Brown Sugar Meat Loaf
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/2 cup ketchup
- 2 eggs
- 3/4 cup milk
- 3/4 cup finely crushed saltine cracker crumbs
- 1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef
- 3/4 teaspoons salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 cup finely chopped onion
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
This is a recipe my daughter found on the Internet. The brown sugar seemed to be a questionable addition. It turned out that the ketchup, sugar, meat juices and fat blend to make a kind of barbecue-like glaze along the bottom, not unlike a pineapple upside-down cake. It was delicious. I made slight adjustments to the original recipe, and these are reflected below.
Preheat oven to 350° F (175° C). Note that in the Grayclouds Test Kitchen, it took 31 Nabisco Premium Saltines to create 1 cup crumbs.
- Press the brown sugar in the bottom of a loaf loaf pan or small baking dish and spread the ketchup over the sugar.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs with the milk. Stir in the cracker crumbs and combine to mix. Add the remaining ingredients and mix thoroughly until items are evenly distributed.
- Smooth top with a spatula and spread more ketchup across the top. Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour or until juices are clear. 10 - 15 minutes resting time out of the oven is beneficial.