Meatloaf

History

Meatloaf of minced meat was mentioned in the Roman cookery collection Apicius as early as the 5th century. Meatloaf is a traditional German, Scandinavian and Belgian dish, and it is a cousin to the Dutch meatball. American meatloaf has its origins in scrapple, a mixture of ground pork and cornmeal served by German-Americans in Pennsylvania since colonial times. Meatloaf in the contemporary American sense did not appear in cookbooks until the late 19th century.

Austria

The Austrian version of meatloaf is called Faschierter Braten. Most of the time it is not filled (e.g. in Germany), but it is wrapped in ham before baking it. Often it is served with mashed potatoes (when warm) or with sauce cumberland (when cold).

Bangladesh

The Bangladeshi version of meatloaf is called Mangsher loaf. The dish has started to become popular after 2010 when Sauslys started to cater to an urban crowd.

Belgium

The Belgian version of meatloaf is called vleesbrood (meatbread), however fricandon is also used to refer to it in Dutch. In French, they call it pain de viande. It is usually served warm and can then be served with various sauces, but can also be eaten cold with a loaf of bread.

Bulgaria

Rulo Stefani (Bulgarian: Руло Стефани). The Bulgarian rulo Stefani meatloaf is similar to the Hungarian Stefánia meatloaf, with hard-boiled eggs, and sometimes with chopped carrots and pickled gherkins in the middle.

Chile

Chilean meatloaf, known as Asado Aleman (German roasted meat) is a staple of southern Chilean cuisine, especially in areas known for having been influenced by the arrival of German colonizers during the 18th and 19th century. The most common recipe nowadays consists of ground beef, carrots, sausages, boiled eggs and breadcrumbs, cooked in the oven and normally served with a side-dish of mashed potatoes or rice.

Cuba

The Cuban version of meatloaf is called pulpeta. It is made with ground beef and ground ham, and stuffed with hard boiled eggs, and it is cooked on the stovetop. The dish was brought to public attention, albeit mistakenly referred to as a sausage, in the second episode of the third season of The Cosby Show, entitled "Food for Thought".

Czech Republic

In the Czech Republic, meatloaf is referred to as sekaná ('chopped'). It is optional to put hard boiled eggs, gherkins, or wienerwurst inside.

Denmark

Danish meatloaf is called forloren hare 'mock hare' or farsbrød 'ground-meat bread' and is usually made from a mixture of ground pork and beef with strips of bacon or cubed bacon on top. It is served with boiled or mashed potatoes and brown gravy sweetened with red currant jam.

Finland

Finnish meatloaf is called lihamureke. It is completely based on the basic meatball recipe. The only spices used are salt and pepper. It is not customary to stuff lihamureke with anything. The usual side dish is mashed potatoes, and lihamureke is usually served with brown sauce.

Germany

In Germany, meatloaf is referred to as Hackbraten, Faschierter Braten or Falscher Hase 'mock hare'. In some regions it often has boiled eggs inside.

Greece

In Greece, meatloaf is referred to as rolo (Ρολό) and it is usually filled with hard boiled eggs, although several other variations exist.

Hungary

Stefania meatloaf (Hungarian: Stefánia szelet) or Stefania slices are a type of Hungarian long meatloaf baked in a loaf pan, with 3 hard boiled eggs in the middle, making decorative white and yellow rings in the middle of the slices.

Indonesia

Indonesian version of meatloaf is using sweet soy sauce (kecap manis) as seasoning, then baked or smoked. It is usually served with sambals.

Italy

In Italy, meatloaf is called polpettone and can be filled with eggs, ham and cheese, and other ingredients.

Jewish cuisine

In Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine, meatloaf is called Klops (Hebrew: קלופס‎) and can be served cold or hot. It is sometimes filled with whole boiled eggs. The name presumably comes from the German Klops 'meatball'.

Lebanon

In Lebanon, kibbeh (ground beef or lamb mixed with burgul) can sometimes be formed in a loaf and baked. It is sometimes made from raw meat.

North Macedonia

Rolat is a similar dish to the chiefly Arab, though also Persian and South-Asian, kofta. Ground beef is rolled and cooked until brown. It can be cooked with vegetables and various sauces.

Mexico

It is known as albondigón and has a small size.

Mongolia

Khuchmal (хучмал) is served with mashed potatoes cooked over the ground meat.

Netherlands

The Dutch version of meatloaf is called gehaktbrood and can be eaten warm or cold. A mini-version of meatloaf called slavink is also served in the Netherlands.

Philippines

Embutido (not to be confused with the Spanish embutido) is made of well-seasoned ground pork, raisins, minced carrots, sausages, and whole boiled eggs. The meat is molded into a roll with the sausages and hard boiled eggs set in the middle. Another variation of the dish involves wrapping the meatloaf with pork crow or mesentery. It is then wrapped in aluminum foil (historically, banana leaves) and steamed for an hour. The cooked embutido may be stored in freezers. It is usually served fried and sliced for breakfast.

Embutido is sometimes confused with morcón (also not to be confused with Spanish morcón), due to their similarity in appearance. However morcón is a beef roulade, not a meatloaf.

Hardinera is a Filipino meatloaf made with diced or ground pork topped with sliced hard-boiled eggs, pineapples, carrots, bell peppers, peas, tomatoes, and raisins, among others.

Poland

Called pieczeń rzymska ("Roman roast") or klops is made of ground pork and/or beef, onions and garlic, with obligatory hard boiled egg inside.

Puerto Rico

In Puerto Rican cuisine, meatloaf is known as albondigón or butifarrón al horno. Puerto Rican style meatloaf is made with ground pork, beef, turkey, adobo, worcestershire sauce, milk, ketchup, potatoes, red beans, breadcrumb, parsley, with a hard-boiled egg in the middle.

Romania

In Romanian cuisine, there is a meatloaf dish called drob, similar to other minced meat dishes in the region like the Bulgarian Rulo Stefani or the Hungarian Stefánia meatloaf, the major difference being that it is always made with lamb organs (or a mixture of lamb organs and pork or veal) and the hard boiled eggs in the centre of the drob are optional.

Sweden

Swedish meatloaf is called köttfärslimpa and is usually made from a mixture of ground pork and beef. It is served with boiled or mashed potatoes, brown sauce gravy, often made from the meat juice that comes from cooking the meatloaf, and lingonberry jam. It is also used and as a spread on sandwiches when thinly sliced.

Turkey

In the Turkish cuisine there is a version of meatloaf called dalyan köfte or rulo köfte; it is typically filled with carrots, peas, and whole boiled eggs.

United Kingdom

In the UK there are regional pork meatloaf dishes known as haslet, which can be eaten cold or hot.

United States

During the Great Depression, cooking meatloaf was a way for families to stretch the food budget by using an inexpensive type of meat and leftover ingredients. Along with spices, it was popular to add cereal grains, bread or saltine crackers to the meatloaf to add bulk and stretch the meat. This tradition of additions still lives on, but with new goals: primarily, producing a lower-fat dish with superior binding and consistency.

American-style meatloaf is typically eaten with some kind of sauce or relish, often applied before cooking. Many recipes call for a pasta sauce or tomato sauce to be poured over the loaf, which forms a crust during baking. One of these tomato-based sauces may be substituted with a simple brown or onion gravy, or a can of cream of mushroom soup, but the meatloaf is prepared in a similar manner. Barbecue sauce, tomato ketchup, or a mixture of ketchup and prepared mustard may also be used. This style of meatloaf may be topped with a "meatloaf sauce" consisting of ketchup and brown sugar. Another variety of meatloaf, in the same style, is prepared by "frosting" the loaf with mashed potatoes, drizzling a small amount of butter over the top, and then browning it in the oven.

American-style meatloaf is normally served warm, as part of the main course, but it can also be sliced as a cold cut (and then used in sandwiches). This dish can be considered a typical comfort food in the US, and so it is served in many diners and restaurants. In a 2007 poll by Good Housekeeping, meatloaf was the seventh-favorite dish of Americans.

Vietnam

The Vietnamese meatloaf version is called giò. It is boiled rather than baked or smoked. There are many versions of giò that differ by the ingredients used.