Meatloaf

Okay, so I’ve done a lot of talking about memory and the way it impacts literature in my entries so far but this week I thought I’d get back in the kitchen. As a fervid collector of cookbooks, I pride myself on the state of my buckling bookshelves, barely keeping their shape under the weight of the culinary burden. However, until this week, Nigella Lawson was not an author to be found on my bookshelves; since I didn’t particularly fancy becoming a Domestic Goddess, her work had largely escaped my notice. Yet after flicking through a few pages of her recent work Kitchen: Recipes from the Heart of the Home (2010), I couldn’t help but notice the importance of memory in her work.

Almost all of Nigella’s recipes (notice how we’re already on a first name basis!) are linked to some kind of memory of event of significance. Whether it is “Beef-Braised Pork Knuckles” and the social faux pas made on a German TV appearance or “Pigs in Blankets” made especially for a 4^th of July celebration, a great number of these recipes are innately bound-up with memory. In an attempt to understand why this meal has such significance for her, I decided to recreate one of her more traditional recipes; her mother-in-law’s meatloaf, the recipe for which I have given below...

The key to this recipe is the painfully slow cooking of the onions, which takes about half an hour in total but leaves the onions with an almost melted texture. This seems to be a technique commonly used in traditional Jewish cooking as this process is also mentioned in Norah Ephron’s Heartburn (1983) as she discusses her mother’s famous half-time snack. Lawson’s recipe has been passed from generation to generation and she identifies her mother-in-law’s reticence to pass on the recipe:

“My father-in-law used to tell a story about asking his mother for instructions on making pickles. “How much vinegar do I need?” he asked. “Enough,” she answered. Ed’s mother’s recipe takes a similar approach”

The cultural and personal history of this dish passes between the generations before finally becoming shared with Lawson’s readership. Yet even as I cooked this dish I noticed the precision in the instructions, demonstrating the level of refinement which has gone into this recipe.

Here’s a picture of how I made my meatloaf and the final product once it came out of the oven. Just so you know, it tasted even better than it looked!

The richness of this meatloaf makes it particularly delicious but you’d certainly want to go for a long run the next day after all the bacon and butter! Those softly cooked onions compliment the savoury textures of the meat and make an amazingly moist meatloaf, kept in shape by the salty streaky bacon. Nevertheless, the surprise of finding the boiled egg inside of the meatloaf makes this dish stand out, perhaps suggesting why this recipe reminds Nigella so much of her mother-in-law. Much like the rest of Ed’s mother’s recipes, the secret ingredient remains hidden until the final product is displayed and carved on the table, demonstrating an additional level of artistry.