How to Make Home Style Meatloaf

Shannon Overmiller: Hello! My name is Shannon Overmiller. I am the Executive Chef at Majestic in Old Town, Alexandria, Virginia. Today we will be preparing for you home style meatloaf.

This is a rustic meatloaf that we will be preparing with whipped potatoes and mushroom meatloaf gravy. For the meatloaf, I will walk you through the entire process of making the meatloaf. We want to know how to use different kinds of meat in this process. We try the different blend of pork. How to mix all the ingredients together? How to test the meat in a pan? It's just a small amount saute to check seasoning. How to form the meat into loaves in a baking pan? Or on a sheet tray? How to make the tomato glaze? How to cover the meat with the glaze? How to bake the meatloaf? How to make the whipped potatoes and how to make the meatloaf gravy? I will also show you a nice way to present it at home or if you are serving it on how to plate it up. So we cannot go through a light list of tools that will be necessary to get started. Some of the tools -- its not too much and you can also improvise with things that you have at home. Of course it's different than a restaurant quality grade. For the meatloaf you will need mixing bowl by hand or you can use a mixer that will fit into a small kitchen. Or you can use a bowl and use your hands and really vigorously mix it with hands as most of the people do. You also need either a baking loaf pan or a flat sheet tray to bake with, but then you will a piece of paper to align it as well. For the gravy you will need a sauce pot, a strainer, and a ladle and spoons to taste and things of that nature. That pretty much that all you need for that. You will need a couple of knives. Serrated edges just go through a meatloaf or any knife that you may want to use is fine. For the mashed potatoes you will need a potatoes ricer. You will need for that as well a pot to do the potatoes. One thing that's also to remember when baking or cooking any dish is the safety issue. You must always be careful when around a sharp knives, fire, flame even heavy objects they can fall and break your toes. So that's why we wear special shoes in the kitchen. Be mindful when cutting things to keep your fingers out of the way of the blade. Be mindful when dealing with fire. Really pay attention to your surroundings.

A little bit about myself. My career here at the Majestic is now going on one year, we have reached opened-successfully for one year, and it's just been a wonderful experience and we are very fortunate. I had a lot of good mentors in my life to bring me to this position, and I hope to be continuing to do it for a quite some bit longer. So let's begin making our meatloaf.