Good and bad things have been said about meat loaf. Without question, it is considered as one of most talked about comfort foods. There are as many recipes for meat loaf as there are people who have opinions (good or bad) about this dish. Some think of meat loaf as a catch-all leftover dish, combining whatever that had not been consumed the dinner before. There are several interesting recipes when it comes to the filler.

Sometimes the filler for a meat loaf recipe is regional and even cultural. Bread crumbs can be of any origin, including sour dough, whole wheat, rye, and panko (Japanese light breading for tempura batter). More exotic fillers include bulgar wheat, couscous, millet, brown rice, barley, potatoes, and oat meal. No matter what the filler might be, a recipe for meat loaf offers signature for a comfort food.

Oat meal by itself is sometimes thought of as a comfort food. When it is an ingredient for meat loaf, it makes the recipe even more special for some people. As is the case with many grains, oat meal is cooked without any seasonings (although this could be done) first, before being added to the meat loaf mixture. Most recipes call for a thorough mixing of the filler with the ground meat prior to cooking. For pockets of texture and character to the meat loaf, grains should be mixed into the meat by hand.

[CaRP] XML error: not well-formed (invalid token) at line 9