PICS--Smoked BBQ Meatloaf

That looks like a work of art....my husband may try that for lunch tomorrow.

I'm going to try my hand at meatloaf today. You guys made it look so good.

Just an FYI, i used just under 5oz of wood and the loaf was very smoky. so if you want it lite to med. I would adjust accordingly. Of couse it didnt bother us at all and it is 3/4 gone...

I grew up in a family that believed that meat needed to be cooked until it was like shoe leather, so my memories of meatloaf aren't that great. I hadn't even considered eating it for many years until I read this thread the other day.

So today I decided to give it a try, it was the best meatloaf I had ever eaten, and one of best tasting items that has come out of my sm025 yet.

I didn't follow a recipe exactly, just put some of what I had in: ground chuck, leftover breakfast sausage, onions, garlic, Worcestershire, ketchup, a little leftover rub from yesterdays ribs, breadcrumbs, an egg, salt and pepper. I used a small chunk of hickory and cherry. Turned out smoky, moist and delicious.

My only mistake was not making more, there isn't any left. I'll know better next time.

Thanks for the inspiration.

Awesome!! The smoker really does add a little something IMHO. Any old fasion meatloaf recipe would benefit from a trip to the Cookshack. Of course, not overcooking helps also.

quote:

Originally posted by Gailmo:
I too was bitten by the "meatloaf" bug. Smoked one yesterday and it was GREAT! Had as leftovers tonight and I think it was even better....

I use ground turkey instead of beef.....my typical substitution. Trying to eat a wee bit healthy!

I've made smoked ground turkey meatloaf also. Equally tasty.

Dowlf, good for you! It looked great. Isnt it fun to discover something new, and all thanks to the wonderfully creative and knowledgeable people on this forum.

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then, Pags, you must feel quite flattered right now. Seems you got just about everyone talking and thinking about meatloaf.

I followed your recipe to the letter- DANG, that's a lot of meatloaf! Everybody loved it.
Thanks for the inspiration.

Pics here and next thread.

another pic sliced and ready to eat. (The family hates it when they have to wait for the photo op before they can eat!)

That looks spectacular and tasty. Nice job.

I am flattered, but I'm just flattering someone else cause it wasn't my idea from the beginning.

I agree...there's a lot of meatloaf there. I make a couple loaves and have one for the future. Plenty of next day sandwiches from each loaf.

You should have seen Mrs. Pags and the kids laughing when I smoked 19 lbs of pork butt. I mean I'm not a restaurateur here, ya know.

another great looking meatloaf! definitely make for some good eats

I just put the meat loaf in the smoker. I cut the recipe in half, and made some changes. I used a combination of Hot, Sweet, and Mild Italian sausage. I cut the amount of "Memphis Rub" down, and used 1 Tbsp of Wild Willy's rub. I figured the extra spice in the Hot and Sweet sausage would make up for this. I added some diced Bell Pepper, and diced Celery, and used Mexican 4 cheese mix. I will use Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce. Most of the changes were simply because I had these things on hand. I will let you know how it turns out. Pictures to follow.

I have a couple meatloaf recipes that I use. But one thing I've found very useful from Alton Brown's Good Eat's meatloaf recipe that I use all the time is to shape it in a loaf pan, but then take it out of the pan for cooking. You get the perfect shape but then all the grease drains off since you're not cooking it in the pan.

Here is the picture of my meat loaf. Since this was the first time I have done this in the smoker, I learned several things. I will not use the Sweet Italian Sausage again, and may just stick to the Hot Italian Sausage. I will use all of the rub seasoning called for, and may replace the Ketchup with Mustard, or Salsa. The Meat Loaf turned out great, but everyone said it was "Sweet", and needed more bite. These comments were coming from people that usually complain about food with a bite. I used a Loaf pan to form the 2 individual loaves, and it worked out great.

I use the mild or hot Italian Sausage and don't use the sweet. Also, after the first meatloaf with Sweet Baby Ray's as the sauce, I switched to Big Bob Gibson's Red Sauce. A couple changes will tone down the "sweet".

Pags,

I was looking at this old post about smoking meatloaf and the recipe you use. Can you give me a guess about how long the meatloaf takes to get up to 150*?

I'm going to give this a try tomorrow.

Thanks

2.5+ hrs at 225*. We all love this recipe, and I'm doing it soon. I've even done it with a mix of ground beef and lamb. Mrs. Pags and the grandkids won't eat lamb, but they love the lamb meatloaf.

Thanks, I will be putting it in this afternoon.

The meatloaf came out very good. The store was out of mild Italian sausage so I used Hot. It had a bit of zing to it but I liked it, not so much for the wife. I will try and post a picture and see if it comes out.

Dakota. Glad it turned out well, and you liked it.

The sausage gives the meatloaf a richer flavor in my opinion. Key is very lean ground beef cause of the sausage. The smoke adds a nice flavor to it also. Meatloaf is just a natural for these smokers, but you don't hear much about it...cause folks just don't think of meatloaf as barbecue. If they only knew.

The beef I used is very lean but not sure of the percent as it was from a half cow we bought. I know when it's fried up there isn't any grease when you are done.

Will definitely do this again, with mild Italian sausage for the wife! Also, I didn't get to freeze one, it was all eaten.

I love smoked meatloaf! Great pics!

Is the ketchup and the Big Bob Gibson's Red Sauce added to the mixture before it goes on the grill or smeared on after

quote:

Originally posted by Sgt Rock:
Is the ketchup and the Big Bob Gibson's Red Sauce added to the mixture before it goes on the grill or smeared on after

I'll defer to the OP, but there was this line between a couple of photos:

quote:

Let the meat loaf rest for 20 minutes and coat the top/sides of the meat loaves with Big Bob Gibson’s Red (or sauce of your choice). Here coated before their visit back to the smoker:

Both. Ketchup and Big Bob Gibson's Sauce goes into the mix. Then the Sauce goes onto the meatloaf later and back into the smoker to set the sauce.

Lately, I've not used the ketchup but have gone with barbecue sauce.

Also, use whatever barbecue sauce you'd like. Last week I used Sweet Baby Ray's, and it turned out very well.

Next day, take the meatloaf, lightly grill the meat slices then add it to a couple slices of bread with mayo. Great grilled meatloaf sandwiches.

Oh gawd! Everytime this post resurfaces I get a hankering for some smoked meatloaf. Sunday dinner this weekend for sure. I just need to remind myself that my last two batches have come out a little salty. I think I need to lay off one of the rubs I was using.

Everytime I make it, I think to myself...I could open a restuarant with this as the main dish... Or at least a food truck.

Meatloaf sandwiches
Meatloaf grilled cheese
Meatloaf tacos
Meatloaf and Mac n' Cheese
Meatloaf salad

Million dollar idea right there!

Wow..that sounds like a giant Eyetalian Meatball cooked Scicilian style. Mighty fine grazings no doubt. Thanks for sharing.