Mom’s Classic Meatloaf

This classic beef meatloaf recipe just feels cozy like home. Packed full of flavor, this meatloaf is super easy to make and the leftovers make sandwiches my family will fight over! Topped with a quick ketchup-based sauce, this traditional style recipe makes the best ground beef meatloaf.

 

Why We Love Mom’s Classic Meatloaf Recipe

• Flavorful Classic Dinner – This recipe is packed full of lots of flavor, is nice and moist, and the sauce on top is the perfect addition!
• Leftovers Are The BEST – Not every dish makes great leftovers, but with this beef meatloaf my family will fight over the leftovers for sandwiches.
• Easy To Prep Ahead – This meatloaf can be prepped ahead up to 24 hours, and is just great for meal prep in general.

My husband loves this recipe. He’s a big meatloaf fan and grew up eating classic meatloaf regularly. He says I don’t make it often enough, and it’s pretty close to his mom’s recipe but with a bit more flavor. Don’t tell her, ok?

My kid took a little longer to come around. She struggles with new sauces sometimes, so we started by giving her just part of a piece from the bottom and just giving her a few bites with sauce.

She does like italian meatballs, so explaining it like a slice of meatball helped her to be more interested in the beginning. Now she fights for the leftover meatloaf sandwiches too!

Ingredients For Mom’s Ground Beef Meatloaf

For The Meatloaf

• onion diced, you want the small pieces of chopped onion
• salt plus a pinch for the onions
• sliced bread You can use store-bought bread crumbs, but starting from bread always gives it a better texture.
• lean ground beef
• pepper
• garlic powder
• parsley I used dried
• parmesan cheese
• Worcestershire sauce
• minced garlic
• Dijon mustard
• ketchup
• eggs
• milk

For The Sauce

• ketchup
• brown sugar
• Worcestershire sauce

How To Make Mom’s Best Meatloaf

This is a very easy meatloaf recipe and won’t take you very long at all. Most of the work for Mom’s meatloaf is waiting for it to finish in the oven, easy peasy!

Prepare The Meatloaf

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray the loaf pan well with cooking oil.
2. Place a small fry pan over medium heat and spray with cooking oil. Add diced onions and a pinch of salt. Sautee over medium-high heat for 3-4 minutes or until the onions begin to brown then remove from the heat.
3. Toast the bread in a toaster until they are a light brown. With a sharp knife, dice up the bread into the smallest pieces you can. When finished you should have about a cup of breadcrumbs.
4. In a large bowl add the ground beef, 1 teaspoon of salt, pepper, garlic powder and dried parsley. Add the diced bread, parmesan cheese, Worcestershire sauce, minced garlic, dijon mustard, ketchup and the cooked onions all to the bowl with the meat. Don’t mix yet.

5. In a separate small bowl, crack the eggs discarding the shells. Add the milk to the eggs, then beat the mixture with a whisk or fork until the yolks are well mixed. Add the egg mixture to the bowl with the meat mixture.

6. Mix the meatloaf with your hands until combined. Try to mix until everything is just combined then stop. Overmixing can cause the meatloaf to be tougher. Coating your hands with a little olive oil or cooking oil before you begin mixing can help keep the meat from drying out.

7. Put the meatloaf mixture in the pan and form into a loaf.

Make The Sauce

1. In a small bowl place 1/2 cup ketchup, 2 tablespoons brown sugar and 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce. Mix well with a spoon to make a smooth sauce for the glaze on top.

2. With a silicone brush or a spoon, spread half of the sauce on top of the meatloaf.

Bake The Meatloaf

1. Bake the meatloaf for 40 minutes.
2. Pull the meatloaf from the oven and put the second half of sauce on the top.
3. Bake the meatloaf for an additional 45 minutes. Check the inside with a meat thermometer. The meatloaf is finished when the internal temperature reaches 160 degrees. Let the meatloaf rest for at least 5 minutes it helps keep the meatloaf tender and juicy. Then slice and serve!

FAQ For Making This Meatloaf Recipe

Why Did The Meatloaf Fall Apart?

The Meatloaf Needs More Binders – Binders are ingredients like eggs, milk, and breadcrumbs which help the meat stick together. If you didn’t add the full amount of any of these items, then it is possible that is why the meatloaf is crumbly.

An extra half an egg, or soaking the bread or breadcrumbs in the milk before adding it to the beef can be help if you regulalry have trouble keeping enough moisture in your meatloaf.

Overcooked – When meatloaf overcooks, it dries out. This causes the binders to break apart and the meatloaf to crumble more. Make sure you’re checking the meatloaf with a meat thermometer so you don’t overbake.

Overmixed – If you mix the meatloaf too much with your hands, the meatloaf can become tough. Your hands can actually absorb moisture from the meat that can make it a little tough.

Try coating your hands with olive oil or another cooking oil before mixing to keep the moisture in the meat. You could use a spoon, but if you use your hands it’s a lot easier to make sure the meatloaf is mixed enough. It somehow always gets messier with a spoon and doesn’t end up evenly mixed for me.

Can You Freeze Meatloaf?

Yes traditional meatloaf freezes very well! If I only have a small portion, I like to freeze meatloaf in slices on freezer paper on a baking sheet. Then I wrap the pieces of meatloaf in freezer paper and put it in a zip-top freezer bag or freezer container. This helps keep the individual pieces from sticking together.

Sometimes when I reheat the meatloaf I’ll mix up a little extra sauce, or just add some bbq sauce or ketchup, it just gives a little more flvor and can help keep the meatloaf from falling apart when reheating.

Frozen meatloaf can be reheated in the microwave or heated in the oven.

How Long Does This Easy Meatloaf Recipe Last?

Expect this meatloaf will last about three days.

Store leftovers in a covered airtight container in the refrigerator. Leftovers can be reheated in the microwave or warmed in the oven at 350.