
has a humbler heritage. In the 19th century, we know the Industrial
Revolution made it possible for ground meat be manufactured and sold
to the public at a very low cost. At first, many Americans were slow
to purchase raw ground meat products and generally regarded them with
suspicion. Lack of reliable home refrigeration may have played into
this decision. Cooks continued to mince their meat (often already
cooked, as was the practice for centuries) by hand. Companies selling
meat grinders to home consumers at the turn of the century endeavored
to change this practice by provided recipe books to promote their
products. Some of these recipes were simple, others quite creative. A
late 19th century recipe for "Meat Porcupine" instructs the cook to
press her ground meat into an animal-type shape mold and decorate it
with pieces of bacon to achieve the desired effect. Eventually, the
American public began incorporating ground meat into family meals.
Since that time, meat loaf variations have been introduced and
promoted by women's magazines, cookbooks, fairs, food manufacturers,
diners and family-style restaurants. Meat loaf & gravy [often paired
with mashed potatoes and canned green beans ] was very popular in the
1950s. This meal is still considered by some to be the penultimate
comfort food. Did you know that "frosted meatloaf" is ground beef
covered with mashed potatoes? Perhaps this recipe is a distant
relative of shepherd's pie."
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Home Cooking - Meatloaf Magic
http://homecooking.about.com/library/weekly/aa032299.htm
"Meatloaf, in some form or another, has been around since long before
the advent of meat grinders. In the 1900s, meatloaf was not only a
quick dish to prepare but also one that could easily be stretched with
fillers. As a result, it has become one of America's comfort foods."
[edit]
Mom's meatloaf
"If you're like me, you probably enjoy meatloaf the way Mom always
made it, usually a recipe handed down from her own mother. Of course,
this varies from household to household."
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Google Groups - rec.food.cooking
http://groups.google.com/groups?q=history+and+origin+of+Meatloaf&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&selm=19990505160457.07589.00001149%40ngol06.aol.com&rnum=1
"Meatloaf probably came about during the Great Depression when
families needed to get "more mileage" from the foods they had
available.
Somebody else mentioned pate, but I think it's way older than that.
Meatloaf, when you think about it, is just basically a kind of sausage.
It's a way to take tough meat and make it more tender. I'm sure it's been
invented thousands of times, all over the world. I'm sure that immigrants
to the United States brought over the concept from many different
countries. When the concept was developed in those other countries is
probably impossible to trace."
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Google Groups - alt.food.wine
http://groups.google.com/groups?q=history+and+origin+of+Meatloaf&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&selm=4re68vsldr5rd07ubequlh37h4f3pc61tl%404ax.com&rnum=3
[edit]
"Meatloaf, as a dish, on the other hand has a long history in the USA and
it's that to which I was referring in my "German origin". As you (and
anyone else from the States reading this) know even better than I, cooking
in the States is largely derived from the waves of immigrants who make up
the population. From Boston in the NE to New Mexico in the SW, you have
people of widely different ethnic backgrounds, who brought _their_ way of
doing things to the ingredients they could get hold of. So minced beef
might become a sauce for spaghetti for someone of Italian Origin, Chile con
Carne for someone of Mexican origin, Shepherds pie for someone from the UK,
and hamburger (so common that it even became the word for minced beef) for
someone from nothern Germany. And one of these dishes was the meatloaf. And
that has its origins in the similar dishes found in Germany. I can't
pretend to know ALL European cuisines perfectly, but I think you'll find
that the only European country regularly shaping minced meat into a roast
is Germany."
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Oh, this was so familiar! While researching your question, one of the
sites I found was Homemade Gourmet Meal Planning: Dinner Traditions
http://www.homemadegourmet.com/mealplanning/editorials/traditions.asp
"I also remember when I realized that not every family did things
exactly the same way we did. My mother served a varied menu rotating
things constantly so we never seemed to have the same meal twice
(although I know we did!) When I realized that my neighbor?s mother
served Roast on Sundays, Meatloaf on Mondays, Spaghetti on Tuesdays,
etc. I was amazed. Didn't everyone do it the way we did it?"
==================
Meatloaf chat with Times food editor Janet Keeler
http://chat.tampabay.com/transcripts/6-12-02keeler.cfm
"moderatorsteve: Here are two questions that are related so I present
them at the same time...
buckfl: Does meatloaf originate from any particular country?
miss_ling: how did meatloaf come about?
Janet_Keeler: Good question but one that's hard to answer. Food
historians can't pinpoint its origin exactly but there are many
cultures that have a form of meatloaf. Kibbeh in the Mideast would be
one.
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Last but not least... :)
http://www.nwlink.com/~smithwri/inks/cookbook/gk_history.htm
The Legend of the Genghis Khan Meatloaf
"In the year 1216 a caravan of 500 camels laden with gold, silk and
sables was making its way for Otrar, east of the Aral Sea when it was
raided, with loss of all life and valuables. This piqued the interest
of the great Mongol leader, Genghis Khan, not only for the loss of his
possessions, but because it aroused his keen curiosity into the manner
of the cultures beyond his domain. Temujin, as Genghis Khan was known,
had little intelligence of the lands he had not yet subdued; his GIS
technicians had limited access to extra-empire data bases. So Temujin
sent his trusted general, Subedei, across the Gobi desert to discover
what lay outside his realm.
The rest is history. Using tactics and strategies that presaged 20th
Century military thinking, Subedei out thought, outmaneuvered and
outfought much larger armies than his, sometimes..."
[edit]
"As a great general once observed, an army moves on its stomach, and
no leader knew this better than Subedei, for his army was the most
mobile of all. His movements gave him exposure to more food concepts
than Duncan Heinz. In Germany he noted how the citizens of Hamburg
chopped their beef so fine they could mold it like bread dough; as his
legions rounded the Black Sea, a frightened pope sent emissaries
bearing his famous Pax Pizzana, with its divinely savory tomato paste
and fine ground sausage. Naturally the onion domes of Russian
architecture raised Subedei's curiosity about the use of these tangy
vegetables to add life to his entree. And he delighted in the mouth
feel imparted by the fine blond bean that came from the land once
known as Garbanzia. These and other ingredients became incorporated in
his greatest military weapon the meat loaf, which could be cooked in a
single day and reheated for several consecutive meals, providing
quick, nutritious sustenance for legions on the run. He named this
brilliant cuisine for his emperor."
[edit]
"Having never been defeated, they took the secret of their military
victories and of the Genghis Khan Meatloaf with them.
Not until the early 20th Century were the tactics of Subedei fully
appreciated by non-Mongol generals. And it was half a century longer
before an Air Force lieutenant, equally mobile in his sports car, and
constantly in search of conquest, realized repeatedly cooking from
scratch was interfering with his purpose. The solution came to him in
a dream, when the muse divulged Subedei's remarkable invention,
forgotten for seven centuries. While that young lieutenant proved to
be no equal to Subedei in conquest, he was the Mongol warrior's
culinary match in reintroducing a meal that conquers hunger, prevents
scurvy and sates legions. Once again, the world can enjoy the
sumptuous Genghis Khan Meatloaf!"
And now may I present to you Smith's Genghis Khan Meat Loaf
http://www.nwlink.com/~smithwri/inks/cookbook/gk_recipe.htm
"Ingredients
1 can hominy,yellow
1/2 can garbanzo beans
2 bunches radishes
4-5 large sticks of celery, sliced
Lots of small onions, 1" in diameter
3-4 large carrots, coined
1 green pepper, chopped
1 stick of soda crackers
1-2 cups rice
6 large mixing spoons of mustard
1/2-1 cup barbecue sauce
1 small can tomato paste
6-7 eggs
3 lbs. hamburger, lean
1-1.5 lbs. pork sausage, ground
Salt, pepper to taste
"Wash hands up to elbows and clean under fingernails.
Throw everything into a basin, and mix by hand, by letting the goop
run between your fingers. For tactile pleasure, smooth it out and then
plop down the rice, crackers, sauces, etc. and manually mix some more.
Measurements are approximate. The rice absorbs and holds moisture.
Instant rice will do, if desired. Too much rice makes the meat loaf
seem like a pin cushion, if it's long-cooking rice.
Onions are a special treat. You cut open the meat loaf, and they
surprise the guest. They melt into your mouth like hunks of butter."
[edit]
NOTE: The combination provides a variety of textures and a complete
meal, except for utensils and drinks. Serves at least one entire
battalion from Genghis Khan's hordes."
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THE PEKING MAN COOKS FUSION CURRENT INTEREST By K.E.Miner
http://www.fbworld.com/Mag_Oct/FBI/021.htm
"The Chinese invented meatloaf, for some reason I cannot fathom, and
yeasted breads. The Chinese observed Mongol invaders cooking in their
metal helmets over open fires and deduced that the helmet was an
efficient use of fuel and from this observation, they invented the
wok."
[edit]
"I shamelessly lifted much of the historical data in this column from
Jeff Smith's books. As a kid, I watched him religiously on TV as the
Frugal Gourmet and I blame him solely for forming my perception of
food as the centerpiece of community and food as ritual. He was
post-modern before the term was defined. Jeff Smith, in his work,
embraces the elegance and grandeur of the feast by remembering history
and tradition and because of this, he reminds us that food is simply a
story about people."
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Google search:
meatloaf origin + history
America's comfort foods
Best regards,
tlspiegel |
