I don’t often have ground pork on hand, but I happened to pick some up at a supermarket sale a few months ago and had been holding it in the freezer for a Simply Delicious recipe–I knew there were a few that called for it. 9-9: Pork Meat Loaf with Horseradish would have been a silly recipe to sub in ground beef for (my usual move), so this one will get the honor of being used with actual pork. 🐖
You guys, this picture does not look promising. Meatloaf is already difficult to get excited about, and I’m not sure if a creamy horseradish sauce is going to be enough to save it. Despite the copy reeking of desperation at the bottom of the recipe card (does this look “extravagant” to you?), I’m still willing to give it a shot. 🙈
A lot of problems with meatloaves stem from them being bland, dry, or watery. I see how they intend to attempt to resolve the blandness (with teriyaki sauce and a spice blend similar to five-spice powder), but I think baking it in a pan with no drainage underneath and a sealed (with foil) top will make it extremely soggy. I suppose we’ll find out. 💧
Ingredients. I don’t have any teriyaki sauce on hand and was too lazy to make some, so I faked it with some dark soy sauce and a bit of brown sugar (not pictured) mixed in. I don’t have any horseradish root either, so the cream version (like what you’d get with prime rib) will have to do.
Mixed the pork with the spices and cornstarch, then soaked it with a bit of the dark soy sauce.
Blended the meat mixture and greased a 2.5″ 1/3 steam pan to use as a meatloaf pan. I love commercial cooking pans like these–they’re cheap, easy to clean, store, & cover, and can take heat/cold/abuse.
It’s not that impressive now–I don’t expect great things on the other end of the hour this loaf is about to spend in the oven.
Pop-up foil sheets (another restaurant/commercial cooking item) are great for easily wrapping smaller stuff without having to deal with cutting a piece off of the large roll. These sheets just happen to cover this type of pan perfectly.
Started working on building the roux base for the horseradish sauce while the loaf bakes.
The sauce essentially works out to a béchamel sauce flavored with horseradish–cream style works great for this kind of application.
Here’s the loaf in all its post-bake glory. That looks like cat food in the can, y’all. There’s got to be a way to make this look more appetizing.
Taking it out of the pan and skimming off the fat doesn’t seem to have helped much, but I have a plan.
First stage of my plan: glaze the pale, rubbery outside with my teriyaki sauce replacement (dark soy sauce & brown sugar).
Second stage of my plan: stick the glazed loaf under the broiler for a few minutes to give it a nice, flavorful crust. This should lend some much needed texture and flavor to this sad loaf.
After broiling–it looks a bit better (if not wildly out of focus).
Tried slicing it nicely–whatever I can do to help the presentation/appearance.
I think it came out better than I expected, but not without the need for some heroic measures. Try my glazing/broiling method if you want to jazz up your next sad, rubbery meatloaf. Spice-wise the loaf was okay, and the sauce was about what you’d expect, but it wasn’t the worst meal I’ve had courtesy of Simply Delicious.
Grade: B-
