Mary Beth Albright’s Sweet and Spicy Meatloaf

Keith loves meatloaf, and makes it several times a year, starting way back in the 70s. In the early days, he used ground beef, and torn-up bread, and I’m not sure what else! The recipe was in his head – not written down anywhere.

Things changed dramatically in 2005, when I saw Mary Beth Albright make her meatloaf on an episode of Food Network Star. Paula Deen was one of the judges that day, and she loved that meatloaf! Later, I told Keith about Mary Beth’s secret meatloaf ingredients – panko breadcrumbs, buttermilk, and a bit of ground pork.

Since then, Keith always uses those three magical ingredients, and his meatloaf is even better than his original version.

Sweet and Spicy Meatloaf

Ingredients

For the Glaze:

• 1 cup ketchup
• 1 cup BBQ sauce (I used Sweet Baby Ray’s)
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar

For the Meatloaf:

Onion mixture:

• • 1 tbsp canola oil
  • 1 cup finely-diced onions
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
  • 1/3 cup chopped fresh basil
  • 2 tbsp tomato paste

Panko mixture:

• • 1/3 cup panko bread crumbs (plain)
  • 1 cup whole-fat buttermilk
  • 2 tsp hot horseradish (optional)

Meat mixture:

• 1.5 lbs lean ground beef
• 1/2 lb lean ground pork
• 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground pepper

Instructions

1. Heat the oven to 425°F
2. Combine the glaze ingredients in a small saucepan and place over low heat.
3. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat.
4. Add the onions, and cook until soft and translucent (try not to brown them).
5. Add the garlic, and cook for about a minute
6. Add the parsley, basil and tomato paste, and cook for about a minute.
7. Set the onion mixture aside to cool.
8. In a small bowl, combine panko, buttermilk and horseradish, and set aside for 5 minutes.
9. In a large bowl, add the beef, pork, cheese, salt and pepper, the cooled onion mixture, and the panko mixture
10. Mix with your hands until just combined.
11. On a rimmed baking pan, form the mixture into loaf shape, sitting in the centre of the pan, with all four sides exposed.
12. Set aside 1/2 cup of glaze to use as a sauce when serving
13. Brush the meatloaf sides and top with most of the remaining glaze
14. Bake for about 50 minutes, until internal temperature reaches 160°F.
15. While the meatloaf cooks, brush on more glaze, every 10 minutes or so.
16. Let the meatloaf cool for 5 to 10 minutes, then serve with the reserved sauce.

Photos: Sweet and Spicy Meatloaf

In the photo below, Keith cooked the meatloaf in a disposable aluminum loaf pan. He put that onto a cooking sheet, and roasted some veggies for our supper too.

And in the photo below, there’s a close-up shot of the  meatloaf on the plate, surrounded by roasted veggies.

Video: Sweet and Spicy Meatloaf

On the Hallmark website, you can watch a video of Mary Beth Albright making a slightly different version of her meatloaf.

She had to hurry through the recipe demonstration, and she did a great job under pressure!

Meatloaf Recipe Notes

• Instead of buying fresh buttermilk (which we never finish!), we use powdered buttermilk, and prepare it the night before. We buy it at the Bulk Barn food store, and you can probably find it at a grocery store too.
• Usually, we split the meatloaf mixture into 2 or 3 aluminum meatloaf pans. Keith cooks one for our supper, and the others get wrapped and put into the freezer, to enjoy later.