I decided to smoke another meatloaf since the last one turned out so well, and since I made a variation on Chef Boy Arnie's recipe, I decided to tag onto his thread instead of starting a new one.
I wanted to try something a little different by making the meatloaf with ground beef and sausage. A few different ingredients and wound up with something quite tasty. I made 2 good sized loaves so I could vac seal one and freeze it for a later time. Here's the recipe:
3 lbs mild Italian Sausage (loose)
3 lbs ground beef-93% lean (lean cause of sausage)
2 medium onions (coarsely chopped)
2 Tbsp minced garlic (I like garlic)
4 eggs
2 Tbsp Canadian Steak seasoning
4 oz ketchup
4 oz Billy Bones Barbecue Sauce (any you like)
2 oz Shelby Grill beef rub (local-use your own)
1 cup Italian bread crumbs
8 oz 4 cheese mix
Mix the ingredients thoroughly, form into 2 loaves, and place them on a single broiler/cookie type sheet with holes in it so the smoke can get to the underside of the meatloaf and fat drippings can escape. Throw the sheet with the loaves into a 235* preheated smoker (3.5 oz wild cherry wood or your choice) for 1.5 hours.
Remove the meatloaves from the smoker and coat the top/sides with Sweet Baby Rays Barbecue Sauce (or sauce of your choice) and place back into the smoker until the meatloaf internal hits 150*. Remove the meatloaves from the smoker, let them set for 15 minutes, place them onto a regular cookie sheet (to keep your oven clean from meatloaf drippings), and then throw them into a 400* preheated oven for apprx 20 minutes to set the outside of the meatloaves. Remove, rest for 10 minutes, and slice.
Here's a couple pics of the finished product.
They turned out fantastic. Tasty with a slight barbecued/smoke flavor. Nice consistency, a little rich cause of the sausage and cheese but not overdone. I'm really looking forward to the meatloaf sandwiches tonight. The cocook lightly sizzles the meatloaf slices in a pan with butter. Great sandwich.
One piece of advice. When you place the smoked meatloaves onto the cookie sheets, use aluminum foil. The meatloaves will run cause of the sausage and cheese. My wife wasn't happy about the burned on crud. There was a lot of CRUD. Soaked the cookie sheet for two days and still can't get them clean.
May have to try oven cleaner or something. The foil sounds like an easy fix.
Call me crazy, but I'm thinking of smoking a meatloaf and incorporating a little horseradish into it. Not overdoing it but to get a little of its flavor into it. Maybe eliminate the barbecue sauce. Anyone use it in meatloaf? Dumb?